Tag Archives: Xtol

Sep 9 2018

Another Film Dynamic Range Adjustment Post!


A Quick Dynamic Range Followup and Example

Hurricane Florence is coming… Spent all day today starting to get ready. But yesterday I stopped by the causeway bridge to Litchfield beach and shot 1 roll of FP4+ film on my Fuji GA645zi changing between the red R24 and R25 filter. I was looking to the North from the bridge. It is a very beautiful spot and scene.
This is one of my go to spots when I am looking for inspiration and it did not fail to deliver for me. I was heading home but decided to stop at the studio and put the film into the processor, wait the 20 min then hang it in the dryer overnight.
 

But…

When standing there looking at the clouds I realized that the whites were going to be blown so I subtracted 30 seconds from the development time to compress them down towards Zone 8 so that I could capture the entire dynamic range, then in scanning moved them back up a bit to place them closer to my memory of them and bring the blacks up a bit! I love the effect the deep red filter gives to the blue sky.

How did I do this you ask?  I am glad you asked!

With a hand held spot meter I measure the brightest white I desire texture in, then measured the darkest black for texture.  Pushed the average button on the meter and got the zone 5 reading along with a chart showing max and min.  This tells me that the whites will be blown out on the negative.  SO I adjusted my exposure to give texture (Zone 3) in the blacks I wanted and let the whites fall where they will.   In the processing knowing how far over exposed the whites are I can now adjust the developing time (-1N in this case) to compress the whites down to zone 8 (-30 seconds).  Easy!
In the scanning software (VueScan) you have the opportunity in the extended menus to again shift the black and white points up or down.  I simply adjusted both to expand the dynamic range back out to the range of the Gicle’e (RIP) printing system I use in my studio yet keep the whites from being blown out!
  1. Measure the range of the scene and determine if the film can capture it all
  2. Expose to move the blacks with texture to zone 3.
  3. Pick a -N developing time according to where the whites fell in the negative (1 stop for this one)
  4. Scan to keep the textured blacks at zone 3 and move the compressed whites back up where they belong in VueScan)

 

The Results:

 

The Causeway going to Litchfield Beach, SC

It was a pleasant and very satisfying endeavor and made me very happy today when I scanned this image on my way home from preparations.
 
Data: GW645zi – 55mm – Roll 95 – Fr 8 – Red 25 +3 Filter – f8 – 1_60 – FP4+ – Xtol Stock -30s – Wet Scan – T CI 50 – Litchfield Marsh- 2018-09-09
I know, this was a really short post, but I was really pleased with the image results and the entire process was one of those “By the seat of the pants” type of evolution.  I wanted to share again, now simple the process is for adjusting the range on film in development and scanning.  There will be yet another one of these in the future but it will be VERY detailed and perhaps even with a video!

As always please let me know what you think!

Aug 26 2018

Willy and the Pelican


A Lesson On Life!

 

WIlly and the Pelican.. Southport, NC

 
I discovered Willy (his first name is Wet) at Fishy Fishy on the marsh front in Southport while Jamie Konarski Davidson and I were there last weekend and kindly asked the pelican flying overhead to land on Willy. He said that Willy was to small and his landing there would make Willy rock and ruin my shot so he landed on the larger boat then struck a pose for me. A really considerate bird that Pelican was! The scene was busy yet pleasing to me so I sat and talked to the Pelican (they are so chatty) for a bit while I shot the roll of film!
 
When I was done and started to leave the pelican squawked in his deep male pelican dialect “ what about compensation for pulling this scene together for you?” So i asked the fish monger behind me for a pelican sized payment and gave it to my birdie friend who promptly grabbed it and flew away without a word! I lowered my head in disappointment knowing that I should not have been hurt as all of the creatures live and die in the entitlement mentality! Oh well…

So… Here is Willy and the Pelican!

Willy and the Pelican

This was done with my Mamiya 645AFDii and a 45mm lens using FP4+ film processed in Xtol stock in my Filmomat processor,  then wet mount scanned. Full data is below:
 
BTW, WIlly says he is looking forward to seeing all of you who are coming to the workshop there at the end of September!
 
645 AFD2 – 45mm – Roll 93 Fr 7 – 1_60 f11 – Orange Filter – Willy and the Pelican- FP4 125 – Xtol Stock – Filmomat – D-CI 55- – Scan Exp Lock – Wet Mount – 2018-08-25
Feb 4 2018

The Amazing (and affordable) Dayi 6×12 Medium Format System!


BIGGER is BETTER!

 

This is the Causeway to the Litchfield Inn in Pawleys Island.
100TMX processed in Xtol 1:1. Yellow filter, f/22 at 1 second metered on the white roof on the distant boat house where the water seems to end an placing that in zone 7 to 4 seconds then to 6 seconds for reciprocity..

 

Well… Yes, I have a NEW medium format camera system! Not new used, but NEW NEW!

It is the Dayi 6×12 and is custom made in China for each order.  It is very affordable, the camera, lens cone (adjusted for you lens ahead of time) film back, focus screen and shade, viewfinder and a Arco swiss mounting foot!  All in all this ran me around $1000 and took 2 months from payment to delivery.  There are several companies selling them but I chose ecbuyonline2008 on Ebay, contacted them and then dealt directly with them for a nice discount. They provided a direct email at ecbuyonline@foxmail.com.

Dayi 6×12 showing the ground glass and shade and my custom dark cloth attatched.

Ok, the camera itself is very well balanced and easy to use.  As with most types of cameras of this design it uses a lens cone cut specifically for the focal length of the lens used.  If you use a different length lens as a 2nd then you will need another cone designed for it as well.

Dayi 6×12 showing the film back and ground glass

The focus is controlled by a CALIBRATED helical mount that gives very fine control of the focus.  Because it is calibrated, you can just dial in the distance and forget the ground glass.  Me?  Not so much.  My eyes are not calibrated very good.  Now, a cheap laser rangefinder would be just the thing.  Fire it, dial in the distance and shoot!  I use the ground glass as my focus operation.  I have a custom made dark cloth that fits the glass frame and works very well.  I have a nice 8x loupe that I use to make up for my old eyes!

 

There are calibration screws around the outside edge of the lens cone and you can see the small hole for one at the end of the video above.  These allow you to set the infinity point and place the lens in the correct position.  You can find a tutorial HERE for this process.

Lenses that will work on this camera can be found HERE.

The camera is a bit heavy and not suited to handheld work, but it can be done.  It is a VERY well designed and built camera system and has ZERO light leaks.

When the camera first arrived, the film holder was scratching the surface of the film emulsion.

Here is the issue, a spring next to a roller that is too high in the film plane with rough edges! It is the bright silver line under the roller.  See how it is bent up in the center?  It actually touched the film.

The complete assembly

I took it apart and realized that a spring was adjusted too high on the film holder back and touching the film.  It was a simple adjustment to fix this but I still sent an email about it and a few days later this video arrived showing how they said to fix the issue which is exactly what I had found!

This goes to prove that they are responsive to customer complaints, problems or suggestions!  That is a big plus in my book!

The system is simply a joy to use.  It is bright in the corners (of course that is lens dependent) and the focus is spot on!  I have put about 10 rolls of film thru it so far including some Ektar 100 (which I have not processed yet but have the chemistry). Now that the scratching issue is fixed I see a great future for the camera in my kit.

The folks at the company in Hong Kong are easy to work with and very responsive  over email.   I highly recommend them.  They have MANY other cameras for sale also including a larger 6×17 version of this one.

Stormy Seas, Dayi 6×12, not the best composition but a good example of the quality from the camera!

 

I hope you enjoyed this short post on the new pano camera system.  There will be more following!