Hannah and Connie - first shot with the GS645s

[Hamish Gill]

As some of you might have noticed I recently bought a Fuji MF RF, the gs645s
Carlos who I bought it off was very kind and sent me a couple of rolls of portra 160 i loaded it and went shooting for a few days
I then realised that i would have to wait for the photos to be deved... well I got a bit impatient! so last night I shot an entire roll of Connie in the space of half an hour!
within another hour i had some rather interesting looking negs
I loaded a roll of hp5... I have discovered a love for hp5 and a bottle of DDX, this combo basically means I can dev hp5 at pretty much whatever speed I want to!
The problem is, my living room is a little dull, I don't like shooting people at less that 1/60th and the max iso setting for the light meter on the camera is 1600 and max aperture is f/4
I used those settings which were just enough to squeeze correct exposure!
the thing I have found in the past though with "correct" exposure in my living room is that images can still lack a little contrast and look a little dull... its quite a softly lit room...
So despite shooting at 1600iso i decided to see what would happen if I pushed the dev to 3200iso...
I have read that the fuji lens is quite contrasty so maybe that is helping to, one way or another, i think i have found the perfect film/dev/process for my tastes for indoor shooting!
I have a few more to show you, later (dust removal required) but for now i really couldnt be more pleased with how this has come out ... for once, there is ZERO post process, just dust removal!
That higher contrast yet subtle soft detail in shadow areas is something i have been trying to work out how to capture for ages... I knew i had got it, even just looking at the negs! the fact that this fuji has helped get me here has put it in very good stead with me! I am one happy bunny!


Hannah & Connie by Hamish.Gill, on Flickr


Connie and some toys by Hamish.Gill, on Flickr


Connie and her toys again by Hamish.Gill, on Flickr


Connie and her toys for a third time by Hamish.Gill, on Flickr

 

[Pete Askew]

Very nice Hamish - I like that. As you say, decent contrast and detail in the shadows. So, where's the other 15?!!

 

[Hamish Gill]

14... it does 15 on a roll for some reason!
Ill get them up in a bit! this is just the best of the bunch i think!

 

[Dan Cattermole]

This is excellent Hamush!
I'm not suprised at all in how fast you've put some film in, but delightfully suprised with the result!
Great composure! Connie's showing some great character!

 

[Hamish Gill]

Cheers Dan!
I may have lucked out on the process a bit here but I'm very happy!
Do you mean composure, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while... But don't want to sound like a pedantic knob!
Composure is something a person has when they are feeling calm and collected
Ie, "after the initial panic he regained his composure" ... I have thought on many occasions that you meant I have captured a feeling of composure, but in this case I'm not sure ... I hate picking at people's English as I struggle all the time to find the word I mean... I'm just trying to grasp what your getting at when you say it...

Pete... Any chance you could talk me through what I have done here a bit, my brains wobbling a bit...
I've espoused at 1600 then deved at 3200
So I've effectively bumped the exposure by +1ev in dev...
Is this likely to increase contrast further still over the normal increase in contrast from pushing the film ...
Have I stumbled upon a technique that might suit well what I want to achibe without having to pp ... Or am I not quite understanding properly what's happened?

 

[Thomas brookes]

That a great capture Hamish!!!! Love the contrast.

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Maybe me get England a bit mix up?!!?!!
I do apologies Hamush (Hamish)!
I tend to write many posts on my iPhone, and half way through the word I'm typing at 90mile an hour, as you will know, it brings up a suggestion.... And at quick glance it looks like the write word. And it wasn't unfortunately!
What I meant to say was composition! Great composition!!!

 

[Pete Askew]

A well composed response Dan. You showed great composure in your choice of words I though!!

Hamish, you are on the right track there. The ISO rating / exposure scenario is only a guide and ideally one should work out ones own 'correct' development time / temperature / chemistry combination to give your 'personal' nominal conditions. The classic N exposure conditions. Now I suspect that is what you have achieved with you +1 push process. You could try shooting some images at a given ISO / lighting / exposure reading of a test strip (step wedge / Kodak control patch or similar) and then developing this either as you have done or cutting it up and doing at N, N-1 and N+1 etc. Then when you look at the negative / scan you can compare it with the control patch and have a true set of development conditions for your technique. Does that make any sense (not the absence of a 'c' while we're on English )? It's a bit of a very condensed version. And without the word densitometer being mentioned once (oops, damn!!).

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Lovely photos, Hamish. Sympathetic to the subjects. Really nice shots.

 

[Hamish Gill]

That a great capture Hamish!!!! Love the contrast.

Cheers Tom ... I have this odd sence of satisfaction getting the contrast right straight from scan

 

[Hamish Gill]

That's Rob

Cheers Pete, I'll read that 3 or 12 more times and get back to you ...

 

[Brian Moore]

That bairn fairly pops right out of the darkness, Hamish. There is almost a chiaroscuro effect, which is very cool. Lovely grain, too. And a delightful composure on both foties.

 

[Thomas brookes]

So do you love it??? I think it's ace!!

 

[Hamish Gill]

Cheers Brian!

Love what Tom? straight from scan images ... yeah!

 

[Thomas brookes]

Well if you want.... But I was referring to the GS6476527645s

 

[Hamish Gill]

YES I DO LOVE IT!

added another shot

 

[Thomas brookes]

Mate they are proper impressive. She looks Like a porcelain doll. I can't wait for you to take a million shots of me.

 

[Hamish Gill]

hah, yeah... we need to arrange a shoot

 

[Hamish Gill]

Last one added ...
A little bit of a crop this one, but when you have just short of 40,000,000 pixels to play with it doesnt seem to be an issue

that is the lot from this film though I think, the rest are just similar to these!

 

[Paul Lange]

These are nice Hamish and the info on the developing is interesting too. I found HP5 and Ifosol 3 produced quite grainy negatives, nice but grainy. My bottle of DDX was delivered earlier this week and I have plenty rolls of HP5 & FP4 to play with.