Category: Film
North Carolina’s Outer Banks – April 2018
I had a lot of fun visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina in April 2018 and even had the chance for a little bit of photography! I absolutely love the seemingly unspoiled nature of these beeches, the fresh seafood, and the remoteness of it all as you head south of Nags Head.
For this trip, we went all the way down to Ocracoke and stayed for a few days. It does take a little bit of time to get to Ocracoke, but once you are there, it’s very relaxing because there isn’t much to do! In Ocracoke, you can go to the beach, hang out on Silver Lake, stroll around in the village, or a handful of other related activities, but that’s pretty much it. If you like the hustle and bustle of the city, Ocracoke may not be for you. If you need flashy yellow buildings that sell all the latest beach knick knacks, Ocracoke may not be for you.
But….if you want to get away from it all and you find doing nothing relaxing, then Ocrcacoke may just be for you.
Here are a couple of my favorite images from this past trip to the Outer Banks:
Bodie Island Fresnel – Minolta XD-11 – Portra 400
Bodie Island Fresnel – Minolta XD-11 – Portra 400
On this trip, I actually got to climb the Bodie Island Lighthouse for the first time and owing to having two film cameras around my neck and looking extra interested in photographing all of the details, the park ranger gave me a quick look inside the actual fresnel! Enjoy the above two frames. That was certainly an exciting experience!
But on to Ocracoke…. Here’s the sunset over the Pamlico Sound:
Sunset over the Pamlico Sound – Ocracoke – 4×5 – Ektar 100
The Ocracoke Lighthouse at dusk is a beautiful place to be, but also overrun with mosquitoes. Everything was going well and then they all came out. I honestly don’t believe that I’ve ever swat at so many mosquitoes before!
Ocracoke Lighthouse at Dusk – 4×5 Ektar 100
And finally, not one, but two spectacularly peaceful sunrises at the Lifeguard beach:
Lifeguard Beach Sunrise #1 – 4×5 – Ektar 100
Lifeguard Beach Sunrise #2 – 4×5 Ektar 100
I hope you’ve enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed making them.
Silberra Ultima 200
Silberra Ultima 200 is a panchromatic black and white film from Silberra in Russia. You can find more information on this film from their website at: https://silberra.com/films/silberra-ultima .
I picked up a roll of Ultima 200 and Pan 200 as rewards for backing them on their recent Indiegogo campaign and these shipped promptly. This was the only reward from the campaign that shipped promptly and all other rewards are supposedly still on the way. Such is the way with crowdfunding campaigns though.
I was excited to put this roll through my camera as I tend to really like medium speed (200 ISO) black and white film, with a special soft spot for Eastman XX (5222). When it came time to load the film in the tank though, I was shocked at how thin the film was. On the aforementioned page, they give you the actual number 0.06mm thick, but I glossed over that little detail. I had a very difficult time loading this roll and almost gave up on it. I developed it in Kodak XTol and was not disappointed at all. Even though I thought I had buckled this film in multiple places, there were no obvious issues with the developed negatives.
While I was loading that film, I was thinking about how to give away the Pan 200, but after seeing the results that I got with the Ultima 200, I think this film is well worth shooting, even as thin as it is.
Here are some of my results from an early evening of walking around Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.
Welcome to Raleigh – Silberra Ultima 200 – XTol – Minolta XD-11
Happy and Hale – Silberra Ultima 200 – Kodak XTol – Minolta XD-11
Raleigh Post Office – Silberra Ultima 200 – Kodak XTol – Minolta XD-11
Downtown Lines – Silberra Ultima 200 – Kodak XTol – Minolta XD-11
No Turn on Red – Silberra Ultima 200 – Kodak XTol – Minolta XD-11
New Orleans – December 2017
Having grown up in Mississippi, New Orleans has always held a sense of mystique. From Tennessee Williams “A Streetcar Named Desire” to the dixieland jazz funeral processions, to it’s reputation as a serious party destination, there is no denying that New Orleans has a palpable energy and a uniqueness all its own.
I recently was able to get back down to New Orleans with a roll of Kodak Portra 400 and my Minolta XD-11. The weather had been cold and damp, which is the opposite of hot and muggy, the usual New Orleans weather. The cold and damp had led to a bit of a fog over everything, which only helped add to the mystique of the place.
New Orleans’ Cabildo Alley
Hotel Monteleone
To me, it wouldn’t be a visit to New Orleans without a stop by Leah’s Pralines (http://www.leahspralines.com/ – 714 St. Louis Street). Pralines are a wonderful New Orleans treat and there are an abundance of shops that sell them. That said, I’ve tried many of the different shops over the years and have yet to come across a better praline than Leah’s. If you’re in the area, definitely go check them out and try both the traditional and the creamy varieties. You won’t regret it!
Leah’s Pralines
And lastly, Jackson Square, historically known as the Plaza D’Armas.
Jackson Square
Plaza D’Armas
C-41 and Blix or C-41 with Separate Bleach and Fix?
Have you ever read something before and been left with a nagging feeling that what you read discounted what you knew and made you feel like you weren’t doing as good as you could? And then did you spend months trying to rationalize that what you were doing was just fine and didn’t need to be improved?
If you have ever felt that way, then you’ll know how I felt when I first came across comparison statements made by a former Kodak-Eastman employee on the difference in C-41 with blix versus separate bleach/fix. This particular employee goes by the moniker “PE” on the popular site APUG (Analog Photography Users’ Group), which has recently been acquired by Photorio. He has made a lot of statements on this subject on this site, including such gems as this:
” However, I can say that use of a blix instead of a real bleach then fix cycle is the root of many problems.” (Comment #356 at https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/list-of-color-chemicals-and-where-to-get-them.79069/page-15)
The following discussion that another forum member started was very interesting to me:
“I used up developer from a tetenal kit I had on the go, so the biggest difference was using separate bleach and fix. After using blix for the last two years, I’m dumbfounded. These results are superior in every way. The biggest difference is the reduction in grain and increase in sharpness. It’s beautiful. 35mm almost seemed unusable before, but the results I just got here have true life. I even sense a larger tonal range, and deeper blacks. Very happy. Thank you all. ” (Comment #351 from Kuby at https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/list-of-color-chemicals-and-where-to-get-them.79069/page-15
to which PE responded:
” Thank you for posting this. It is what I have been saying all along!” (Comment #352 at https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/list-of-color-chemicals-and-where-to-get-them.79069/page-15)
There are many, many more places where PE and others tout the benefits of a separate bleach/fix over blix.
So what’s the dilemma? The dilemma is that most C-41 kits targeted to the home developer come with Blix. In fact, I can’t find a single site selling a kit with separate bleach and fix in the United States. (There are rumors that the Rollei separate bleach/fix kit can be purchased in Europe. Stateside, Rollei’s kit has blix. Everyone seems to use blix.)
So after sitting on this nagging bit of information that somehow separate bleach and fix is better than blix for months, I finally figured out how to move from using Blix to a separate bleach/fix combination. This post is about the how and some examples of my results of actually doing this.
DISCLAIMER: I cannot be held responsible for anything that you do as a result of following any infomation in or linked from this post. This post is about conducting a chemical process which could cause harm to you and others if not conducted appropriately. Please read all safety and MSDS specification sheets for any chemicals that you purchase for this and other chemical processes that you may decide to undertake.
To start with, I knew I’d need a lot more bottles than what I had. I ended up needing six 1L glass bottles plus 1 500mL glass bottle to store my C-41 chemistry in.
Here is the 1L bottle that I use:
and here is the 500mL bottle:
Here is how I use my bottles:
1L Bottles:
- C41 Developer
- Bleach (1+1)
- Bleach (Stock)
- Fixer
- Stabilizer
1 500mL Bottle:
- Bleach (Stock)
Starting out, I had a Unicolor kit ready to go, and since you can still use the developer and stabilizer from those, I simply mixed my developer and stabilizer per the instructions of the Unicolor kit.
For the stop bath, the formula is 5% white distilled vinegar at a 1+4 mix with distilled water.
For the bleach and fixer, I purchased the F2 kit from Unique Photo available here:
And this is where things get interesting because what you get is this:
So here you have Part 1 and Part 2 and because this is meant to go in a processing machine, there aren’t any real instructions for how to turn this F2 kit into a home developing kit.
Part 1 is 1L of C-41 bleach to be used as is. Part 2 is just over 2L of C-41 Fixer that has to be diluted at 1+1. Here are pictures of the unboxing:
As you can see, we have two tanks with chemicals. The green chemical (and smaller tank) is the bleach and the larger tank has the fixer. In getting the chemicals out, you’ll run into this:
That is the spout and chemistry will not come out of that unless you depress the piece in the middle. This is a terrible way to try and get the chemistry out unless you want chemicals all over you. This is not the way to go.
Instead, you’ll need to carefully cut the spout off of the bottle so that you have a place that you can carefully pour the chemicals into a graduated cylinder. See:
With a hole cut in the top, removing the spout, you can now pour the chemistry into a graduated cylinder and from there into your bottles.
For the C-41 bleach, this is straightforward. 1L of bleach in the bag goes into the cylinder and into a 1L bottle.
For the C-41 fixer, pour 1L into the cylinder and into one of the two 1L bottles for fixer. Repeat for the second liter. For what is left over, consult with your municipality’s regulations on chemical disposal. I have to take mine to the county waste processing facility along with my other used photochemistry.
At the end of this process, you should now have 3 1L bottles of chemistry:
Now when it’s time to actually start development, you can do the following per chemical:
Developer – Mix as the Unicolor kit instructs and take the finished liter into a bottle.
Stop Bath – I’ve used this a few times and it’s not really needed with C-41 developer, plus it can cause the bleach to not work correctly, so I’m discontinuing this recommendation.
Bleach – Use existing 1L bottle of Bleach
Fixer – Pour 500mL of Fixer into a graduated cylinder and move that to your 500mL bottle. Then pour the remaining 500mL from the bottle into a graduated cylinder, add 500mL of distilled water and pour that back into the 1L bottle. Relabel this bottle as Fixer (1+1).
Stabilizer – Mix as the Unicolor kit instructs and take the finished liter into a bottle.
When you have mixed these five chemicals, you should have something like:
and you are now ready to run C-41 with separate bleach and fix.
For development, you need to have a method to keep the temeperature of the development constant. C-41 developer has a 0.5F degree range, meaning that you can have the developer anywhere between 101.5F and 102.5F and be fine, but outside of that range, you will get color shifts and other issues. Keeping color chemistry at a stable temperature is beyond the scope of this particular blog post.
Here are the instructions and temperatures that the chemistry must be at:
- Developer – 3.5 minutes at 102F (range 101.5-102.5 F)
- Stop Bath – 1 minute at 75-105F — see above, discontinuing this recommendation.
- Bleach – 6.5 minutes at 75-105F
- Wash – 1.5 minutes at 75-105F (should be very agressive – enough to turn over the water in the tank four times.)
- Fixer – 6.5 minutes at 75-105F
- Wash – 3.25 minutes at 75-105F (should be just as agressive as the wash in step 4.)
- Stabilizer – 1.5 minutes at 75-105F
As for an agitation scheme, on the developer, stop bath, bleach, and fixer, I use 10 seconds initially followed by 10 seconds of agitation every 30 seconds. For the Stabilizer, I agitate for the first 10 seconds and then leave it alone.
You will need to burp the stop bath. “Burping” refers to opening and re-sealing the lid between agitations. If you don’t burp the stop bath, the pressure will blow the lid off and you’ll have a warm vinegar bath. In my experience, neither the bleach nor the fixer needed “burping” even though I did burp them a few times. This is in stark contrast to blix, which needs to be burped regularly as well.
One more note — I have not put a pre-wash in here as I have read that pre-washing C-41 film removes protective layers that are intended to be interacted first by the developer. Previouly I have pre-washed C-41 film, but this time I did not. I held my tank down in my water bath from the point that the developer reached 100F until it was at 102F. At 102F, I poured the developer into the tank, closed the tank, started the timer, and began the agitation. Afterwards, the tank went immediately back into the water bath.
Once you have done all of this, hang your negatives to dry and you can do a squeegee to get rid of excess stabilizer or use your fingers. If you use your fingers, you may wish to wear a glove and should definitely wash your hands and all of your equipment after this process. My film is usually ready to be sleeved at the 3 hour mark.
So having gone to all this effort, what are my thoughts on the process? Honestly, these negatives actually feel cleaner to the touch than those that have gone through blix. The reduction in grain and increase in sharpness are definitely there throughout the negatives. 35mm is a joy to shoot on with this method and they are absolutely the best 35mm film results I’ve ever gotten.
So here is the proof. I am going to show you two examples for two films: Portra 400 and Natura 1600. One with Blix and one that went through the separate bleach/fix process. Do bear in mind that I had not planned on going down this path when I developed film with blix and as such, I don’t have a picture of the exact same thing that was developed with blix and then developed with the separate bleach/fix process. That said, the results that I am sharing with you are not one-off. The examples that went through blix are indicative of my other work with blix and the examples from the separate bleach/fix process are indicative of what all that work looks like.
Portra 400
City Detail – Blix (Click to see at 100%)
City Detail – Separate Bleach / Fix (Click to see at 100%)
Both of these Portra 400 examples are 100% enlargements from a V700 using Silverfast to scan and process. They both were properly exposed with adequate light.
Fuji Natura 1600
City Shot – Developed with Blix (Click to see 100%)
Nature Example – Separate Bleach / Fix (Click to see 100%)
The scanning settings for the Natura examples are the same as the Portra examples.
Effectively, with a separate bleach/fix, you do get sharper negatives, less grain, and better tonal qualities. The next set of negatives that I develop will definitely be with this method and then after that Unicolor kit is gone, it’s time to start looking at other C-41 delevopers! Stay tuned!
Shooting Large Format Film in Dallas
Over the years, my day job has taken me to a number of different places. As such, I have enjoyed the opportunity of getting to photograph a number of different places. Recently, I’ve been spending time in the Dallas metro area and this last time, I decided to take my large format camera along for the ride.
Flying with large format film is definitely an adventure and one that I have now done on three separate occasions. In the United States, you are presently allowed a hand check of all film, saving it from going through the scanner. This is especially beneficial when you are traveling with a 100-sheet box of Delta 100 like I was on this last trip.
To prevent security officers from randomly opening my film boxes (and exposing / ruining the contents!) I always tape all sides with gaffers tape. This actually works quite well, because if there is any concern from the security officer around what this box contains, this allows there to be civil conversation around how the boxes contain light-sensitive photographic film and opening them would ruin the contents. This conversation (if it even happens) is usually fast, cordial, and sometimes leads to more interesting conversations about analogue film and photography in general. I have been treated very well by our security officers in the United States and have no concerns traveling with this setup as long as I tape everything up.
For this, my first business trip traveling with the large format camera, the weather was all but a bust. The temperatures were in the 30s Fahrenheit and it rained a significant amount every day. There was one night where the rain let up and it happened to correspond with the night that I was out with one of my co-workers to specifically do large format photography. It was his first outing with a big camera and the conditions were certainly less than ideal. Even though it wasn’t raining, the wind was gusting quite a bit and it was a very humid cold, the worst kind in my opinion. That said, the bad weather had also made this a fantastic night to be out making images as the tops of the buildings in Dallas were covered by a fog and the Trinity River had flooded, making for a very unique composition with some nice atmospheric elements that aren’t usually there.
I have the following images to share from that night:
Both of these images were shot on Ilford Delta 100 developed in Perceptol 1+3.
The Cowee Mountains Incident
Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. Such was the case the last time that I went to Cowee Mountains Overlook in October 2015. This was a significant trip as it was the first trip my family had taken since welcoming our son George! This was my first opportunity to do large format landscape work since he was born and I was very excited about that. We located ourselves close to a lot of scenic spots in Western North Carolina and I subscribed to SkyFire as well and that service was predicting that the first night of our trip was going to be a good night to go up on the Parkway and watch the sun set!
I vividly remember the drive up the mountain — the color in the mountains was spectacular at the higher elevations and I almost thought to stop and shoot that color with the evening light. That said, Cowee Mountains Overlook was calling me. It looks almost due west and has a lot of layers of mountains, making it a popular overlook with photographers and anyone wanting to enjoy the beauty of the area.
When I got to the overlook, I was met by the DSLR army. It almost never fails that when I go to Cowee, there are a number of other photographers there, all with their digital cameras ready to take hundreds of frames of the sun as it goes down. As a large format analogue photographer, arriving at this scene is one that makes you wonder what will happen next (you certainly aren’t going to go unnoticed and something will happen).
When you pull out large format gear, a lot of people get really interested and want to talk. After all, it’s not every day that you see someone with one of these big cameras and a dark cloth. I very much understand their curiosity — I’m the one who is curious enough to be using the camera after all! That said, the time when you are setting up to photograph changing light is not the best time to be having a conversation about much of anything.
I had a few conversations with people around the fact that I had a big camera while I set up and then made this image on Kodak Ektar 100:
What happened next was unexpected and quickly changed my evening for the worse. I went to adjust my location and composition and did not have my tripod secured and then my camera took a tumble! Thankfully, it didn’t go very far. Unfortunately, a small stick went right through the bellows, rendering the Crown Graphic unable to take any more pictures that evening!
I wish I could tell you that the other photographers were supportive and helpful and helped get me out of the situation, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I heard “You should get a better tripod” and “Can you even fix a camera that old?” Those were actually some of the more helpful comments. The reality was that I put the tripod in the wrong place and even had the tripod been rated for more weight, I’m not sure that would have helped.
To salvage the evening, I thankfully had my Leica R3 ready to go and loaded with Fuji Velvia 50. As such, I was still able to make the most of my time at the overlook.
I drove back to my accommodation in a very somber mood thinking that I had clearly killed my camera after only taking 1 sheet of film for the whole trip. I had trouble sleeping that night because I was very disappointed by this turn of events and the less than helpful responses I received from the other photographers.
As I lay there trying to sleep, I realized that I had gaffer’s tape on the back of my Leica R3s to cover the film window and that I could probably use the gaffer’s tape to seal the holes in the bellows! With this realization in mind, I went straight to work. I patched the holes in the bellows and then in a dark room put a light in the bellows to ensure that no light escaped. I had fixed the camera — and with the gaffer’s tape that I already had! To this day, gaffer’s tape comes with me on photography trips. (As a side note, I don’t think gaffer’s tape fixes Canon’s ERR 99 and other such computer malfunctions….)
After fixing the camera, I was able to get to sleep and enjoyed the use of my camera for the rest of the trip!
Here are my favorite images from the Leica R3 from that evening:
Ferrania P30 and Perceptol
I’d like to share my experiences developing P30 from Film Ferrania in Ilford’s Perceptol developer. I attempted to post this information to their developer’s forum, but my post was flagged spam and nobody over there seems to be monitoring the spam queue and as such, my post never made it.
So here you go internet 🙂 Some of the names and times won’t make sense as this was intended to be a forum post, but ultimately, I think this should be good data for anyone working with Ferrania P30 and Ilford Perceptol.
I’ve worked on figuring out the numbers for Perceptol 1:3 and wanted to share my methodology for getting to these numbers and my first results. Any time that I’m working with a b/w film that doesn’t have information on the Massive Dev Chart, I tend to look at the chart to see what’s similar. In the case of P30, Ferrania has given us the chart and the numbers on that chart match relatively closely to Rollei Retro Pan 80S on the Massive Dev chart for a handful of developers. Given that, the numbers for Rollei Retro Pan 80S are likely close and for Perceptol 1:3, the number is 18 minutes at 20C.
Not too long ago, Ludi gave us a Perceptol Stock number of 9 minutes and Ludi’s results look quite nice. I then looked on the Massive Dev chart to get a better understanding of the relationship of Perceptol stock to Perceptol 1:1 to Perceptol 1:3 as it behaves across a wide variety of films. In general, the ratio between stock and 1:1 falls between 1.16 and 1.85, but usually around 1.44. The ratio between 1:1 and 1:3 falls between 1.26 and 1.58, but usually around 1.4 as well.
Toni Skokovic gave us a number for Perceptol 1:1 of 20 minutes, but if we accept Ludi’s 9 as the right time for stock, then Toni’s 1:1 number has a ratio of 2.22, which is generally higher than the range I was finding across a variety of films on Massive Dev. At this time, I think Toni’s number for 1:1 may be a little long, but more testing is definitely needed to confirm that.
Looking further at the chart, I found Ilford Pan 100 shot at ISO 50 seems to be a good match ratio-wise in that for stock it’s 8 minutes, 1:1 it’s 12 minutes, and 1:3 it’s 16 minutes. The ratios here are 1.5 and 1.3333. If we take Ludi’s 9 and multiply by the ratios, we get 9 minutes for stock, 13.5 minutes for 1:1, and 18 minutes for 1:3 (which matches my original guess based on Rollei Retro Pan 80S) All at 20C.
Given the above, I did the following:
Tank -> Paterson 3 reel
Developer-> Perceptol 1:3 (18 minutes at 20C formula, measured temp of 20.1C for an actual time of 17:51)
Agitation-> Continuous first minute, 10 seconds once every minute afterwards.
Stop Bath-> Ilford Wash Method
Fix->Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4 for 5 minutes
Wash->Ilford Method for 7 minutes
Rinse->Kodak Photo-Flo added to tank and continue with the Ilford Method for the remaining 3 minutes.
Scanned->Epson V700 at 3200dpi with Silverfast
Results from Minolta CLE, Minolta Rokkor 40mm f/2 and Zeiss Biogon 28mm f/2.8 — All shot at ISO 80.
Welcome to the new kabbottphoto.com!
I hope you are enjoying the redesigned kabbottphoto.com as much as I have enjoyed putting it together! My goal in 2018 is to use the blog section of the site more than in past years. In this blog, I want to document any unique films that I use, development recipes that I find interesting and other unique aspects of shooting analogue photographs in 2018. Having shot only analogue since 2013, I’ve definitely got the hang of things and am looking forward to sharing my knowledge where I can.
That said, I still have a ton to learn myself and am very interested in hearing from you if you have thoughts or comments on what I have to say.
So here’s to 2018 and the newly redesigned kabbottphoto.com!
About Me
I'm Karl Abbott and this is my blog. I'll share images, the story behind them, and any unique technical details about how I achieved my results.