Monday, February 15, 2010

"A smile from a veil"

Neg: Ilford PanF plus 50, push 100 (9min DDX@70farenheit)
Exposure: 50mm f/4 @ 1/125th
At: 45 +-15 dodge
On: 8x10 RC grade 4
File: 13-28

Subtitle: "I puked." He did- just before this frame.

So I fogged this roll by using old fixer. D'oh! I compensated by lowering the contrast of the lower part of the exposure where Claire's hands are. I need to buy some new fix.

I used some cool film for the first time, and I really liked the results- despite my bad chemistry. I'm going to try some more rolls. Some claim this film is too contrasty for everyday use- and indeed it is very high contrast. For this application it was perfect, as photographing babies is meant to be a high contrast affair. The other cool thing about this film, if you don't know from the name, is that it's panchromatic; sensitive to the entire visible spectrum (and often a bit more). A lot of other films are panchromatic or close to it, but I think this is great film for the price. I think it's definitely got more tonal range than TMax.

Panchromatic is your vocabulary word for the week. Photographic emulsions are often described as either orthochromatic (blue-light sensitive printing papers) or panchromatic (sensitive to the entire rainbow). Quiz time: why would printing papers only be sensitive to part of the spectrum?