Scanning Film On A Budget

 Last week I described my experience of learning to develop colour film and the ease at which I found the process to be. However, developing film at home is only half of the process. It's the wet part of the process and, for those of us without access to a dark room, the wet process ends with our film hanging up in the bathroom to dry. The dry end of processing our film begins when we scan our film into our computers.

There are several ways we can scan our film. You can ask your local friendly lab to scan it for you, use a flat bed scaner such as the Epson V800 with software and there's DSLR repro photography, commonly called "DSLR Scanning". All will produce high quality digital files. Or you can do it the way I did with a cheap Ion Slides2PC 35mm film and slides scanner I bought from a local electronics retailer in a half price sale a few years ago.

The Ion Slides2PC 35mm slide and roll film scanner is basically a phone camera in a box with a slot for a film mask that slips into the housing over a small led light box at the bottom. There's nothing fancy about it other than the electronics insde it that operates the camera and links to a basic user interface you download onto your computer. It's incredibly easy to use and has some basic adjustments to brightness and colour. I don't tend to make too many adjustments as the default image it produces is pretty good.

Once I am happy I press the button on the top and it takes a 5mp jpeg photo. The software can interpolate that to 10mp, but I don't do that. 5mp is enough for posting to social media and the interpolation process adds unwanted noise to the image. I then save the scans, 12 at a time, to the folder I created for the film. Easy peasy!

The next step is opening the jpegs in Affinity Photo to begin the editing process. As I said, the default colour profile my scanner has is pretty good, but I do like to use the auto levels, contrast, colour and white balance in Affinity Photo to tweak my images. I have lab scanned files of Kodak ColorPlus and Gold to refer to and it seems to match up pretty well. Mostly the auto levels will fix exposure and the rest is fine.

Then I set to work removing the blemishes and scratches that home developed film inevitably has. No matter how clean we are there's always dust and/or water spots or a scratch from handling the film. Some folk prefer to leave the spots and scratches alone to have that authentic film look, but not me. I like to tidy my shots up to present them as best as I can. Once I am happy with the image I save it and also save the affinity file in case I want to edit the image a little differently in the future.

That's my workflow with the gear I have available to me. It's an inexpensive way into home scanning for folks who may not have a DSLR or a flat bed scanner. It's even cheaper if you use any of the free photo editors that are available. I bought the Ion Slides2PC scanner before I bought my Nikon D90 in 2017 and even then it was cheaper than a macro lens. One day I will move to DSLR scanning, but this method has served me well and if it aint broke, why fix it?

Nothing will ever beat a high quality lab scan on a Fuji Frontier or a Noritsu scanner. Those machines are built to high standards and produce superb high definition film scans. You can even go crazy and have a lab drum scan your film, medium and large format users will tell you how great a drum scan is. For the budding home developer who doesn't have a lot of disosable income the system I have outlined here is a good a place to start as you learn to develop and scan film.

I can do DSLR scans using my Nikon D90 or D700, my 50mm f/1.8 and an extension tube over a Pixl-Latr and an A5 light pad, but for speed I will always reach for my Ion Slides2PC scanner. I can get a higher quality image with the DSLR method if I want to print it, but for a long time I didn't have that option open to me. Photography doesn't have to be expensive, sometimes cheap and cheerful is all you need.

Next week I will be talking about my Frugal Film Project roll of Kodak ColorPlus that I developed and scanned at home. Until then here's a few shots from a roll of Kodak Gold I shot recently. I had fun going through the process of shooting, developing and scanning it and I have placed the images in an album on Flickr for you to see in full resolution. I hope you enjoy them.

Flickr Kodak Gold Olympus OM-2

 

 

Learning A New Skill - Colour Film Developing

 In last weeks blog I mentioned that I learned a new skill, it's a skill I have wanted to try for a while but never had the nerve. Until now. Back in January 2020 I took a leap of faith and began my B&W odyssey and since then I have been building my knowledge and confidence with B&W film and developing it at home. Emboldened with that confidence, at the start of 2021 I set myself a goal I thought I could achieve this year of learning to develop colour film.

That goal was tied into my involvement with the Frugal Film Project 2021, a year long challenge to shoot cheap film in a cheap camera. The first half of 2021 I shot Fomapan 200 and developed it myself. Now the challenge has moved to colour film and I wanted to at least try to develop a couple of rolls for the project. July and August's rolls of Kodak ColorPlus 200 were developed by the folk at my local Max Spielmann photo store. My September roll was developed by me in my kitchen at home with a Film Photography Project Unicolor C41 kit I bought from Analogue Wonderland.

With encouragement and advice from the folk on the Negative Positives Film Photography Podcast and the Frugal Film Project facebook groups I was assured that developing colour film is relatively straight forward, but you do have to take certain steps in order to get it right. The Developer and Bleach/Fix (Blix) chemicals have to be at a higher temperature than those I use for my black and white film. This meant I had to invest in a Sous Vide water heater.

A Sous Vide water heater keeps water at a set temperature to cook food that is vacuum sealed in a bag and immersed in hot water. (Sous Vide is french for "under vacuum".) After a search online I found one that was at a price I could afford. I also needed some jugs for the chemicals, some storage bottles and a tub to use as my water tank. I got all those items for not a lot of cash at a local household goods store. Developing equipment doesn't need to be expensive, just buy what you can afford. It worked for me.

The C41 kit was a little harder to find as the global you know who caused supply chains to struggle and C41 kits were thin on the ground. I waited until Analogue Wonderland, my favourite retailer for all things film related, got some in stock and bought a Film Photography Project C41 kit in powder form. All I needed to do was shoot some colour film. I did this in early September with a roll of Kodak ColorPlus for the Frugal Film Project and a roll of Kodak Gold for the hell of it. As soon as I had everything together I got started.

Mixing the chemicals was a straightforward task as it involved getting water to the right temperature and mixing each powdered chemical stage according to the excellent instruction leaflet supplied with the kit. Word to the wise, wear gloves, a mask and make sure your kitchen is well ventilated. Colour developing chemicals are pretty nasty and can do you harm if you're not careful. After mixing my chemicals I placed them in my water tank so my sous vide could bring them to the correct operating temperature.

I loaded both films into a Paterson 2 reel tank and the first step was to give the colour film a pre soak in hot water to bring the film up to temperature. I just ran the hot tap into it for a minute whilst the water temperature rose to roughly the right temperature. My thermometer was definitely earning it's pay with colour film.

I measured out the volume I needed for developer and followed the instruction leaflet. 3 1/2 minutes flies by when your having fun and it was time to switch to the Blix stage. This is the stinkiest stage and the reason you need plenty of ventilation. Oh my, that stuff stinks! Another 6 1/2 minutes sailed by and in theory my film was developed and fixed. I poured the blix back into it's storage bottle before the wash stage.

After a 3 minute wash under the hot tap I took a peek at my film. I wasn't sure if it had worked or not so I was apprehensive to say the least. I needn't have worried, by following the instructions I had successfully developed 2 rolls of colour film! I saw images and quickly moved to the stabiliser stage before hanging my film up to dry. Whilst that was drying I cleaned up my colour developing gear, emptied my water tub and dried it off to use it as a storage tub for my gear. The next step was to scan my dry film with my Ion Slides2PC scanner, put my negs into sleeves and file them for future use.

I will talk about the scanning process another time, but until then here are a few images from my home developed Kodak Gold film. I really enjoyed the developing process, despite the stinky blix stage, and will be doing a lot more of it in future. I have links to Analogue Wonderland and the Film Photography Project below and of course a link to my Flickr album with a selection of shots at full resolution. I hope you enjoy them.

Analogue Wonderland

Film Photography Project

Flickr Home Developed Kodak Gold

A couple of Swans and a roll of FP4

 Its seems like an age since I last shot Ilford FP4, April of this year to be precise. With a trip to visit my daughter on the cards I loaded a roll of FP4 into my OM-2, packed a couple of lenses and my trusty Nikon D90 and toddled off to Yorkshire on the train. I haven't seen my daughter for almost 2 years (courtesy of you know who) and I hoped for nice weather so I could take a walk around the town where she lives and see what photographic opportunities presented themselves. Let's just say I was pleasantly surprised.

I spoke of Bolton Brickyard Ponds in a previous blog where I shared my digital images and spoke about being blessed with getting close to a family of swans. I also took a few images on FP4 and used an orange filter to try to tame the bright highlights at mid day. That decision proved to be the right one and I got some belters from the half a roll I shot at the ponds that day.

I didn't get a chance to take any more photo's on my trip so I took advantage of the next bout of sunny weather to shoot the remainder of the roll and another one for good measure back home in Wigan. A walk around the local farm roads and nature trails or a wander around Wigan and our glorious park has been my way of coping during the last 18 months. You can't beat fresh air and sunshine to blow away the lockdown blues.

I have learned an awful lot about film photography in that time too as I have beaten a 3 decade mental block and began developing my own black and white film. Whilst I may not be a true darkroom wizard, I process and print my images digitally, I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing how my skills and my confidence as a photographer have progressed. As I write this I have taken another leap of faith and learned a new skill to add to my photography and will tell you more about it in the coming weeks.

Here's a few images from my walks with FP4 in my OM-2, they really do show the progress I have made with black and white film. My ability to read the light, choose the right filter and compose a shot is orders of magnitude better than when I first started my B&W odyssey. I feel I have finally shaken off the happy snapper tag and learned to appreciate the finer things photography has in store for me. As is now customary I have placed them in an album on Flickr for you to see them in full resolution. I hope you enjoy them.

Ilford FP4 and OM-2

Frugal Film Project 2021 - August

 For my August roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 I decided to take a walk along the Leeds Liverpool Canal in the hope of seeing some colourful narrowboats. The best place that isn't too far away from my home is at Crooke, a former mining village a mile or two outside Wigan. I spoke about it in a previous blog when shooting my salvaged roll of EZ400 B&W film in my OM-2. I also had my Nikon D90 with me so I was well armed for a day of photography at a nice location and a roll of Kodak ColorPlus loaded in my Olympus 35RC.  

I shot my July roll at 100 iso and decided to stick with it as I was rather pleased with how they turned out. People often dismiss Kodak's consumer grade film in favour of Portra or Ektar. Whilst Portra and Ektar are indeed excellent films, ColorPlus is the surprise package amongst Kodak's range of colour film and for good reason.

When shot at box speed ColorPlus gives me a nostalgic vibe with grain that just screams 1970's holiday snaps at me. When you shoot ColorPlus at 100 iso magic truly happens and the cheapest of Kodaks colour films makes a dash for the top. Shooting ColorPlus at 100 iso makes the grain melt away. It is as though you had accidentally got your Ektar mixed up with your ColorPlus and loaded the expensive stuff instead. 

You check the scans a few times and cross reference with your negatives and yep, that really is Kodak ColorPlus looking silky smooth with great colour saturation. Those Narrowboats really do pop and the reflections look like glass. The only thing telling you otherwise being the slight ripple across the surface of the canal in the gentle breeze.

In a way I am glad the sky was rather overcast with few breaks in the clouds to give direct sunlight. There are no hard edges to the shadows and the light is very diffuse. The colours are even and the overall exposure is very pleasing to my eye. There is a little definition in the clouds on some photos and others the sky is blown out, but it doesn't detract from the photos at all.

My Olympus 35RC has really come alive with colour film and the E Zuiko 42mm f/2.8 fixed lens shows its true quality. I will be trying a more expensive roll of film in it at some point, but with results like these I may be tempted to go another stop and shoot ColorPlus at 50 iso just to see what happens. After all it's cheap film, right? 

Here's a few of my favourite images from my walk along the canal. I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project colour album on Flickr which you are welcome to visit by clicking the link beow. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2021 Colour Film

 

Out and About with my Nikon D90

 Meteorologically speaking we are now in autumn and, despite the perils of the ongoing pandemic, I managed to have a great summer shooting black and white film. I have spent the last 2 summers learning about black and white film, how to shoot it, how to develop it etc. It's been a very enjoyable experience and helped make the last 18 months pass more easily than it could have done.

I have also begun to enjoy myself a lot more as the repetition of staying local has improved my ability to read the light. I have my little cheat sheet for sunny 16, but haven't looked at it for a while, trusting instead on my instinct. It's taken a while, but that seems to have stayed put in my memory bank. I couldn't have said that 2 years ago.

The recent easing of travel restrictions gave me a chance to go further afield and visit family, so I made some arrangements with my daughter who lives across the Pennines in Yorkshire. I loaded my OM-2 with FP4 and packed my D90 as there are some nature reserves not far from her home, but I didn't get to visit those. Instead I was treated to the local park which was a very pleasant surprise indeed.

Brickyard Ponds in Bolton-Upon-Dearne is an open space managed by the local council and caters for fishing in the ponds that were once clay pits for the Brick Works that stood on the site. I'm told there are some large Carp and also Tench, Bream, Perch and Roach. It's a popular spot for Anglers on a sunny summer afternoon.

There was also a family of Swans who allowed me to get close enough to take a few photographs as they foraged on the grass a few feet from the bank. I felt really privilleged to get close to them and took a few shots on film and digital before deciding not to push my luck further and left them in peace.

I didn't get to finish my FP4 this week so I will have to get it done and developed ready for next week's blog. Here's a couple of digital images I took and the rest are in an album on Flickr you can enjoy by clicking the link below.


Brickyard Ponds Flickr Album