Saturday 28 April 2012

Self processed Neopan 1600 (28/04/2012)

This is a special post for me. This morning I processed my first roll of film, and it came out great! It was so easy, I'd recommend it to anyone who shoots film.


Shot on Fujifilm Neopan 1600 @ ISO1600 on my Nikon FM3A. Developed in Ilford Microphen stock solution at 3:30. Scanned using 


Have a look and let me know what you think...







9 comments:

  1. I spent a long time using B&W film, mostly trying to avoid grain I must admit. Used well grain gives a magical something which digital does not give and it does it with a predictability digital does not seem to give.

    The problem if you are not making a traditional print is that you have to be extremely careful in the handling and processing of film then you have to digitise it...

    The images which you have posted do not show the crisp grain which was probably on the negative and the fight between the grain and the scan has produced an effect not dissimilar to reticulation which you would get if there was a big difference in temperatures between processing chemicals causing the film emulsion to wrinkle up. the scan is making the image a bit mushy and you have several days work retouching the dust which has got on to the negative.

    I tried having some negatives scanned on a very expensive Minolta scanner and the results were such rubbish and covered with rubbish I never used them. If you find a way of scanning which clearly shows crisp grain let me know...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your valuable insight Coline.
      You are of course right, with regards to your comments about avoiding dust. I'm new to this, but I've been given a few pointers which I will follow on my next batch. One of which is to process in a bathroom after you have steamed it up using the shower. This causes the dust particles to stick to surfaces and not float around in the air.
      Regarding the grain on the negatives not being crisp, you may have guessed right. It could possible be reticulation, as I had pre-soaked my film in 24deg C water, however my developer was at 20deg C.
      Other scans I've done using my scanner where the film has been processed by a third party show a sharper, more crisper gain, which is what I'd like to aim for. So maybe it's my bad processing rather than poor quality scans?
      I'll try and send you an example.
      Cheers.

      Delete
  2. Abtin
    I like your work. Many years ago I had a business processing other peoples work. I had my hands in the developing solutions daily. Even when the process went automatic you couldn't avoid the solutions. I finally sold the business. I was so happy to get out of the dark and get the silver nitrate out from under my nails.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you RRosen. I'm glad you like my work.
      I suppose no matter how much you like something you will eventually get bored of it. Especially if it's a means to get by.

      Delete
  3. Very great work!!!! I'm startin' my long travel in analogue photography and hoping to do what welcome feel free to visit my first neopan 1600 http://www.flickr.com/photos/orso74/sets/72157629603829369/
    Yes...it's true the first roll processed give an incredible emotion,
    although my first time isn't very easy, anyway I'd recommend it too.
    This is my first development http://www.flickr.com/photos/orso74/sets/72157629934022477/
    feel again to visit it (every constructive comment is welcome, i'd like to improve it)
    Steve

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Stefano
      Thanks for the comments and sharing your work. Very interesting photos you have there. Some of them however look overexposed. Unfortunately I'm not sure how you can fix this during processing as I have very little experience on processing my own films.
      I also noticed you seem to have applied a noise/grain reduction filter digitally after you have scanned your negatives (am I right?). This usually tends to reduce the sharpness/crispness. Maybe this is a artistic decision from you...? I usually keep the grain as it keeps the images sharp when I reduce them in size.

      Delete
    2. Hello again and sorry for the late reply, but I had some little problems.
      First of all thank you very much for the kind comments and for the Tip: often, when I switch the negatives to the scanner , i set automatic all settings. I'll have to review everything carefully. In fact, I was wondering why my scans were so blurry compared to the photos I see in web
      many thanks again
      Steve

      Delete