Search results for: 'lens each time'

An experiment in chemical possibilities When I took up a camera after a few years’ hiatus in 1990, I was surprised to discover that I could no longer get a black & white film developed through the nearest camera shop, never mind through the local pharmacy.  If memory serves, I was told it would cost $40 for a single film. Naturally, I returned to processing my own film just I had done when I first took up a camera in the early 1970s. The world had moved on, and colour film was the default medium f...

Heading West Last September my family and I headed west. It had been a few years since we’d visited the West Country, we had come to love it when our family was young, and now that they were grown we decided to return to see if it still has a special place in our hearts. While my teenagers packed their essentials - clothes and iPhones, and my other half packed enough books to keep a large reading group going, I set about doing the important task of packing my camera equipment. My focus was on which...

On April 15th in London, and many other locations around the world, a series of protests and demonstrations took place as an act of rebellion against systems of pollution and excess, which are causing rapid changes in the climate of our planet. I was aware that this rebellion would be taking place having attended a march a few days previous. I was excited to continue shooting in this environment and did not yet realise the scope of their action to unfold, or how rewarding it would end up being photographica...

Turning your negatives into positives Reversal processing enables black and white transparencies to be produced directly from high quality films such as PAN F Plus, FP4 Plus and DELTA 100 PROFESSIONAL How it works It starts with the development of the negative image. This leaves the unused silver halide untouched, but it is not fixed, as it will be used later to form the positive image. After the negative image has been developed, it is totally bleached away using an acid bleach. This leaves the remainin...

Below are some of the common errors that can occur when processing black and white films. Unfortunately some of these errors can result in the images being lost or partially ruined. By knowing what has caused the errors, you may hopefully prevent any repeat incidents. Film entirely blank - No visible images or edge signing A completely blank film with no images and no signing (i.e text in the perforation areas showing product and numbers) - indicates the film has received no development at all. Blank ...

In late 2019, we invited the global analogue film photography community to take part in our latest survey. This time we focused specifically on darkroom printing. The survey ran for 1 month and had an incredible 5,439 responses from 87 countries around the world.  A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to offer your insights and share the survey for us. Why darkroom printing? We have seen sustained and continuous growth in film for a number of years. However, darkroom printing has not yet cap...

A mix of Art and Science As I write this, the UK and many other parts of the world are currently in lockdown thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus. This pandemic has meant the unprecedented closure of schools and the daunting prospect of home schooling our children – in my case 10-year old twins. Now, I’m not sure about other parents but I’m almost at the point where I can no longer blag my way through their homework. Rather than own up to this humiliating fact, I suggested I get them involved in a l...

Selfish process? It can sometimes feel that many steps in my photography process are selfish. Some of these I can take as positive, for example the way I now truly photograph for myself and not to please others. (Aside from client based assignments), as was the case when I was locked into the social media game at the start of my photography experimentation. Other times however it can feel that I’m not doing enough to use my photography somehow to produce some visceral change in the world, despite my curr...

We asked  for all things #silvergelatin for this week's#ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites. We see so many inventive people out there making beautiful images both in and out of the darkroom and wanted to showcase some of them here. @Virgil_Roger Starting off early for this week's @ILFORDPhoto #ilfordphoto #fridayfavourites ! Theme is #silvergelatin so I thought I'd share my latest darkroom collage :)One-off piece, this is a photo of the matted print as I have no digital version whatsoever. #believeinprint r...

The future of photography The year 2020, it sounds very futuristic to me. So, what does that future look like for photographers? Well, no doubt technology will be getting more advanced than ever and we will see huge leaps in digital development this coming decade as the megapixel war continues. There will likely be be new initiatives and more collaborations with smartphone companies. Will the digital SLR camera start to disappear? Will mirrorless take over? Or will there be a new hybrid on the market...