Moving to B&W

Hi all. I used to be into film in a big way. I'd shoot 4x5 Velvia (50, shot at 40) landscapes in Utah, bring them home and develop them using the Kodak E-6 kit, then print them on Fuji Type-35 using R-3 chemisitry. I loved doing that. Did it for years, concentrating on the San Rafael Swell of central Utah. So much fun. I've attached some of my old pictures.

It sort of ended when two things happened, one was my fault. The my fault part was buying an ATV. I loved riding the trailes, and soon wasn't carrying any photo gear but a digital point-and-shoot in my pocket. Kodak did the other: they dropped R-3000 kits and lowered the R-3 availability. So I bought a digital SLR and made due for a while.

Developing color reversal made me a great technician in the darkroom. The camera work was about art, but developing color was about rules. And I always hoped that I'd have time to do something more artistic in the darkroom.

As retirement nears, I'm starting to use B&W. Right now it's just some cheap Chinese film in a busted down Kiev 88 [btw I have the Tair-33 300mm telephoto lens for it...worth anything?]. I have a partial box of 4x5 TMax-100 in the LF bag, and I have an old box of Kodak B&W Paper (Polymax II RC) so I can't expect any good prints at first, but I'm new at B&W contrast control so couldn't expect any good results with new film and paper.

I'm glad APUG is still going. I wonder if my old login is still here? It's been fun reading the threads.

Bruce

So your examples are Velvia, 4x5, right? They look great! How did you digitize them?

Yeah, Velvia. I digitized then on a big flatbed scanner, HP with a 4x5 film light that goes over the transparency. It was not a good imager. Long gone now.

Beautiful color saturation. It's almost surreal. Well done.

I'm long a fan of controlling saturation in the camera. Here's an article I wrote about it: https://photos.kf7k.com/saturation.asp
And of course Velvia was helping!
That one with the river is overexposed by at least 2/3 of a stop and came out bleached, but I went with it because it helped make the image feel a little more abandoned and old than my original idea while shooting it. A half grad would have fixed it. I've never printed that slide. I'd hold back the sky some if I did.

Gigabitfilm 25 in 4" × 5", Anniversary Folmer Graflex, Euryplan 127 mm, diaphragm opening unknown, exposure time half a second, original developer from the Gigabitfilm company, enlargement on paper 24 cm × 30 cm, cheapo household scan, digital enhancement



Black and white is waiting for you.

Welcome aboard @bewilson !

bewilson said:

I wonder if my old login is still here?

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Probably; I'll send you a pm so we can explore and see if we can get you back into your old account.

bewilson said:

an old box of Kodak B&W Paper (Polymax II RC)

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That's probably not going to work, not even (especially not) for learning to print. I'd recommend getting a box of fresh RC paper. RC paper generally ages badly; it's rare for old RC paper to still perform even somewhat acceptably. Usually there's fog right up until the midtones.

Beautiful slides!

@koraks is right about that paper. It's exactly the wrong thing to learn from, because it almost certainly will not respond properly to contrast filters. It may respond to lith development - but that's a different kind of activity. You can get 25 sheets of Multitone 8x10 from B&H for $22. It's not the best paper in the world but it's a good start. You'll find the rules of b&w enlarging are not anywhere near as strict as any colour process. But one thing is almost a law: Kodak and Agfa RC papers are unusable for conventional enlarging.

Welcome back/. Velvia 50 is my favorite film. Unfortunately, Fuji has discontinued it in large forrmat sheet. I;ve got 2-3 boxes saved in my freezer. It;s even hard to find in 120.

My Velvia 50 in 120 and 4x5.

Thanks for your comments, folks. I'm looking forward to B&W.

I pulled out most of my LF gear last week and found that I had loaded my film holders 15 years ago with Velvia. So the first step for B&W was removing all that unexposed film. Unfortunatly my stuff was not stored in a freezer, so I have little hope the film will every be exposed. I have about half a big box of Velvia, 1.5 boxes of Provia 100F, some E100VS, a box of TMax 100, all expired in the early 2000s. I may play with it, but I'm generally convinced I won't learn from it. Lots of old paper, too. Lots of Type-35, some Kodak color reversal of some form, many boxes of old Polymax II (some was my Dad's dating back to the 1970s), all of it will have to go. Sad. Oh well. Wait, some I'll save to play with the grandkids. Let them make sillouettes on the paper, then develop it with them. Yeah, that's a good end.

We have a film shop in the town here, FINDlabs, who can get me all the new stock I need. That's a blessing.

The box of TMAX100 may still be quite good. If there's one film that ages well, it's that one.
The slide film will likely have color shifted, but you could either have fun with it yourself, or there will certainly be (very willing) takers if you decide to offer them up for sale.

For what it's worth, Fuji slide film cross-processed enlarges on b&w paper amazingly. No orange mask. Don't need to worry about colour shifting. The film is probably fine in terms of speed, still. (I mean the film cross-processed in C41 developer.)

The TMax will be good as new, most likely.

Don_ih said:

For what it's worth, Fuji slide film cross-processed enlarges on b&w paper amazingly. No orange mask. Don't need to worry about colour shifting. The film is probably fine in terms of speed, still. (I mean the film cross-processed in C41 developer.)

The TMax will be good as new, most likely.

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Boy, that's good news to me. I presume that means I print the color negative on a single-layer paper (single-grade)?

bewilson said:

Boy, that's good news to me. I presume that means I print the color negative on a single-layer paper (single-grade)?

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If there is no orange mask, multigrade will work as well, and is far easier to access.

The Fuji film I cross processed in C41 enlarged like a regular b&w negative - but very grainless (not completely, of course, but what you'd expect from colour film). And, yes, @MattKing is right - normal contrast filters are usable. Cross-processed slide film tends to be naturally higher contrast.

That's kinda exiting to hear. I'm looking forward to that.

Don_ih said:

film cross-processed in C41 developer.

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Is this with normal C41 processing?

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:

Is this with normal C41 processing?

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I tried that for a friend. The images came out pretty much bullet-proof compared to regular negatives. Slide film is made to produce enormous density. Exposure and development may need to be adjusted for this if the intent is to print the images in the darkroom.

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:

Is this with normal C41 processing?

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I did it with a C41 home kit (Unicolor). You do end up with dense negatives. The Fuji slide film seems to end up less dense than the Kodak, though. But that's just a personal observation based on a limited number of rolls.

Great to know about this cross-processing possibility and what to expect from it. Thanks @koraks and @Don_ih.

Yup, your paper will be buggered (if stored in freezer, maybe ok?), but the TMX should be fine. I've got a box expired in 2000 (I bought it fresh in '98), and it still works fine...and it was sitting in a cupboard! Best to pick up a box of something like Ilford MG RC to practice on. You'll find that not only film, but paper prices have skyrocketed.

Welcome to Photrio!

I have had no problems refrigerating or freezing paper.