Some photos from Bessa & my 1st true B&W film

[Spyderman]

Hi,

after using color-negs for a long time, I wanted to try something different and I chose Fomapan 400. I rated it at ISO 400 and had it developed by a local guy who does developing so I don't know what he used - but I guess something cheap like Fomadon or similar.

Even though it came out slightly underexposed (some people suggest rating Fomapan 400 as 250) I was very surprised by the dynamic range. I scanned it at color positive setting and 48bit color depth. Then inverted it and adjusted black and white points in levels. Nothing more was needed...

I still have the second roll in the camera, but results from the first roll can be seen in my blog (click) or in my flickr photostream (click).

Thanks in advance for comments. 😉

 

[robin a]

Hi Ondrej,nice stuff.Gotta love the Skopar 35 2.5.........Robin

 

[Spyderman]

Yes. The Skopar is a great lens. Now that I know what it's capable of, I won't be afraid to use it wide open 😉

Especially this shot:



shows how resistant to flare it is.

 

[mike goldberg]

Hi Ondrej,
The Beblaveho cobblestone street shot is great.

And, I had a look at the other B/W's in your blog.
Is it my imagination, or do they need a bit of 'snap' or contrast?

I'm not familiar with the 400 film you used.
There are also the elements of flat lighting, film development+scanning.
It would be interesting to see how this film would look, if exposed
at 250... Also, at 400, how would it look with 10-20% more
development time.

In any event, good going. By the way, I really like the shot of
your grandfather.
Ciao, mike

 

[Spyderman]

You may be right that I need to fine-tune my workflow...

I scan the images at B&W positive setting with 48bit depth, then adjust black and white point to ends of histogram "mountain" 😉 and invert it to get positive image. this way I get all information from the film, but sometimes the contrast isn't exactly what I would like... but I'm not very good at curves, so I mostly just play with gamma correction.

Next time it'll be better 🙂 I promise :angel:

PS: And here's the portrait of my grandfather for those who don't want to look for it in my flickr photostream...

Bessa R + Jupiter-8 50mm f/2 @ f/2.5


And HERE (click) is a big version (1000px wide) - which very well shows how sharp the Jupiter-8 can be. It was taken at f/2.5 !

 

[mike goldberg]

Hi Ondrej,
Yes, the J8 shot of your grandfather is great!
He looks like he has LIVED life... and has something to tell you.
Can you see the print or scan/edit of him just a bit darker, so
there's more detail in his face?

I love B & W; yet, I'll have to try the Kodak 400, C41 process.
Too many battles with the local labs.
Cheers, mike