FILM Photographer of the year

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ChrisR said:
May I scream? Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhhh!

I thought I was doing well: re-did the seals on my Pentax ME, ran a test roll of Vista through, then did the re-shoot of my March effort. That left around 15 shots on the roll, so I decided to go into Coventry and try to get some shots for the 52. I got some reasonable shots by the canal, and walking back towards Max Spielmann in town, I rewound the film. When I opened the camera back in the shop, the film had not rewound, and the rewind knob came off in my hand! I think with the cold and old age etc, I had been "rewinding" the knob the wrong way! Needless to say almost all the shots on the roll are affected, and it's pretty much a write-off (oddly, except for the very last shot I took; maybe I did manage to get that back into the canister!).:bang::bang::bang:
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Ouch!
 
Just a few days to get the April 'family' entries in.
 
Waiting, waiting, waiting for two films to come back from AG Photo! I should really stick to C41 and Photo Express... but I've just ordered a bunch of slide and BW film... mad!
 
ChrisR said:
Waiting, waiting, waiting for two films to come back from AG Photo! I should really stick to C41 and Photo Express... but I've just ordered a bunch of slide and BW film... mad!
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Hope they get back in time Chris... they were pretty quick for some E6 processing for me, but have been some reports of delays in a different thread here.
 
As there are only four entries for this month so far I would get them in before the rush!
 
Well AG Phot have responded to my emailed pleas and are sending the film special delivery so I should get it tomorrow. Of course, there may be nothing on there worth having...

Come on everyone, get your family shot in before tomorrow night!
 
ChrisR said:
Well AG Phot have responded to my emailed pleas and are sending the film special delivery so I should get it tomorrow. Of course, there may be nothing on there worth having...

Come on everyone, get your family shot in before tomorrow night!
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Fingers crossed Chris...hope it arrives as promised.

My April entry is in.....good luck to everyone
 
Yes, AG Photo's envelope came this morning, the tension mounted as I had to do various things involving train bookings for a visitor etc, then have a look and... none were as good as the candidates I already had! So I've spent the day agonising over two choices. I remembered TBY's comment about printing them out and seeing which you can live with; not really enough time, but I had my first real experience of A4 printing on proper paper, and it's helped me make my mind up. So my entry is in.

Now come on the rest of you, still 4 hours to go!
 
ChrisR said:
Yes, AG Photo's envelope came this morning, the tension mounted as I had to do various things involving train bookings for a visitor etc, then have a look and... none were as good as the candidates I already had! So I've spent the day agonising over two choices. I remembered TBY's comment about printing them out and seeing which you can live with; not really enough time, but I had my first real experience of A4 printing on proper paper, and it's helped me make my mind up. So my entry is in.

Now come on the rest of you, still 4 hours to go!
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Glad you managed to get an entry in Chris. Hope some other TFAC entered too.

May is Landscape, so having seen some of the amazing landscapes in this sub forum, really hoping we get a good turn out
 
Yes, let's be 'aving lots of you, please! This is right up the medium and large folks' street (and some of the photographers with big cameras, too ;-). I'm sure I remember someone who had a special trip to the Dales pencilled in to get their shot. And May is a long month, too! Lets show these digerati what real cameras can do... and more along that line!
 
ChrisR said:
Yes, let's be 'aving lots of you, please! This is right up the medium and large folks' street (and some of the photographers with big cameras, too ;-). I'm sure I remember someone who had a special trip to the Dales pencilled in to get their shot. And May is a long month, too! Lets show these digerati what real cameras can do... and more along that line!
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I had a trip to the dales penciled in and it all went tits up, the weather was woeful and we didn't see blue sky all day, it wasnt the sort of cloud you could make anything from, it was just flat white cloud.
 
A certain Russian beer or seven you mean? :D
 
Hi to all of you in the film section - this is my first foray into this area of TP and only my second post in this section (I got distracted by The Way We Were thread)

Anyhow, I am in need of some advice and thought this was the most appropriate thread to ask in as it relates to the POTY competition.

I am thinking of shooting my landscape entry on film. It has been a while since I have used film and whilst I am OK with BW film, I need to know what is the best colour film to use? My guess is Fuji but how does Kodak compare?

Any thoughts

Spooks
 
Depends entirely on what you want to achieve.

Do you want to shoot slide or negative film? If you want to shoot slide, Fuji velvia or provia are excellent films. Astia is fantastic, but discontinued so getting it might not be easy. Kodak E100G slide film is still available in places and is also a great film. If you want to shoot landscapes with slide film, I'd suggest being fully prepared to use grad filters though as the dynamic range of most slide films is not more than about 5 stops. Slide film is completely removed from the "save it in lightroom" brigade! With slide film you'll get slightly easier scanning, saturated colours and fantastic contrast if exposed well.

Print (negative) film is very different. Here you'll get massive dynamic range and colour reproduction that is very characteristic of the specific film (though that is not to say all slide films look the same, not by any stretch of the imagination!). Again, here it depends on what you want to achieve. Kodak Ektar 100 is a highly saturated film, but needs careful attention to exposure to get the colours right. Kodak Portra 160 (which is my neg film of choice) is a wonderfully subtle film. Not boring or flat by any means, but not in your face like velvia. This film also has dynamic range coming out of it's ears.

As you can tell by now, it really depends on what you want to achieve, so if you could give us a little more info - but not specific shot details, as I dont want to know anything that removes the anonymity when judging - that'd be good :)
 
Nothing wrong with shooting a landscape in black and white of course (and might make it stand out against the digerati, who are presumably banned from conversions because of the no-PP rule... unless they have a Leica MM ;-). In terms of colour, if you're going transparency then it's got to be Fuji (Velvia/Provia) although the Agfa Precisa is said to be rebadged Provia. For colour negative there are many who love Fuji Superia, but Kodak Portra gets the strongest recommendations that I've seen.

Some of your choices may be affected by the format, but all of the above except maybe Agfa should be available online for both 35mm and 120. Good luck!
 
You could also look through this and other forums and other sites to see what cameras and films were used...I was a Kodachrome slide film fan but it doesn't exist now, also I like Fuji Reala but erm Fuji stopped making it for 35mm, but have heard goods things about Portra but yet to try it.
 
Hi Guys

Thanks for your thoughts. I will be shooting on 35mm.

In terms of BW, I was thinking of using Ilford FP4. This is what we use with our students at school, and what I used when studying my A Level Photography.

I hadn't considered colour slide - probably because it was when using slide film that i wrote off my camera!

I will have a look at the colour films and check their availability and whether I can get them processed in time.

Chris - I was under the impression that a mono conversion was allowed, if shooting digital, but I may have mis read this.

Cheers for now

Incidentally - what is the Kodak TMAX film like?

Spooks
 
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Not sure about TMAX personally, as I've never used it; I found Acros and never looked back.

That said, I wish Adox would hurry up and release their new range in ISO 25 :'(
 
I found TMAX to be a bit flat personally, fine grained like Acros but with less contrast.
 
***Thanks for your thoughts. I will be shooting on 35mm.***

Well get a good lens if you are interested in sharpness or bokeh or pop.....although any lens will give results :)
 
I've just shot some attempts for this month entry in Velvia and the colours are simply stunning....shame same thing couldn't be said for my composition skills.

i got some cheap TMax recently and have to say I was a little disappointed - just as other have commented.... a little flat.

I think the digital entries are allowed to convert to PP this month, and this is one of the only PP things that can be done. i imagine this is just a straight forward conversion and not a re-work using filters in silver efex.
 
excalibur2 said:
***Thanks for your thoughts. I will be shooting on 35mm.***

Well get a good lens if you are interested in sharpness or bokeh or pop.....although any lens will give results :)
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Fortunately I have a Nikon film body so have my range of lenses to play with.

Spooks
 
I've only used Acros the once, and it didn't jump out at me the way Neopan 400 and Tri-X did (in both cases this was after using the C41 black and white films, which seem to be super contrasty); maybe I should try it again. But with my level of skill it's more likely to be the particular subject than the Neopan/Tri-X films that made me happy, without my realising it!
 
So it's congratulations to Steve again! </grittedteeth> And commiserations to Richard, as he and I hit null points yet again.

C'mon guys, Steve can still be stopped, and this is the month to get (re-)started! He claims to be weaker in landscape (IIRC) and some of you are just fantastic. Surely you can find a reasonable landscape shot taken this year, or even take a new one?
 
ChrisR said:
So it's congratulations to Steve again! </grittedteeth> And commiserations to Richard, as he and I hit null points yet again.

C'mon guys, Steve can still be stopped, and this is the month to get (re-)started! He claims to be weaker in landscape (IIRC) and some of you are just fantastic. Surely you can find a reasonable landscape shot taken this year, or even take a new one?
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Thanks Chris :)

Really hoping we get a good turn our for film this month... I keep on seeing awesome landscapes on this forum, and this is one genre where film may even have the edge over digital.

Personally, landscapes are things I only take on holiday, and even then they are more snaps than anything. I went down to Salford Quays this week and tried a few city scapes. Got a book from Amazon too so am almost sorted :)
 
I really did mean the congrats, Steve, a very nice shot!

When I look back at landscape shots I'm proud of, they are always "somewhere", I mean somewhere special. Don't seem to be going anywhere special these days, so I'm trying to learn how to take landscapes in more ordinary situations. Not proving easy!
 
ChrisR said:
I really did mean the congrats, Steve, a very nice shot!

When I look back at landscape shots I'm proud of, they are always "somewhere", I mean somewhere special. Don't seem to be going anywhere special these days, so I'm trying to learn how to take landscapes in more ordinary situations. Not proving easy!
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Thanks Chris.

I know what you mean...the landscapes I have done in past have always just been as a memory of a holiday and such like.

I'm finding myself viewing the landscape (well cityscape) as I drive around wondering if any would be suitable for this.
 
Just a week to go to get landscape entries in.

Hoping for a good turnout from film users this month.

We've all seen the high quality of landscapes posted in this forum, so lets see them in the POTY competition.
 
Just devved two films both I'd part used with the poty in mind... And they're all crud :(
 
Come on everyone, it's a long weekend (at least in England) and possibly half term. Some of you are bound to be going somewhere interesting, landscape-wise. Let's see some strong entries!

We even have a previous digital winner threatening to use a film camera for this month!
 
Well, you make do with what you've got; I did a recce of a few sites earlier in the year, expecting to go back later to one or more of them at an appropriate time of day (inappropriate by most measures), and didn't get to go back. After much umming and ahhing and staring at printed shots, a recce shot has gone in! Equal 30th looming again...

I hope ALL the rest of you are entering. We don't want spooky to win the landscape month on film! (;-)
 
I wish i could enter, but the deadline has fallen right in the middle of my final exams for uni, but yes, someone must stop Spooky! :nuts:
 
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