A good B&W film for use in Saudi Arabia?

Photographers and analog users all, a question for you:

I'm in a desert environment, to be specific, in Saudi Arabia --I teach at a university on the Gulf coast. I have always preferred to shoot color, but want to work on my B&W.

My question has to do with choice of film that would work best here, and to make the question more comprehensible, I'd like to describe the environment, the better to acquaint you with the challenges of working with B&W here.

First is the blinding sunlight --it's exceptionally strong, overpoweringly so except in the winter months, when it is not "killer bright" but easily what in a more temperate clime would be full-strength; clouds are a rarity, and full cloud cover is almost never seen. The sun being as strong as it is, together with exceptionally sparse rainfall, means that even what green vegetation exists look exhausted --flat, faded, without luster, anemic, and dust-covered. Structures --homes and the like-- tend, with the exception of skyscrapers (that I have no desire to photograph anyway), to an exclusive reliance on concrete and masonry block for a building material. Paints tend to pastels and flat whites, and in both cases are rapidly washed out, bleached by the sun. Making matters somewhat worse, the terrain is basically flat sand, not of the type that people use to fill children's sand boxes, but a very fine, almost dust-like white powder --I suspect it's limestone (I don't know my geology)-- that if it has any hue to it at all verge ever so subtly towards a hint of cream, but only barely so. When it rains, which is very infrequently, wildflowers and grasses will appear in areas where the water table is high, but they die off very quickly, and in the main, expanses of open space are so entirely empty that, in the glare of any given day, it's just an expanse of perfect featureless white. Trying to shoot something a mile away in the distance makes for a foreground of practically nothing at all.

My experience has been frustrating, because the general absence of contrast in this environment coupled with the terrific, almost blinding whiteness of the terrain even on what here would pass for weak-sunlight days makes it hard to compose a decent black and white picture.

I'm shooting a Bronica Sq-ai, sometimes a Mamiya C33. Can anyone recommend a B&W film that would work best under these conditions? (And yes, I use a red 25 or a red 29)

I'd really appreciate a hand with this!

Thanks...

jmarsh, I thought we had it bad during the summer her in Southern California, but you have it far worse. All I can recommend is slower film, filters which you mention, and photographing in the early morning or late evenings. Really never being there, it is hard to visualize such a scene and give to much advise as you describe. Hopefully some one with more experience in that part of the world will give better advice than I can.

I would experiment with a polarizer.

And consider looking for textures, rather than contrast.

What do you want to photograph? Architecture? Nature? People? For people, I suggest staying indoors and using window light, or outdoor in well-covered shade. For buildings, perhaps you could use Diafine to reduce the high contrast.

Mark Overton

Southern Utah presents similar problems. Morning and evening are your friend, and slow film, il ford pan f and expose for shadow detail. Might even consider il ford x p 2 for the very high latitude and ability to not block up.

Also don't forget to protect (and clean) your camera from sand.

+1 to summicron1

dusk and dawn when the sun is low will give you as much contrast as you need/want. Low side lighting is your friend. You shouldn't need red filter at those times of day.

p.s. you may only get half an hour of useable light so be prepared.

Try Acros and Divided Pyrocat, I shot several rolls last year at the shore under the worst conditions (contrast-wise) and they came out great. All you need to know can be found here:

http://www.pyrocat-hd.com/html/TwoBathPyrocat.html

look here for examples of side lighting on sand (in desert)

http://tinyurl.com/nfdtggp

I like Ilford's Pan F Plus for keeping contrast in all-white, low contrast scenes.
It's moderate speed (ASA 50) should help to keep exposure times within reach of most cameras.
I assume you have an adequate means for light-metering.

Macros, shoot small things. Flowers, insects other creatures.

A slow film that is locally available?

You might consider a contrast-enhancing developer. Choice of subject can help; I didn't find low contrast to be a major problem in, say, the old Riyadh ruins, or at Mada'in Saleh.

Watch out for Mutawwi'un!

response to kind replies

Dear Responders,

I'm most grateful for the many replies and excellent suggestions and bits of good advice.

By way of response to questions about what it is that I try to shoot here, I will insert a link to my website (visits to which are lamentably few, so maybe they'll get a bit of a bump this way). Should you visit it, you will notice that with literally a couple of exceptions, the photos on the site are almost entirely free of people. This is due to the theme of the site --"amphemerinos" is Greek for the quotidian, the everyday, which in my understanding does not include people, as all people are unique and, by definition, not quotidian. Of course, I have taken countless photos of people, but, to repeat, feel the necessity to exclude them from the website for the aforementioned reason.

http://www.amphemerinos.com/

I speak of the site because one of its sections is devoted to Saudi Arabia. As Saudi Arabia does not permit tourism, and awards visas only on the basis of employment, the only non-Saudis who might come here are those who are on pilgrimage to Mecca (non-Muslims cannot enter the city of Mecca, let alone go to the Grand Mosque) or are in-country for purposes of work. Therefore, there are few people with direct, first-hand knowledge of the place. I've yet to meet a non-Saudi here in Saudi Arabia who does not consider the place to be extraordinarily bleak and absent anything remotely like "charm."

Similarly, most non-Saudis that I have met are incredulous that someone would attempt to do photography here, and not just because it is such a challenge to find anything worth photographing (although any dedicated photographer can always find plenty to shoot). However, I myself, in my five years here, have never seen anyone with a camera in his hand. In that respect, I seem to be quite alone, and understandably so: the salafist Wahhabi school of Islam that holds (iron) sway here holds photography in deep contempt, and Saudis themselves are unbelievably suspicious towards it, if not outright hostile. Street photography, which in my understanding of it means photos of busy urban areas and the people going about their business within them, can be undertaken only with an extreme care bordering on secrecy; I myself do not indulge in it for fear of the very likely deeply unpleasant consequences should I be discovered. Thus, I try to confine my shoots to areas where there are no people within sight, when such areas can be trusted to be devoid of people, and generally restrict myself to things that would be difficult to construe as of being of any sort of recognizable interest to anyone, even to a photographer: the numbers and kinds of structures, and areas as well, that are "forbidden" in terms of photography are as many and varied as they are unpredictable and counterintuitive. Nevertheless, despite my care to avoid controversy, no matter what I am shooting and no matter where I am, I am always without fail stopped by one or another manner of "security" personnel, sometimes detained for hours at a stretch, and sometimes am asked to write "confessions," even if I've photographer abandoned dumpsters in the middle of the desert forty miles from the nearest house. I am likewise always told I must "delete" my photos, which I eventually will do after a show of irritation by pressing some button or other on my Bronica --so little is photography known or understood here, that all cameras are by definition digital, and film an almost unheard-of bit of exotica.

I can't imagine that my photos would pass muster with the APUG crowd but as unpolished as I am, I keep trying.

The vast majority of my photos are back home, and I have almost no scans of them on my laptop. Unfortunately, all my B&W Saudi stuff is back home as well, so I can't post anything here to show you. But, I've a couple color shots on hand that I will attach. They aren't even favorites, but they'll do.

Thanks for all the replies; you folks are wonderfully helpful....

http://www.amphemerinos.com/[/URL]

Ur stuff not good enuf for APUG ? Silly person. Show us anything, it's all good.

Although the Sonoran Desert is much more lush than the Empty Quarter, what I have found is that although bright, the low deserts are low in contrast, so much reflected light I often shoot in Zone terms +1 or 2. Over the past 30 years I have shot in the desert I have used most films, I return to medium speed films, a dark yellow to orange filter, as already mentioned the golden hours of sunrise and sunset are good for me. I currently shoot Foma 200, develop in Extol or MCM 100. Ansell Adams did a fair amount of work in Arizona, New Mexico, and Death Valley, you might want to take a look at his work for examples. For color I use Kodak Porta 160, a polarizer, darkens the sky and whitens the sand.

Had it been me I would have taken some FP-4 and PanF. With that 25A filter you'll loose about 3 f-stops anyway but I guess I'm a day late and a dollar short on recommendations.