Pinhole, Velvia 50, ferns and waterfalls...

There are numerous waterfalls around South Gippsland and I've seen images of one that I would like to see so we're off there today (or tomorrow if the rain continues) to test out some Velvia 50 in the roll film holder.

I also found a "wall" of tree ferns on Friday that I want to go back to.

I've not used Velvia before and with very fine grain and excellent saturation I'm looking forward to see some results with the pinhole camera. I will also take my field camera to see what things look like on the ground glass. I'm thinking that I will take one image with the pinhole and then a second with the field camera and compare.

I will also be trying some black & white shots so that I can process them at home. The results shouldn't be far away...

I also want to build a "biscuit tin" pinhole camera like this by the very talented Steph Tout and experiment with multiple exposure panoramas...

Framing with a pinhole camera...

One of the joys/frustrations of pinhole photography is that you are never 100% sure of what you will and won't get in the frame because a pinhole camera usually doesn't have a viewfinder at all. If it does have a viewfinder it will be a very basic framing guide that may, or may not be anywhere near accurate. With landscape images it's important to get a straight horizon, use a spirit level and make sure your tripod is steady. The following image was taken at Brighton marina in Melbourne (with Melbourne in the distance), Victoria in early 2010. From memory it was a 40 second exposure at 75mm focal length on Ilford FP4+ film. Scanned at full resolution the TIFF file is 352MB... Click on the images below for a larger view.

The image above is very slightly cropped from the original scan of a 5x4 negative. 5x4 is in inches in case you weren't sure. Each negative is 13 times larger than a 35mm negative and as the following images will show there is an awesome amount of detail in  a negative of this size. Click on the image and you will get a bigger view. Note that the image hasn't had the dust spots or marks cleaned up nor any adjustments made to the contrast/levels.

The image above has been cropped from the first image and cleaned of spots, dust and marks from the negative. It has also had the contrast and levels adjusted so that there is more detail visible in the clouds.

The image above is a different crop from the original with the same adjustments. This crop is a 6x17 ratio panorama and looks nice printed up large.

This is a 6x12 format crop from the centre of the image. Notice how at this size the film grain is visible and the details are very soft. I love the image like this as it looks very "dreamy" and has a certain old fashioned mood...

Next: What to photograph?

Alternative processes...

I have been doing some research and I've found something that has me just a little excited!

There has been a long history in photography of experimentation to find the chemicals that will react and produce either a negative or positive image. As a lot of these "alternative" processes require chemicals that include heavy metals they are probably not conducive to a long and healthy life if things go astray. But I've just found a recipe for a negative developer made from instant coffee and washing soda! 

The only problem it mentions is that it will quickly start to smell like old, burnt, wet  coffee dregs but I can cope with that.

I fully expected this blog to progress from pinhole to large format and then to alternative processes but not so soon.

If you want to start without me look here...