Another great weekend, another opportunity for photos. Before we get to the weekend drive, I played around with the self-timer to get shots of… myself:
I also got the flash out to take a picture of what I develop my photos in. This is a Patterson Super System 4. The black tube in the middle of the left reel mates up with the funnel of the lid. This creates a light-tight seal around the film, but allows liquids and chemicals to flow in and out. The last part, the top, makes it possible to invert the tank without all the chemicals leaking everywhere.
I wanted to capture the clouds after a rain. They came out well but the ground… not so much. It’s a little to grainy and dark.
On to another beautiful weekend drive. I’m not sure what happened with the sky around the boat. I’m probably going to have to go back and fix that.
One problem with taking pictures in the car is dealing with reflections of stuff in the car on the window. The bottom right is quite blurry in an attempt to hide the reflection. I don’t like cropping, which this photo would be a good candidate for since nothing important is in that corner.
If I remember correctly when first going through these pictures that I didn’t match the brightness due to the fact that it would adversely bring out grain characteristics. I think I have found better ways around that with the last few rolls I developed, which you will see later on in the process. Turning down brightness in Photoshop does negatively affect the graininess of the photo. Using exposure instead of brightness can yield better results if appropriate. I would also say that the brightness is also too dark on the pictures before this one.
Ugh. Way too dark. I probably could have done a better job with exposure here or perhaps exposing a stop lower.
Development Details
- Film: Ilford HP5+ (400)
- Camera ISO setting: 400
- Developer: Rodinal
- Development Time: 1 hour
- Development Agitation: Stand (20 inversions first minute only)