Tag Archives: people

Jul 25 2013
Leave a comment
Agfa, AgfaPhoto APX 100

AgfaPhoto APX 100

This blog is a continuation of my previous post Kodak Ektar 100

Please take the time to read back so you fully appreciate published film. This film is the second of four film’s that i shot at London Pride 2013.

By this point the evening was starting to get quite intoxicated with the streets crawling in cans, bottles, plastic cups and people racing to the nearest Wok to Walk or Opuz. My friends and I however decided to grab an Ed’s Burger, which is one of the nicest 50’s themed diner’s around Soho.

The atmosphere around Soho was filled with happiness and people coming together which made this was one of the easiest events i have ever photographed, other than London Fashion Week, however people go out just to get their photo taken at LFW and very often need some help to ‘look alive’. It may have been because i was drinking too.

I digress, people where ecstatic to see the camera, coming together, making faces and just a little bit of tom foolery to give a warmer more playful feel to the photos i captured.

I opted to stay within a 100iso film type as the evening was very bright, this also let me save the 2 higher iso film’s i have left over for use later on in the evening.

The results from the Agfa are exceptional, the contrasts are very appealing, the grain isn’t as fine as i would of expected from 100ISO however it doesn’t hinder the quality of the image, nor is it intrusive giving even and beautiful coverage of the photos. I used my Sigma 50mm Prime throughout the entire film alternating my f/stop from 2.5 to 5.6.

Tagged , , , , , ,
Jul 16 2013
2 Comments
Kodak, Kodak Ektar

Kodak Ektar 100

Every year in London on the 29th June the streets are filled with a giant party atmosphere celebrating gay right movements and various sexualities coming together to express themselves in one of the city’s more colourful events. Pride.

This is the first time i have been to pride since 2011 as i had got bored of it, for years London pride had been neglected and was usually pouring with rain for at least a few hours, however this year it seems to have been given a complete overhaul, whether people dug deeper in their pockets or maybe it was just organised better but this years pride was, fantastic! One of the best ones i have been to in years.

It was great to see the streets filled with people enjoying themselves, the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. Music was playing on every street corner from Trafalgar Square to Oxford Circus. The city was alive.

I was already a few frames in to the Ektar 100 loaded in my camera, the previous day’s weather had been terrible and i only managed to get a few frames off around Covent Garden. I was determined to get some shots over pride, i wanted to use this colour film to my full advantage. I brought 3 spare rolls of film with me and went on my merry way into central to meet some friends at one of my favourite bar’s in Soho, Ku Bar.

For this event i wanted my equipment to be as light as possible, i opted for my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 prime for the shallow aperture and it being much lighter than my 24-70. I stuck around f/2 – f/5.6 rarely going any higher.

Annoyingly retouching has taken longer with this film, there were considerable dust and scratches and also water stains on the film which i am not impressed about, the film processing seems to have not been very thorough this time and has left me with a few frames that required more work on them which could of been avoided.

The colours of this film are so saturated and fairly contrasty, Ektar was once likened by my tutor at University for sharing similar properties to Kodachrome however i feel Kodachrome had a warmer more contrasty feel to the final photographs which Ektar misses.

The grain is very desirable and fine not impeding on the quality of the photograph, i would like to see the results of Ektar pulled to 64 and then adding some contrast in photoshop how much it may resemble Kodachrome. Although as i previously stated it is not going to be identical. Dare i say it but i prefer the result of Ektar 100 over Portra 800, even though Portra is a gorgeous film type it lacks the punchiness and saturation of Ektar.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jul 07 2013
3 Comments
Fuji, Fuji Neopan

Fuji Neopan 400 Pushed to 1600

This post is a continuation of my previous post, for a full review and information on the creation of the film(s) and the people involved please visit Ilford HP5+ 400 Pushed to 3200

This was the first film that i shot pushed however i decided to upload it after the HP5+ for various reasons. I began shooting this film along the embankment and around Tower Bridge (inside the bridge) my Mother come to London to visit me for a couple of days and wanted to do the touristy attractions, being a Londoner i take the sites and sounds for granted as i see them every day, unsurprisingly i haven’t done much of the tourist experiences here because i do other things like work and wondering around with my camera.

When i arrived at the gym this film was almost finished, i was unsure whether 1600 would be fast enough so wanted to keep a few frames just to see how Neopan coped being pushed in the lighting available.

Shooting with my 24-70 at f/2.8 was interesting to say the least, poor lighting made it difficult to get the desired speed i wanted however i didn’t want to lower the f/stop too much because keeping some details in the background was important for this type of photography. I brought my 50mm f/1.4 incase i really was struggling for light although i wouldn’t have ventured any lower than f/2 in these circumstances.

In the end because the 1600 push wasn’t coping with the limited light i pushed a roll of HP5+ 3 stops which gave me much more freedom with shutter speed and aperture.

This roll of Neopan has degraded quite a bit, i am unsure whether the push/developing has affected the emulsion or if the process of coating the film has failed in some way as there is considerable dust/scratches and chunks out of the photographs which had to be repaired quite painstakingly in some areas (retouching with grain is always fun).

Interestingly Neopan developed similar grain properties as the HP5+ at a lower push, the contrasts are appealing however not as consistent as the HP5+ however saying this the quality of the photograph is not compromised and finishes with a classic grainy style.

I am going to enquire what developers the company i use practice with as i would like to see the results of microphen and xtol being used in development. “Do it yourself” i hear you cry once more at me, the simple answer is i would if i had the time, i do miss developing my own film however it’s much easier and faster for me if i can send it off to a developers as i work a lot. Although the next stage for the development of this project will be developing my own work at times to create my own form of photography, however i make up for some this in editing after scanning.

You’ll notice that there is only a small collection of photos in this post, this is due to me doubling up a little with the photos, plus there was some i just didn’t want to include in the final publish. Doubling up is a habit i need to get out of when shooting with film, I have used digital for such a long time it is sometimes second nature to click the shutter more than once.

I would be interested to see Neopan pushed a few more stops as i feel that it would create some fantastic punchy results.

Tagged , , , ,
May 16 2013
Leave a comment
Fuji, Fuji Superia

Fuji Superia X-TRA 400

Following on from my previous post Kodak T-MAX 400 I decided to use the Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 whilst at the May Day March as some of the banners etc were fairly colourful, it was also to see how i got along with colour for a change.

Slower ISO than the Portra yet it handled well with the speed that i demanded on the day, interestingly the Portra 800 grain qualities far exceed that of the Superia (in my opinion). The tonal range and colours on the Superia are satisfactory but not fantastic, from this shoot i have realised that the consumer grade film is a good choice for point and shoot photography however didn’t really cut it on the final outcome for quality.

When i shoot with digital i obviously pay attention to colour, especially with the street style work i do or when i cover London Fashion Week however i noticed shooting the Superia that i was specifically looking for colour so as not to waste  frames!

A couple of days after the March i finished the rest of this film off wondering around China Town, Soho and Covent Garden. I used the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 and 24-70 f/2.8L Mk II for this film. It has been great using the zoom lens, especially when photographing wider shots in tighter spaces. I’d be interested to see how this film copes being pushed as the higher contrasts from pushing may give some interesting results in saturation.

Tagged , ,
May 14 2013
Leave a comment
Kodak, Kodak TMAX

Kodak T-Max 400

On May 1st London’s street’s fill with thousands of people that take part in the May Day March. London has been celebrating May Day since the 1880’s and this year I wanted to come along and take part too….by documenting it at least anyway!

I had finished University submitting my work early so that i could get to Trafalgar Square where the march finishes at 1pm (i figured this would be the busiest spot as they give speeches afterwards).

I was able to finish a roll of Fuji Superia 400 (will publish at a later date) by the time that the march arrived.

I haven’t used Kodak T-Max before but i love the results from this shoot, the negatives (other than the DP3200) are crystal clear when scanning.  The photographs are super sharp along with contrasts and tonal range being pretty good.  I’m a bit let down by the exposure of some of the photographs however thats a technical error on my part when metering as i gave the camera aperture priority (so i controlled aperture, camera controlled shutter) this was essentially a speed thing. I used my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 during this shoot, i would of preferred my 24-70 f/2.8L MkII lens for this type of photography however i didn’t have it on me at the time.

There were times where i was sitting on the max shutter speed. What i should of done is raise the aperture to compensate however i wanted some bokeh.

Currently im favouring the T-Max as my ‘go to’ film, its sharpness and fine grain at a speedy iso with great contrasts has won me over….for now! We’ll see how long this feeling lasts once i have finished the Delta 400.

Tagged , , ,
Apr 27 2013
Leave a comment
Kodak, Portra 800

Kodak Portra 800

On the 17th April my friends from University and I decided to have a ‘meeting’ at the local pub after viewing the Cafe Gallery in Southwark which is where our exhibition is being held in May (10th, 11th if you’re interested).

It was a perfect sunny day to sit on the balcony overlooking The Thames and London with a few pints.

I love the Portra 800, i think its a fantastic film with excellent grain quality and tonal range, the colours are always beautiful and strong.  I used my Canon EOS 620 SLR with Sigma 50mm f/1.4.

I’ve included a photo of me in this blog for your pleasure which was shot at uni by my friend Amy.

Thank you to my friends involved in the creation of this film.

Tagged , , , ,
Newer posts →