I’ve been watching the launch of Harman Phoenix with a bit of trepidation. I’m really happy they are working on this and that it’s a long term project, and look forward to following how the different iterations progress. However…… I spent an hour or more looking through some of the YouTube films earlier and despaired a bit. Couldn’t bring myself to watch a whole video! I do find that many of them seem to blend into one. Lots of jump cuts, and why do so many use the same sort of scratchy, sub trip hop soundtrack while editing in some slow motion clips of them trying to look cool holding their camera of choice? And the quality of the photos?
Mmmmmmmm. I fear I’m sounding like a grumpy old git, but what I do wonder about many, (but not all), of the crop of YouTubers, is the mantra that the lab scan is the finished item. In one of the videos I watched, which had some pretty soft looking yellow / brown scans, they commented that the images were soft and yellow, but as that’s how the scans are, that is what Harman Phoenix looks like! (I'm paraphrasing.) As we know, scanning, like printing is an absolutely subjective process, so if the film is being judged purely by a scan, it’s going to look different with every lab. What on earth is wrong with post production work in Photoshop or other programmes to refine the image, to make it more expressive, in the way that printing in the darkroom is going to bring out the best from a negative in a print? At least in Ribsy’s video, (one of the better ones), he did do some hand colour printing and his results on Instagram look promising though pretty strong and bold.
I’m curious about Harman’s marketing approach. It’s all linked to the younger analogue community, which is absolutely understandable and fitting and I’m not criticising that, but there seems to be no interest in getting the best out of the film. As part of the community of UK specialist printers, I used to do a lot of testing for Ilford / Harman on papers and occasionally chemistry over the years. Sometimes there were exhibitions for which we would give our clients Ilford film to shoot, which we would then print for the shows, often then used for Ilford calendars and wall planners. I know great professional colour printers still working in the darkroom and would be good to see what they could get out of this film. Likewise, for producing high res scans on an Imacon or drum scanner and then working on Photoshop which would seem another option. I recently had a job scanning 120 Boots colour neg form the 80s, (Boots being a UK chain of chemists), which had a really strange base tint unlike normal C41, but with a bit of work on the scan got a really good result.
I really am sounding like an old git!
With these thoughts, I was delighted to find this video from The Find Lab in the US.
I didn’t know of them, but seem a great team and have done a really good series of tests on the film by members of staff, including ones who are are professional scanners, so they’re really looking at it from a more holistic sense from shooting to processing to scan. The quality of the photos and the files are definitely some of the best I’ve seen so far. Will check out more of their videos. Pleased to see that Sissi Lu and Kyle McDougall are also releasing videos soon. I do enjoy their YouTubes, as they are not so full of themselves, are more contemplative and engaging and produce some really good work!! Makes sense they are not rushing their reviews out. Actually Kyle’s posted some interesting results on Instagram, and there are several comments that the dull English weather suits the film far better!!
Last thoughts on what is turning into an accidental essay. One of my main personal projects is shot on Delta 3200 and lith printed on discontinued Seagull Oriental, so has high grain and contrast, muted tones, limited tonal range and halation.
Nocturnes All characteristics of Harman Phoenix. Maybe I should then be trying this film after all!
Perhaps it will be the colour equivalent of lith printing? As said, am very pleased Harman have produced this, and while not for me just now, really look forward to what comes in the future.
Lastly, really good interview with Matt and Michelle form Harman / Ilford on the latest Sunny 16 Podcast which puts the project into context with future plans.