Tag: Kodak Portra 400

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Sheffield cholera monument

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Despite having lived in the city for five decades, I’d never visited the cholera monument in Sheffield until the day I made these pictures. I’ve seen the monument on many occasions, it sits on an elevated piece of land next to a small wooded area named Clay Woods just a few minutes walk from Midland Station, and is visble from many parts of the city, and on this day I decided I’d finally take a closer look.

The monument was erected in 1835 to memorialize those who lost their lives in the cholera epidemic that struck the city three years previously. Over four hundred people lost their lives and the majority of them were buried in nearby grounds.

The memorial was partly destroyed by a hurricane(!) in 1839, and has been struck by lightning on a number of occasions, including having it’s top section removed completely following a strike in 1990, and was only completely restored in 2006.

Cholera monument
Cholera monument (closer)

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Canal boat with a new lens

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I bought myself a new (used) lens for my Bronica ETRSi in July – the Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC. While I had 75mm and 50mm lenses for the camera, I was missing something that gives a bit more reach. The 150mm is around a 90mm full-frame equivalent I think, so a short telephoto and probably decent for portraits (should I ever make any!).

I was slightly wary about the MC designation, which places it as an earlier model, the same as my 50mm f/2.8. The 50mm is decent, but doesn’t feel as sharp as my 75mm, and I wondered if the 150mm would be similar. However, online reviews suggested this was no the case, and the few pictures I’ve made with it certainly look sharp enough. I got quite a good deal on the lens which, although the aperture ring is a little stiff, is otherwise in really nice condition.

The picture today was one of the first I shot with the lens (I had hoped it would have arrived in time for my trip to Ingoldmells and Skegness, but it came on the same day while I was out).

Red and blue on the canal

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 150mm f/3.5 MC, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 6 August 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

A bit more Skeggy

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A couple of extra Skegness photos, seperated from the rest mostly because they’re from another roll of film that I started that day. They’re amongst my favourites from the day though. And there’s a dinosaur in one of them. 🙂

Skegness lifeguards
Boating lake

Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, and Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 28 July 2023.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Construction time

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This area has been massively developed in the last decade or so. It sits just to the west of the site of the old Orgreave coking plant – famous for the “Battle of Orgreave” which took place between striking mineworkers and the police back in the early 80s. Pretty much all signs of the previous industry have now disappeared, replaced by a large housing development and a modern industrial park, but construction still continues in the area, with further homes and also new business units being built.

I’m not sure what the structure in today’s photograph will be when completed, although it has the feel of a small hotel, perhaps to accomodate visitors to all the new businesses in the area. Whatever it will be, I felt there was a picture to be made.

Construction

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 15 October 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Clouds, buildings, and grass

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Despite the rain that soon arrived, I think I fell pretty lucky with the weather and light on the morning I took the photos I’ve been publishing the past few days. The incoming cloud added a lot of interest to the skies and, because the sun was in another part of the sky, everything was lit beautifully meaning blocky industrial structures like this training college were transformed.

AMRC

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 15 October 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Autumn road

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Just a few metres from the picture in yesterday’s post but facing the opposite direction, the morning sun was beginning to be snuffed out by cloud-cover when I took this photo. The trees are not glowing as much as they had been when I’d driven past on mornings with clearer skies. Nontheless, there’s still a hint of autumn in the leaves and I like the damp road and it’s slightly reflective surface. And it has a pylon. 🙂

Autumn road

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 15 October 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Office space rainbow

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On the morning I took this, I’d hoped for clear skies and an autumnal golden-hour, but this was somewhat scuppered by a fast approaching band of rain. But because the wet weather was approaching from the west, it made for an attractive rainbow, and the front of this otherwise mundane office building was thus transformed.

Office space rainbow

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 15 October 2022.

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Golden hour industry

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I took a series of pictures around some out-of-town industrial estates a few weeks ago. On the day I took this I arrived around sunrise with a mostly clear sky, but with heavy rainclouds fast approaching. This made for some pretty nicely lit scenes, many featuring a rainbow. You can just see a hint of a rainbow in this picture above and to the right of the Nikken sign. I like the splashes of red in this image, as well as the trees showing a hint of autumn tones.

Nikken

Fujica GW690 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 15 October 2022.

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Silver birch re-scan

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The photo in today’s post is a few years old – it was taken on a cold, but bright, February day back in 2018 on the edge of the moorland near Surprise View in the Peak District national park. I don’t think I’ve published this picture online anywhere before now.

I re-scanned it, and the rest of the photos on the roll, yesterday, using Vuescan to make a linear RAW DNG file and then Negative Lab Pro for the conversion in Lightroom.

Now I understand how to use NLP properly (or at least much better – there are still a bunch of controls and sliders that I stay away from!), I’m very pleased with the ease of getting colours that I’m happy with almost straight out of the box. I still tweak things a little, first using NLPs controls, and then maybe some minor tweaks in Lightroom itself (usually adding a little clarity and sharpness), but there has been none of the annoying mental gymnastics where I can’t decide if the colours are “off” in some hard to define way.

Obviously, colours are subjective, whether it be someone sat at home trying to get what they think Portra or whatever film stock they’ve used to look “right”, or a technician in a photo-lab making adjustments in the Noritsu software (or whatever it is they use) on the behalf of the photographer. So far, Negative Lab Pro has given me colours that feel correct with very little faff on my part, and for this I am thankful. I love black and white photography, but this new found ability to get results I’m happy with from C41 film is making me want to shoot more of the stuff (and re-scan some of the photos where I had less than satisfactory results in the past). It’s just a shame I need to sell a kidney to afford colour film these days!

Silver birch and quarry scree

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Portra 400. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 7 February 2018