First 35mm roll back

[David Mitchell]

Hi all,

I have just got my film back from Imaging North Wales - which I highly recomend as no only do they have a fast turn around but if you get the film developed and printed you get a free CD with the scans. Also you get a hand written note about how they can be improved, in this case it was commented that the film seemed old and under exposed. The camera I used was the Fujica ST605n with a 55mm F2.8 (I think if I can remember) and using new Kentmere 400 film.

I think the photos came out slightly under exposed due to perhaps the light meter not quite being 100% spot on, as this roll was shot as my first ever set on 35mm I just used the meter reading to ensure that the exposure needle was in the middle - I will remember to 'overexpose' slightly on the next roll.

I have tweeked what I can in lightroom, please note that these are the high res scans on the CD although I will be recanning once I get my Epson V500 scanner and increase the resolution as I would have more time to scan them in.

The film I found to be a bit grainy for my liking, but then again until you try it you never know, I have a couple of rolls of it left, perhaps it would come out slightly different with a different camera and lens.

Anyway, here are a few shots that I found to be the ones I liked, I have cropped some a bit and also adjusted them as best I can in a compressed JPEG form.

 

[Pete Askew]

Good news David and a fine series. The second one is very nicely composed. It might be worth analysing the prints a bit more before changing the way you expose. Don't forget that the meter sees the world in 18% grey and is suggesting the exposure based on that. Lighter or darker scenes will require you to adjust the settings accordingly (http://www.realphotographersforum.com/beginners/7999-exposure-tutorial.html). The 'old' film and under-exposure would have lead to larger grain so don't write the film off just yet.

 

[David Mitchell]

Thanks Pete, im not overly happy with the photos I took, I know that the meter also sees an average of the scene so if what you want is darker you need to 'over expose' ie above the average to get the darker object correctly exposed. I think there was also a bit of time between taking them and getting them developed, I know that unexposed film keeps, but exposed film starts to degrade. The film is fresh but I think it might just be the lag time, plus the files are compressed to jpeg so I will be rescanning the set again when I get the scanner.

I think i'm a bit different than other people on the forum, I enjoy using the camera and taking the picture, and just happen to get a photograph at the end rather than wanting to take a photograph and using the camera as a tool. It probably why 90% of my cameras are 100% manual with not electrical items (apart from maybe the meter) in them.

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

They remind me of the books i used to look at in my teens and wished i was there.

This i so like.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

David - you're inspiring me to get of by @rse and put some film through my Ilford camera

Regarding exposure etc

When you look at the image histogram, you see that the data is compressed in the upper-center of the range - it doesn't fill the dynamic range available in a digital image.

In this shot, it's mostly lacking true blacks.

A quick slider adjustment to move the black point up to the darkest bits of the image data immediately adds punch to the image

 

[David Mitchell]

Thanks Chris, I will go back into lightroom and tweek the current images I have and see what happens

Hmmm it doesn't seem to make ANY difference where I move the slider to in lightroom?

 

[Pete Askew]

Try moving the darks slider below the curve tool to -55 and the highlights to +35.

 

[David Mitchell]

I think I am going to have to have a play around in lightroom again once I get some better scans.