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Saturday, January 3, 2009
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
र७२ गेट!
Now the world has gone to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infrared,
How I hate the night.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night।
-Marvin, Life the Universe and Everything, by Douglas Adams.
My Hoya R72 filter arrived in the mail today.
These are classified as deep red, as it's right near the edge of the visible spectrum - so obviously the first thing you do is try to peek through it. It's damn near solid black, but after your eyes adjust for a few moments you can see some very deep red highlights - most notably from foliage. This is an inkling of the infrared effect - foliage reflects quite a lot of infrared light. In contrast, there's very little infrared light in our lovely blue sky - so skies are rather black. Thus the lovely surreal effect.
Now SFX can be used as a normal 200ISO film too, without a filter attached. This is the difference between extended red and infrared film - SFX is sensitive to normal light too.
Now, so far as filters go I only have a Tiffen Yellow #2 and this shiny new R72. R72 gives the most defined Infrared effects with this film, and the Yellow filter gives a little. A red filter would give you something in the middle - I should probably grab one.
Remember! A set of Yellow, Red and Orange filters gives you a nice range of contrast changes over black and white, and some more creative control. Why don't I have a red and an orange? well I keep getting distracted.
Do as I say, not as my buying habits indicate.
So I'm going to try photographing some scenes under normal, IR72, and Yellow filter conditions.
Loading
Film like Kodak HIE requires complete darkness to load. This is because exposing the leader to light will cause it to pipe along the roll, ruining the first few frames or even the whole roll. The number of frames ruined is directly proportional to how paranoid you are.
Ilford SFX can be loaded is normal, subdued light.
Exposure
The exposure compensation for the R72 and similar Deep Red filters is 4 stops. So if you meter 1/250 seconds without the filter on, you'd open up to 1/15 - four stops more light. An Ideal setting is f/5.6 and 1/30 seconds for handheld shooting.
Ilford also states that meters may underexpose by up to 1.5 stops even with this compensation, so bracketing exposure is a good idea. Expose at the value with filter compensation, then one stop more light, then one stop less.
Focusing
If your lens is manual focus, check it - it may have a little red dot to the left or the right on the focus scale. This is because Infrared focuses slightly different to visible light, and after you focus the scene you should shift it so it lines up with the red dot instead of the black dot.
This description applies for my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 E Series, but things may be different on your lens. I assume all the major brand lenses that require IR focus compensation have this indication on the lens.
Modern technology seems to have rectified the IR focus issue, and it isn't required with Auto-Focus lenses. Or at least it isn't indicated on my EF mount lenses. We'll see when we try the film in my EOS 1.
Film Testing
The best idea is to do all your whacky testing on the first roll. Expose and compensate and take notes - you have 36 exposures to go nuts. This film is very speacialised, so it's a bit silly to waste it. Learn from your first roll so you can shoot the second with confidence. This is a good method for any film you wanna try - buy two rolls.
More Information
Check out the Ilford datasheet:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/download.asp?n=713&f=2007651134552223.पीडीऍफ़
They have them for all of their products, a great resource:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/default.asp
Conclusion
I'll get this developed soon and we'll see how it goes.
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infrared,
How I hate the night.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night।
-Marvin, Life the Universe and Everything, by Douglas Adams.
My Hoya R72 filter arrived in the mail today.
These are classified as deep red, as it's right near the edge of the visible spectrum - so obviously the first thing you do is try to peek through it. It's damn near solid black, but after your eyes adjust for a few moments you can see some very deep red highlights - most notably from foliage. This is an inkling of the infrared effect - foliage reflects quite a lot of infrared light. In contrast, there's very little infrared light in our lovely blue sky - so skies are rather black. Thus the lovely surreal effect.
Now SFX can be used as a normal 200ISO film too, without a filter attached. This is the difference between extended red and infrared film - SFX is sensitive to normal light too.
Now, so far as filters go I only have a Tiffen Yellow #2 and this shiny new R72. R72 gives the most defined Infrared effects with this film, and the Yellow filter gives a little. A red filter would give you something in the middle - I should probably grab one.
Remember! A set of Yellow, Red and Orange filters gives you a nice range of contrast changes over black and white, and some more creative control. Why don't I have a red and an orange? well I keep getting distracted.
Do as I say, not as my buying habits indicate.
So I'm going to try photographing some scenes under normal, IR72, and Yellow filter conditions.
Loading
Film like Kodak HIE requires complete darkness to load. This is because exposing the leader to light will cause it to pipe along the roll, ruining the first few frames or even the whole roll. The number of frames ruined is directly proportional to how paranoid you are.
Ilford SFX can be loaded is normal, subdued light.
Exposure
The exposure compensation for the R72 and similar Deep Red filters is 4 stops. So if you meter 1/250 seconds without the filter on, you'd open up to 1/15 - four stops more light. An Ideal setting is f/5.6 and 1/30 seconds for handheld shooting.
Ilford also states that meters may underexpose by up to 1.5 stops even with this compensation, so bracketing exposure is a good idea. Expose at the value with filter compensation, then one stop more light, then one stop less.
Focusing
If your lens is manual focus, check it - it may have a little red dot to the left or the right on the focus scale. This is because Infrared focuses slightly different to visible light, and after you focus the scene you should shift it so it lines up with the red dot instead of the black dot.
This description applies for my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 E Series, but things may be different on your lens. I assume all the major brand lenses that require IR focus compensation have this indication on the lens.
Modern technology seems to have rectified the IR focus issue, and it isn't required with Auto-Focus lenses. Or at least it isn't indicated on my EF mount lenses. We'll see when we try the film in my EOS 1.
Film Testing
The best idea is to do all your whacky testing on the first roll. Expose and compensate and take notes - you have 36 exposures to go nuts. This film is very speacialised, so it's a bit silly to waste it. Learn from your first roll so you can shoot the second with confidence. This is a good method for any film you wanna try - buy two rolls.
More Information
Check out the Ilford datasheet:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/download.asp?n=713&f=2007651134552223.पीडीऍफ़
They have them for all of their products, a great resource:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/default.asp
Conclusion
I'll get this developed soon and we'll see how it goes.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Carelessness
It occurred to me this morning I'd been going about this rather badly.
I had two rolls of film to develop, so I went down to my converted darkroom. Previously a cold room from a pub (I giant walk in fridge), it's light tight and insulated against the Australian summer. The sliding door has a habit of getting stuck when you don't open it at just the right speed (must see to that), but it's generally light-tight enough. After plugging up the holes in the roof (it rained - should have seen to that earlier), it's sealed and comfortable. We installed some ventilation and I've done some printing quite happily.
So I sat down at my desk, which I got at an auction for $1. It supports my new Beseler 4x5 enlarger (needs a 150mm lens), a 8" roll paper cutter (need to figure out how to work that), and an Ilfolab processor I picked up with the enlarger (needs some looking at). Generally, a nice collection of impressive machinery.
I grabbed the scissors I'd borrowed from the kitchen, popped the caps off the film and loaded them onto the reels and dropped them into the tank, and put the top on. Rolled over to my shelf of chemicals (old office chairs, very handy) and grabbed my bottle of Xtol. I was down to the last little bit in the 5ltr bottle, and it looked a little suspicious, so I hedged my bets and decided to mix up the box of ID-11 I had. I'll buy some more Xtol later.
I emptied out the Xtol and gave it a quick wash. Hmm, out of water. I walked out to the garden tap (no plumbing in the darkroom yet) and filled up my water container and lugged it back. Time to try to get it up to 40 degrees, according to the instructions.
Well, 20 minute later after some messing around with a stove kettle once again stolen from the kitchen, a basic water filter, and two old measuring jugs, I got it up to 33 degrees and decided I was happy enough. Dissolved part A, Dissolved Part B, added water to make 5-ish litres. Lost track when I was adding hot water from the kettle. I accepted it, and diluted it down 1+1 to develop that film from before.
I got the film developed, and hung it up to dry - fogged. My little steel developing tank had developed a crack I never paid much mind to before, but apparently sitting around for so long while I tried to mix up new developer was enough to fog it quite noticeably.
I've developed around 80 rolls with these tools, in the spare room, in the bathroom, or sitting outside on the step. They work, but they're prone to error and inexact. Doing it quick and dirty shouldn't be acceptable if you value your photos.
It doesn't pay to be careless. It's frustrating, inefficient and let's face it - really stupid. If you have a 4x5 enlarger and devoted darkroom but can't mix up your developer exactly, it's time to step back and look at what you're doing.
I've got a shopping list going, I'll get my own scissors tomorrow. On the plus side, some of the fogging seems rather complimentary - we'll see. My screw ups always turn out interesting, at least.
I had two rolls of film to develop, so I went down to my converted darkroom. Previously a cold room from a pub (I giant walk in fridge), it's light tight and insulated against the Australian summer. The sliding door has a habit of getting stuck when you don't open it at just the right speed (must see to that), but it's generally light-tight enough. After plugging up the holes in the roof (it rained - should have seen to that earlier), it's sealed and comfortable. We installed some ventilation and I've done some printing quite happily.
So I sat down at my desk, which I got at an auction for $1. It supports my new Beseler 4x5 enlarger (needs a 150mm lens), a 8" roll paper cutter (need to figure out how to work that), and an Ilfolab processor I picked up with the enlarger (needs some looking at). Generally, a nice collection of impressive machinery.
I grabbed the scissors I'd borrowed from the kitchen, popped the caps off the film and loaded them onto the reels and dropped them into the tank, and put the top on. Rolled over to my shelf of chemicals (old office chairs, very handy) and grabbed my bottle of Xtol. I was down to the last little bit in the 5ltr bottle, and it looked a little suspicious, so I hedged my bets and decided to mix up the box of ID-11 I had. I'll buy some more Xtol later.
I emptied out the Xtol and gave it a quick wash. Hmm, out of water. I walked out to the garden tap (no plumbing in the darkroom yet) and filled up my water container and lugged it back. Time to try to get it up to 40 degrees, according to the instructions.
Well, 20 minute later after some messing around with a stove kettle once again stolen from the kitchen, a basic water filter, and two old measuring jugs, I got it up to 33 degrees and decided I was happy enough. Dissolved part A, Dissolved Part B, added water to make 5-ish litres. Lost track when I was adding hot water from the kettle. I accepted it, and diluted it down 1+1 to develop that film from before.
I got the film developed, and hung it up to dry - fogged. My little steel developing tank had developed a crack I never paid much mind to before, but apparently sitting around for so long while I tried to mix up new developer was enough to fog it quite noticeably.
I've developed around 80 rolls with these tools, in the spare room, in the bathroom, or sitting outside on the step. They work, but they're prone to error and inexact. Doing it quick and dirty shouldn't be acceptable if you value your photos.
It doesn't pay to be careless. It's frustrating, inefficient and let's face it - really stupid. If you have a 4x5 enlarger and devoted darkroom but can't mix up your developer exactly, it's time to step back and look at what you're doing.
I've got a shopping list going, I'll get my own scissors tomorrow. On the plus side, some of the fogging seems rather complimentary - we'll see. My screw ups always turn out interesting, at least.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Infrared Experiments, Part 1
Today, we'll be trying Infra-red photography.
Well, not today, as I don't have my film yet. But we'll go over the basics today, and I'll continue when I do have the materials I've ordered.
In my case, I've ordered:
It has extended red sensitivity, so it can be used as a normal everyday film without the filter in place, rated at 200ISO. With a filter in place, it's extended red sensitivity allows a variety of Infrared effects to be taken advantage of.
It's infra-red sensitivity peaks at 720 nanometres, and extends to 740nm.
That's where our Hoya filter comes into play, the R72 filters out all light below 720nm, allowing for the most dramatic IR effects attainable with this film.
SFX200 can now be obtained from all the regular channels once again. It was discontinued when Ilford went into receivership in 2005 and was reformed under HARMAN imaging, but it's been put back into production as of 2007. If your local store insists that it's been discontinued, they are wrong. It does command a premium, but as a specialist product it's bound to.
The filter will be fitted to the 50mm f/1.8 Nikon lens on my FM2n, and we'll see what happens.
Well, not today, as I don't have my film yet. But we'll go over the basics today, and I'll continue when I do have the materials I've ordered.
In my case, I've ordered:
- 5x rolls of ILFORD SFX200
- Hoya R72 filter, 52mm
It has extended red sensitivity, so it can be used as a normal everyday film without the filter in place, rated at 200ISO. With a filter in place, it's extended red sensitivity allows a variety of Infrared effects to be taken advantage of.
It's infra-red sensitivity peaks at 720 nanometres, and extends to 740nm.
That's where our Hoya filter comes into play, the R72 filters out all light below 720nm, allowing for the most dramatic IR effects attainable with this film.
SFX200 can now be obtained from all the regular channels once again. It was discontinued when Ilford went into receivership in 2005 and was reformed under HARMAN imaging, but it's been put back into production as of 2007. If your local store insists that it's been discontinued, they are wrong. It does command a premium, but as a specialist product it's bound to.
The filter will be fitted to the 50mm f/1.8 Nikon lens on my FM2n, and we'll see what happens.
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