Joe’s

February 16, 2020 fishyfisharcade4 Comments

I’m jumping back in time a little today with a photo from 2017. The main reason being that I decided yesterday to re-scan this roll of negs. My original scans were performed on my Epson V550 flatbed using the Epson Scan software, which is what I used to use for all my scans, but is now only really used for black and white medium format stuff.

All my B&W 35mm negatives are now scanned with my Plustek scanner, which gives far superior results, while I send all my colour films off to a pro lab for dev and scan (mostly because I know the colours will look how I would expect them to). I still scan medium format slides on the V550 though – mostly because it will cost me an arm and a leg to get lab scans (the place that processes and scans my C41 film for a very reasonable price don’t process E6 unfortunately). The Epson doesn’t fare too badly with medium format scans, although that’s only really down to the fact that the larger image size means that any loss in scanning quality is less easy to spot on screen – comparing like-with-like with a 35mm scan shows the quality is exactly the same.

So, while all my C41 film has been lab scanned over the past year, I still have a lot of stuff that has only ever been scanned on the Epson (both colour AND B&W), so every now and then I’ll re-scan those rolls on the Plustek to get better results. Today’s photo is from one such roll – shot during a trip to Camden in London that my wife and I took a couple of years ago. While I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the Portra 160 colours that the Plustek and Silverfast have given me, they’re a whole heap better than the slightly muddy, greenish cast scans that I had from my Epson Scan attempts. The resloution is light-years ahead too, with details now much more finely resolved than before.

Today’s photo is one that has really benefited from the re-scan I think.

Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Kodak Portra 160.

Taken on 9 September 2017

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Waiting for a train

October 9, 2019October 10, 2019 fishyfisharcadeLeave a comment

I’ve been in London all day today, so don’t have much time (nor inclination) to write much, so I’ll keep it snappy. Pun intended. 🙂

Here are a couple of people sat waiting for a train. One of them has brought some knitting to keep themselves occupied.

Pentax Espio 140m & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 7 September 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Sunday morning

February 9, 2019February 9, 2019 fishyfisharcade3 Comments

This is one of those shots that might not be any good, but which I like for some undefined reason. I don’t know if it’s something in the arrangement of the goalposts, or perhaps the small football-playing figures, or just some random alignment of things that just switches something on in my brain. I have similar feelings about this shot that I took ona digital camera a few years back. No-one else really seems to say much about them, so I guess it’s just me.

It’s a conversion to black and white (although the colour version had its own charm too).

Pentax P30T, Rikenon 50mm f/2 & Kodak Colorplus.

Taken on 9 December 2018

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Splashes of colour and light

February 8, 2019February 8, 2019 fishyfisharcade1 Comment

As those of you who visit my blog will no doubt realise, I have a preference for black and white photography over colour, with most of my shots on here being the former. That’s not to say that I don’t like colour photographs though. It’s just that I don’t seem to be (in my own opinion anyway) as good at taking them as B&W shots (and, for all I know, I might not be very good at B&W either! 🙂 ).

I do shoot colour at times though (especially digitally, where I’m trying to get better at landscape stuff) , and will continue to do so, not least because I have over 40 rolls of 35mm colour film sat in the freezer. When it comes to colour I tend to favour abstracts and small vignettes of larger scenes (although I’ll do the snapshots and chocolate-box scenes too if they present themselves). I have a book by Dutch photographer Keld Helmer-Petersen (122 Colour Photographs) which is full of pictures in a style that I tend to favour. The photographs in the book date to the 40s and 50s. The book is only available as a facsimile edition at present (unless you can lay your hands on an original copy), but it’s full of lovely images. A Google search gives a good idea of the sort of thing I mean.

Anyway, here are a small selection of shots taken on a walk back in December. I definitely think that sunny days work in the favour of these sort of photographs.