Monday 31 May 2010

Scott Kelby's Old School Photo Challenge

And what a challenge it turned out to be!

Agfa Isolette

I take portraits and the occassional building, except when I am in Ireland, then I take lots of building and the occasional portrait, thats just the way it is.

I don't do macro, haven't got the patience for it, can't be bothered with tripods most of the time. But as was part of the 'challenge' I thought I would stretch myself and get the macro lense out. I didn't use a tripod though.

The rules were clear; one ISO, one 'rool' of 24 or 36 shots, one day, wait 24 hours for 'processing' and no photoshopping! Just like back when we used 'film' remember that? And one more thing - no looking at the preview screen.

Setting one ISO wasn't a problem, I set ISO 100, which I then realised I should have set 200, but it was too late. There was a film once that claimed you could do different ISO's on it but I never got to grips with that and it would have been cheating! I fitted this around family stuff over this bank holiday weekend. It was great fun and would recommend it to any and all as a way of connecting with their photography. It makes you think and brought me right back to the film days. I used transparencies mostly back then, so cropping / post develope manipulation never happened. I am used to composing in the camera, at least I thought I was, this gave me a kick in the rear, which is only a good thing! I was tempted to peek, but I am happy to say i didn't.

A great challeng and all for a good cause; the Springs of Hope Orphanage in Kenya. the idea is to donat all or part of what the 'processing cost' would have been if we used film. If you would like to donate, here is their webpage; Springs of Hope.

4 comments:

  1. Morning Noel,

    The film you referred to was XP2, which became a favoured film for me back in my original photography days. I know a lot of people didn't like it because it wasn't a real b/w film being C-41 based but I loved its ISO flexibility and the slight tone it had when printing. Those film days seem so long ago!

    I was too busy to participate in this challenge but hope to be involved in the next one.

    Regards,

    David

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  2. Evening David,

    XP2 what a film, I liked it. But the processing costs were so high! I used to stick with transparencies because they were about £3.50 a roll to process, you got better quality and I bought them in bulk.

    You will enjoy the next challenge!

    I'll drop you and Glyn an email about the Ruby...

    all the best
    Noel

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  3. Well, I couldn't complain about the processing costs. I used to work in the Belfast branch of 'Tecno' (a former UK photographic retailer) and got staff discount.

    The other bonus with it being C41 based was that i) the Kodak lab we used for our film processing, processed C41 quicker than b/w film - 1 day vs 7, and ii) they did a better job at developing C41 than mono films.

    Looking forward to this Ruby.

    Regards,

    David

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  4. David, as always thanks for commenting. First things first Ruby 24th lets go for it!

    As for your comment - even in photography its who you know... A cousin of mine used to work in a photo shop in Stillorgan, but he was into photography, so he got the bargains...

    I liked the XP2 film, but one I really liked was the Agfa Scala, the B+W slide, I have some good shots with it, but I need to get them scanned.

    I also cross processed XP2 once and it came out like B+W slide film, you had to over expose by about 3 stops, but it worked.

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