It's Not The End Of The World?
March arrived with some tiny hope attached to it after the announcement that we will finally be moving out of lockdown and restrictions by……. the end of June.
Taking this little nugget of optimism onboard, I was back trying to improve on last month’s colour film mistakes, with some Kodak Portra 400 film taken on the Fuji GS645s camera ready to develop. So get ready for a very film photograph heavy blog this month.
‘Steps to Infinity’
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
As you can see from the image above, I have had a lot more success this time around. I made some adjustments to my process, with the addition of using cotton gloves when loading the film in the dark bag being the first. The idea to do this was my way of trying to reduce moisture (sweaty hands), and eradicate the chances of fingerprints on the roll. This was a huge success, with both rolls loading onto the take up spool with no issues whatsoever. This was a huge relief for me and hopefully a big step forward in my home developing process.
Game changing Cotton gloves
As well as the addition of the gloves, I also looked at using the alternative development time of 30 degrees centigrade rather than 38 degrees that I had used previously. This would mean a longer development time but, as it turned out, much more even results across the negatives.
I was also asked by quite a few people about my developing process and what I use, so below is a little run down of what I use, and how I have come to process colour film from home. of course I am still new to this but I have now started to see great results, and have got my head a little more round the process.
Loading
Loading the film onto the film take up spool has always been the biggest challenge in all of this for me, as it has to be done in total darkness, inside the darkroom bag itself.
Into the bag I put the patterson development tank, The film take up spool, a pair of scissors, and the roll of film that is required for development.
Patterson tank
Scissors
Darkroom bag
After sealing the bag, I open the 120mm film, feeling for the end of the reel. line this up with the spools take up notches, feed it past the ball bearings within the spool, then begin ratcheting it on. While doing this I unroll the film from its backing paper and discard this in the bag. Once the film has got to the end, I use the scissors to cut the sticky end of the film that attached to the backing paper off so it goes onto the reel all the way.
When this process is completed, I add the spool to the patterson tank and make sure the inside element clicks shut. once this has happened the film is loaded and the tank is ready for the development process.
Chemicals
I used Tetenol Colortec C-41 for my colour development which comes in 6, 200ml bottles. Each bottle is numbered to make mixing easier.
Using three black 1lt bottles, I followed the instructions and created my developer, blix and stabilizer using the 6 200ml bottles provided in the kit with tap water.
chemicals
Plastic funnel
Measuring Jug
Black 1lt bottle X3
1lt developer - X3 200ml Development chemicals (bottles are labeled 1,2,3) + 400ml water = 1lt
Blix - X2 200ml Blix Chemicals (bottles labeled 1,2) + 600ml Water = 1lt
Stabilizer - X1 200ml Stabilizer chemical + 800ml water = 1lt
Once mixed, these chemicals can be reused over and over again for around 14-20 rolls of film and are easily stored in the black 1lt bottles for this continued use.
Developing
Once loaded into the Patterson tank, I used a Sous Vide machine in a 20lt plastic container to heat the chemicals to exactly 30 degrees centigrade. The machine keeps the water at this stable temperature making development easier.
Sous vide Machine
Timer
Thermometer
Plastic container (20lt)
Once at temperature I followed these simple steps -
add 500ml of 30 degree water to the tank and let it sit for 5 minutes
poured away water
add 500ml developer solution and agitate for 10 seconds every minute for 8 minutes
poured developer back into its bottle
add 500ml Blix solution and agitate 10 seconds every 30 seconds for 6 minutes
poured Blix back into its bottle
wash - using 30 degree water from heated plastic container. I rinse the tank continuously for 6 minutes, changing the water every minute.
add 500ml stabilizer solution and let sit for 1 minute
poured stabilizer back into its bottle
Drying
Once the development process has finished, I hang the roll up using clips and run the film Squeegee down it, getting rid of excess water that may cause water marks once dry. I have also found that leaving the roll to hang in the bathroom collects the least amount of dust as bathrooms being rooms that get wet often tend to clear dust from the air more than other rooms in the home.
Leave to dry for a couple of hours and you are ready to scan.
Squeegee
Film clips
Scanning
Once dry I lay the negatives on my light table to view. I am then easily able to cut the negatives into blocks of 4, ready for scanning.
Light table
Film holders
Air blower
The negatives are held in special film holders on the scanner, with any visible dust cleared away using a camera air blower.
Epson V600 Scanner
I first preview the images, select the area that I want scanning, then scan the images at 2400dpi, with 48 bit colour, and dust removal turned on. These setting should give great resolution while not being too massive a file when saved as a JPEG.
Post Processing
I bring the scanned negatives into lightroom where I can colour correct and crop them, then using a lightroom plugin called negative lab pro, I am able to convert the negative with one button press into its final colour state. Once converted I will bring the image over to photoshop to remove any further dust that as still managed to find its way onto the image.
Below are some examples of how this whole process turned out, with much more even tones, sharper image quality and no light leak or chemical burn marks.
Final Images
Classic VW beetle
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton cathedral
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Window cats
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
More window cat
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Sea wall minimalism
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
sewage Pipe
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clevedon Pier
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clevedon Pier
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clevedon Pier
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clevedon Jetty
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clevedon Marine lake
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Once I was starting to see success with the first few colour rolls, there was no stopping me. I was soon back out enjoying some more of the spring sunshine with a walk around clifton.
Clifton doors
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton doors
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton doors
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton doors
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton Postbox
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton Ghost?
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton Colours
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton Courtyard
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Clifton Palm Tree
Film - Portra 400
Camera - Fuji GS645s
Film
The colour film I have been using throughout this process is Kodak Portra 400, which has given me some really fantastic finished images. I have been particularly impressed with how well the film renders colour, which creates a ‘feel’ to the image unlike anything I have been able to achieve with digital images. I Will be looking to try out some other options going forward such as Portra 160, but this film is already hard to beat.
Kodak Portra 400 colour film - 120mm
New camera news
With colour film going so well, I finally made the decision on the new camera. I managed to sell the mamiya for much more than I expected, giving me the opportunity to purchase a new camera in its place.
As detailed in my last blog, I was looking at either the Mamiya 7II or the Pentax 6x7 to replace the now sold Mamiya RB67 SD. The winner was the Pentax, due to its price point, and the almost universal praise of its image quality and results. But deciding on which iteration of the pentax was another whole choice in itself.
There are 4 Pentax 67 options in total. The original 6X7, the 6X7 MLU (Mirror Lock Up), the 67 (they dropped the X), and the ‘newest’ 67ii model. I Plumped for the 6X7 MLU as the 67ii was far too expensive, the 67 version was again that little bit more expensive with little discernible differences, and the mirror lockup option seems like a good thing to have when using slow shutter speeds. So after lots of consideration I plumped for the Pentax 6X7 MLU Version below.
CLA’d Pentax 6X7 MLU + TTL Viewfinder, SMC Takumar 105mm F/2.4 lens & left handed wooden grip.
I found one on Ebay (see above) that was CLA’d (Cleaned,Lubricated, Adjusted) so should be in good working order. After the light leak issue I experienced with the Mamiya, I thought this might cover my bases a bit more, so having this will hopefully give me a good chance of hitting the ground running.
This offer also comes with the fabled 105mm F/2.4 lens (more on this to come im sure) that everyone raves about, as well as the very large left handed wooden grip that may or may not work for me. Either way this option was too good an opportunity to miss out on after researching the camera for the best part of march, and will hopefully become my go to 6x7 film camera moving forward.
Despite my new found addiction to film photography, the promise of things reopening, and some better spring weather, I did also find a little bit of time to go out with the 7D MK II for some more wildlife action.
Hopefully as the year progresses, I am able to mix my film work in with more of my wildlife and drone photography as we are allowed to travel again more freely. In the meantime here are some final images below that amazingly were taken without the use of a film camera…
Wren
Camera - 7D MKII
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Canada Geese in flight
Camera - 7D MKII
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Black Headed gull on bin
Camera - 7D MKII
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
FIN
