Two from BP 2.1

Whenever I come across a large format film that is new, or at least new to me, I usually purchase a couple of boxes and give it a try.  Some become favorites, and I continue to shoot with them.  Others not so much so.  All films are OK... I just like the look of some a lot better than others.

I few years back I bought several boxes of 4" x 5" Foma Retropan 320 Soft.  It is a film that is supposed to have the softer look of some of the older films from decades ago.  I have experimented with developing it in Ilford Microphen developer.  I have been using it at 1:1 dilution, and developing for 15:00 minutes at 24C.  It yields a somewhat soft negative, with very obvious grain.  Usually I am not a fan of grain, and prefer my images to be smooth and crisp.  But once and a while grain is desirable, and I have been experimenting with this combination for that reason.

I don't shoot a lot of this film, and it has taken me about three years to accumulate a batch of 20 sheets.  That finally happened, so on August 12th I mixed up the developer, and processed the batch.  The oldest image in the batch dated back to the fall of 2021.

The two photographs included here were both taken on September 16th of 2023.  This was during our visit to the Greenhill Hotel in Blairmore, for the Beer Parlour Project.  This was our second visit to the establishment, and hence was BP 2.1.

The first image is a shot of Margarit, walking down the hallway of the old hotel, with a beer in her hand.  For this image I rated the film at 320 iso and shot with a normal 135mm lens on my Ebony view camera.  The shot was taken around 8:00 in the evening and with the low light I had to use an exposure of F10.0 and 1/2 second.  Needless to say Margarit had to hold still and pose for this one.

The second image is a shot of the fire escape on the exterior of the hotel, in evening light.  It was taken about an hour before the first one.  For this one the film was also rated at 320 iso.  I used a wider 110mm lens, fitted with a #25 Red Filter.  That filter lowered the value of the blue sky to a very dark gray and made the white building really stand out.  The exposure was F32.0 and 1/4 second.