I wanted to try some pictures in trickier situations. Since it was getting dark in the late afternoon, the only real time to take pictures was during the weekend while I wasn’t working. I wanted to give this a shot to test the limits of the film. I used some cheap Fomapan 200 for this, and it wasn’t too bad. There were a bunch of pictures that did not get good focus or exposure (I had to have my aperture all the way up, and the shutter speed was just short enough for handheld picture taking). However, I was able to coax a few interesting pictures out of the roll.
The next pictures are the result of a filter and low light. It’s a bit different from my normal style, silhouetting the foreground against the lighter sky. It has more of an artsy look to it I think.
Lastly, I solved a mystery that was irking me to no end. On some rolls of film there was often a splattering of dots on the scanned image. I thought it was contaminants that were in the water. So, I was trying everything I could think of to get rid of any impurities in the developer, fixer and rinse.
When I saw this after scanning, I decided to take a look at the negative. Since these negatives had very low density, it was easier to see the surface of the film itself. Sure enough there were huge water stains from the final rinsing and drying process. I use photo flow (aka wetting agent), so I assumed that wouldn’t be a problem, but it was definitely there. The film needed to be cleaned, so I used some lens cleaner and a microfiber cloth to make it spotless. I ran it through again and saw a drastic difference.
Now, there are still some white spots, but that is a result of the film getting scratched (something else I’ve addressed with my paper cutter I’m using as a film cutter). The negative is much better (can’t do anything about the making the picture itself better). I was very glad I was able to stumble upon why that was happening.
Development Details
- Film: Fomapan 200
- Camera ISO setting: 200
- Developer: Kodak XTol
- Development Time: 6 Minutes
- Development Agitation: Kodak Style (5x inversions every 30 seconds)