First roll through Nikon FM2n - £1 Agfa Vista plus

[David Mitchell]

Hi all,

Just got my first roll ever through my FM2n, unfortunatly the processing shop didn't cut the roll at all, they just put it back into a plastic film canister meaning that some of the negatives are now scratched, not going back there again but I might be able to sort them out at some point.

Anyway, here are some of the shots from the roll, the shots are from Sherwood forest, Matlock and London. When I imported them into LR and started tweeking they were basically spot on for exposure, the first few I scanned I exported with the white balance set to auto....I don't need to adjust the white balance lol its film!

Anyhow, here are a few shots, im happy with most of them, got excited now I have got them back so there are tweeks and adjustments still to do but I just wanted to get some up.

This is using some Afga Vista plus ISO 200 film from Poundland, this is NOT pro film, its uber cheap basic film, its shot on a Nikon FM2n with the 50mm F1.8 E series lens.

London/home during the snow

Early morning shot over to Paddington station across the road from where I work - I think this is just an office building.

Matlock

Sherwood forest

I still need to work on it a bit but what do people think? Am I getting any better lol you will notice that some of the shots are the same as the digital images I took - this was so that I could compare between film and digital

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I'm impressed with quite a few of them, especially the canal area and the trees. The second of Sherwood Forest is wonderful. It will be interesting to see any that you do more editing on, maybe a little saturation here and there? Maybe not

 

[Pete Askew]

Excellent set David. The third station shot is very nicely composed and the shots of Matlock are very nice also. The second shot of Sherwood would make a good B&W image I think. Looking forward to the 'tweaked' versions.

Try putting a line between each image when you put the links into your post. It helps to 'see' the images better I think.

 

[David Mitchell]

Thanks guys I have just put a line in between the images as well, I have done a few tweeks now to them, would be great to get some feedback on them as im never too sure if images are too light/dark or look too unnatural, the issue I had with the snow is the highlights being blown out a bit.

Canal with 'as shot' WB and upped saturation

Station in black and white (didn't feel that the colour really added anything)

Sherwood forest in black and white

And then cropped slightly to move more towards the rule of thirds

I might actually be tempted to get a different ground glass for the FM2n so that I get a better feel of the composition.

Note - this roll of film cost £1

 

[Beth Carter]

#8 (or second shot of sherwood forest, i think) is my favorite of the bunch. not bad at all for £1.

 

[David Mitchell]

Thanks Beth yeah I just wanted to try it out, my mate borrowed my Fujica ST605n and I gave him the same film, his images weren't as colourful so im thinking that the light meter on the ST605 is slightly off and overexposing them. As you can see the colours are actually pretty good and im happy with the performance of it as I can simply tweek the levels in Lightroom. I initially didn't want to touch anything in post production as I didn't want to change how the image was shot, but now im getting into a few changes, after all the film hasn't been changed, just the levels of whats already there. Its amazing how details start to spring out when changing the clarity or nudging the highlights and shadows. Although not used in these images I was impressed with the difference a corrected WB made on the digital images.

All of the images are shot with the F1.8 50mm E series lens ie the economy lens which does indeed seem to give a sharp image - its amazing how cheap and how good this lens is.

Here is an example of how good light room is, I have been using the heal tool to sort out the scratches on the scans:

Before:

After:

These are once in a lifetime shots, which is why I was a bit upset when they came back scratched like that, but the heal tool is amazing!

 

[Beth Carter]

lightroom is pretty amazing stuff, but it's even better in photoshop using the patch tool, heal tool or clone stamp and layers.

 

[David Mitchell]

I'm just happy its got something that will fix it lol

 

[Stan Hesketh]

By coincidence I have put the same film through a Canon T50 (the film/processing cost more than the camera ) I hope my shots are as good as yours

 

[Hamish Gill]

Some nice shots there!

- - - Updated - - -

... Heal tool is one of my close freinds at the mo!

 

[David Mitchell]

Just fixing this image up, landscapes = easy heal, buildings with lines = arg! lol

I am just picking out some possible cyanotypes

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Fantastic set David!
Very very nicely composed

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Lovely stuff - cheap as chips - can't say fairer than that

The B&W trees are fab

 

[Hamish Gill]

Just fixing this image up, landscapes = easy heal, buildings with lines = arg! lol

I am just picking out some possible cyanotypes

I really like this!

 

[David Mitchell]

I wasn't too sure if I liked that building when it came out the camera, it didn't do anything for me in colour and I thought: "Hmm wish there was something interesting in the frame" then I basically changed it to black and white, whacked up the clarity and tweeked the contrast slightly. Also had to fix all the scratches which I hope aren't that noticeable now! The shot was one of those shots where you wished you had a wider lens lol that is shot with the 50mm lens like all the others, wish I had a AI 28mm, i've only got a pre-AI 28mm so don't have metering.

I'm finally getting to the point where I am happy to take the shots and not worry too much about all the settings I need as i'm thinking: How much DoF do I want? Is this shutter speed too slow to hand hold? Am I focused? I'm usually happy with sorting out the main settings quite quickly now so I can then concentrate on the actual composition rather than worrying about if I am getting enough light lol.

Here is an example image where I wished I had shot slightly over so that the path wasn't in the centre and shot it at an angle to give some leading lines rather than a dead end lol:

I'm getting there though, I have a few more frames that I want to adjust before i'm happy but this is the first colour roll I have shot - ironically most look better in black and white lol

Good news about the film though as I can get 4 rolls of film for the price of just 1 roll of something like Tri-x meaning that I can practice more.

If anyone sees an image that I upload and think "if only he had done...." let me know as I want to improve my composition a bit more now i'm starting to get the hang of all of the settings

 

[David Mitchell]

Another shot in London with a frame I didn't like at all, post processed with my new found need to increase the clarity and keep the colour in the focal point - I now have a reason to always shoot colour lol.

And again with the canal and snow - wish the sky was a bit more interesting that day lol

Seems quite a simple but effective process