Tag: Fomapan 100

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

DeHaviland Dove

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The photograph presented here today, of a post-war DeHaviland Dove passenger aircraft, is one of the 4×5 frames I shot at Newark Air Museum last Friday.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have noted that this is not a 4×5 aspect ratio picture. This is because it was affected by the light-leak and the loose tripod column I moaned about the other day. The light leak has been largely recovered using graduated masks in Lightroom. It’s still there, but you’ll prbably only spot it if you look very closely (or know where it is). The composition has been, well, not rcovered, so much as salvaged by way of a significant crop. The full frame has the aircraft nose off-centre by a significant margin and one of the propellers fully in-shot. In the end I decided that this panoramic format was the best option.

It isn’t the picture I envisioned, but it’s better than no picture at all.

DeHaviland Dove

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°

Taken 7 April 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

St. Peter’s Church, Thorpe Salvin (including an exciting hidden pigeon challenge!)

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Another church, and another named after St. Peter just a couple of days after I posted a photo of its namesake at Elmton.

Quite a difference in architecture between the two buildings though.

When dust-spotting the scan I spotted a lone pigeon hiding in the scene. Can you spot it? You’ll probably need to click through to Flickr to see the full resolution version in order to find it though.

I’m now very much looking forward to the four days off work that the extended Easter weekend will bring. I’m hoping to do some more photography if the weather remains decent.

St. Peter's Church, Thorpe Salvin, UK

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 April 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Digital · Film photography · Photography

The School Room at Elmton

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I can’t say that I know very much about this building beyond that it was renovated in recent years for community use and that, in the past, it was almost certainly and actual school building.

It’s an attractive structure though.

Although this picture below was shot on 4×5 sheet film, I have a very similar picture that I shot on a Ricoh GR III back in the summer of 2021. While the large format film photo is sharper and has more detail, there’s not a lot in it considering the GR III is an APS-C crop-sensor camera. This should all be balanced out by the fact that my large format negatives are scanned at home using an Epson V700 flatbed scanner at 2400dpi. It produces scans that meet my needs admirably, but I doubt it really compares to something like a Nikon Coolscan or, at the top end of the scale something like a Flextight or a proper wet-mounted drum scan.

I don’t shoot film for it’s sharpness though. I like nice sharp images, and 4×5 certainly provides that over and above medium format, and certainly 135 format, but it’s really about the experience, how I feel when using and shooting film, and the pleasure I get when I see the results. So, while I like the pictures my GR III makes, and it’s a very convenient camera to carry, it’s not usually the one I reach for when I want to go and make photos.

School Room

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 April 2023.

And here’s the digital picture:

School Room
Ricoh GR III. August 2021.
4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Working with the limitations of a prime lens

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The picture today is of St. Peter’s church at Elmton. The church (including a similar photo on 35mm film) has featured on the blog before (here, here, here, and here).

On this occasion I had my 4×5 large format camera with me. I only have one lens for this camera at present – a Fujinon 135mm f/5.6. The lens is roughly equivalent to a 40mm focal length on a 35mm or full-frame digital camera. It’s a nice focal length and one I use a lot – many of my compact cameras have focal ranges that are similar, so the field of view it affords is one that I am used to, and I’m a regular proponent of the “zoom with your feet” school of thought.

Sometimes though, a fixed prime lens has it’s downsides – noteably when the ol’ zooming with your feet option doesn’t work. I’ve yet to find a way of zooming backwards through walls, or floating up and over unavoidable obstacles obstructing my field of view. I’d an idea of getting a picture of the church incorporating the low tower, either side on, or from the fron of the building but, alas, the 135mm wasn’t wide enough for this and the church is a little awkwardly positioned in terms of available longer vantagepoints.

And so the composition you see below was the best I could get on the day. I might have gotten something different from the other side of the church, but that would have meant most of the visible part of the building would have been in shadow. I think this composition still works though. You can just see the tower peeping up at the left of the structure, and the rear of the church has plenty of interest, including the weathered gravestones. The angle also means I got some nice contrast and relief shadows that I wouldn’t have had from a side-on view of the church.

St. Peter's Church, Elmton, UK

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 April 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Half a picture

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The weather yesterday was good for once. Paired with the fact that it was a Sunday and I wasn’t at work, I felt almost duty bound to make use of it and go out with a camera.

As I’ve not shot the 4×5 for a few weeks and I’m still in the “getting to know you” phase of figuring out how to use it while still trying to make interesting pictures, I got the kit together and headed out. It was late morning before I had chance to set off as my dad came over for his usual Sunday visit first thing so I decided to stay relatively local and headed out to a couple of villages and other places I’ve photographed previously, albeit not with large format.

I only shot four sheets, although, given how long it takes to shoot 4×5, I was still out for over two hours even though I shot two of the pictures walking distance apart, and the other two were at locations not that far away by car.

I had a chance to develop the photos this lunchtime (the benefits of working from home) and they all looked good apart from the picture featured today – which had a large light leak down the left third of the image. I’m not sure if one of my film holders is a bit tempremental and prone to light leaks, or if I’d not been sufficiently careful when removing or re-inserting the dark slide when taking the photograph.

Luckily for me, the image could be salvaged with a crop. The original frame has all the house in the composition, plus a garage and part of a tree down the left of the property. The crop removes that completely but still manages to leave a pretty nice picture. At least I think it does. The 4×5 format means there’s still an absolute ton of detail in the remaining part of the image too.

The wheelie-bin isn’t the most attractive thing, but cropping that out too unbalanced the picture a bit too much for my taste.

House by a railway

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 12 mins @ 20°

Taken 2 April 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Another Don crossing

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Just downstream from the bridge I shared a photo of yesterday (you can see it in the background of today’s shot) is a second bridge, this time an active railway bridge. Indeed, as I was setting up this photo a train was sat idling off the the right of fram and actually crossed when I was ready to take the picture. I waited until it had passed though as, even though it was moving slowly, the half-second shutter speed I was using would have rendered it blurry, and probably not in an aesthetically pleasant way.

I’ve been out making more photos today, although with the Bronica ETRSi rather than the large format kit. We’ve had a big dump of snow the last couple of days which eased off yesterday afternoon and then began to melt quite rapidly. However temperatures overnight fell below freezing so I decided to go out this morning – a lovely sunny start – and try and catch some wintry scenes while they remained. I managed to shoot the full roll of HP5+ I had loaded, and also one or two frames of expired Provia 100 that is loaded in a compact I was carrying in my coat pocket. It was a nice morning and I was pleased that it actually fell on a day where I could take advantage of it for once!

Thos shots will appear here in due course, although I expect the snow will have become memory by the time they do.

Carrying trains across the Don

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 4 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Where the Trans Pennine Trail crosses the Don

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Just downstream from Sprotbrough, the Trans Pennine Trail crosses the River Don on this former railway bridge.

While I wish I’d had better light, the riveted structure still manages to be an interesting subject, and the large format negative really captures the detail.

Trans-Pennine trail over the Don

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 4 March 2023.

4x5 Large Format · Film photography · Photography

Riverside house (again)

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This is another of those scenes that I’ve photographed on more than one occasion. The subject almost cries out to be photographed and the location features in the photographs of many others besides mine.

You can see an earlier picture here, when I walked the same path three years ago.

Some nicer light would have been good, but, hey – the UK…

Beside the Derwent

Chroma 4×5. Fujinon NW 135mm f/5.6 & Fomapan 100. Fomadon R09 1+50 9 mins @ 20°

Taken 3 March 2023.