These are from the very first roll I developed. At this point I did not have a flash, so both of these were taken in low light. I’ve also scanned these long after I developed the roll. Handling of the film before I scanned it wasn’t so great. Regardless, I was ecstatic that I got a picture at all. I feared that the roll would be blank as it emerged from the developing tank. I learned after developing a few rolls that while you may not get the exact results you want, it’s pretty difficult to accidentally get nothing or a really screwed up roll.
This first roll was mostly a throw away roll of pictures I didn’t care about containing uninteresting photos of my office and house. These are the only interesting photos of the bunch. Contrast is, well, a little bit lacking. I’m not sure if it was a lack of agitation, too little time in development or something else. It’s been a little while since I developed these, so I don’t quite remember what I did. I was able to get some image quality, but it’s difficult to see any details on my roommate’s shirt. The finger in the second picture didn’t help (rookie mistake).
The film is a roll of Arista.EDU Ultra 400, and I developed it in a 25:1 dilution of Rodinal for 5 and a half minutes. I shot these pictures at box speed (400 ISO). There’s a considerable amount of grain, something that I definitely want to tone down on future rolls. However, I’m growing more and more to like the aesthetic of light or even moderate film grain, as long as it doesn’t affect detail in the picture.
First roll down, and I would label it a successful beginning.