Who’s the lunatic?¶
379 words on Black and White
Taking a closer look at the results of yesterday’s developing spree confirmed a number of my first impressions and also gave a few new ones.
One thing is that – just as people say – those ADOX CHS/efke films really do have amazing grey tones in the mid ranges. Often photos that do not have strong contrasts or go to the outer limits of the black-vs-white range can look a bit dull. But with these films they look very rich and smooth. I quite like that. And the ISO25 film really adds a bit more of that. I like it.
Secondly, I really need to re-think my love of pushing films. Particularly the Agfa APX400 that I got a 10 pack of is a bit disappointing at that. And – obviously – images will look harsher because of it. I guess I should switch back to HP5/CHM400 if I want to push the films and just try to use the APX400 at their nominal speed. Which is a shame because I find ISO400 a bit lacking. It’s not sensitive enough for photos in the dark or even for many indoor situations. And the films lack the subtlety of the CHS/efke films.
Thirdly, focusing that 500mm tele is friggin’ hard because its depth of field can be quite shallow at medium distances. A number of shots I did are less than perfect because of that. (Having had glasses that were 0.5 or so off when I took those photos probably didn’t help either). And, yup, moving targets can also become blurry at that magnification. — — Which brings me back to the topic of high ISO films, I suppose.
Fourthly, when taking a photo of a moving train, rather photograph its back than its front for nice motion blur.
Finally, and somewhat disappointingly, I mostly over-exposed the photos I took of the moon, leaving me mostly with a white disc in the black sky. Digital cameras with their instant feedback certainly help when taking such photos where the exposure needs to be ‘just right’. With a bit of contrast/curves fiddling I could still turn this into somewhat recognisable image but it leaves a lot to be desired. I wonder whether I’d be able to re-create these corrections in the darkroom.
