I am back with more questions about film, processing this time (Page 2): www.filmphotographyproject.com...

nedell Loc: Holland NY USA

www.filmphotographyproject.com

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

In agreeing with most of what was written here. The Zone System is a good read, but difficult to apply to roll film.
--Bob

kdogg wrote:

From one recently retired to another, go for the d... (show quote)

BebuLamar

Since you have a scanner you should scan yourself. B&W negatives require a lot of interpretation from the photographer which can be done during printing in the darkroom or during scanning. You wouldn't want to relinquish this step. Use true B&W film so you can process easier at home. You don't need a darkroom or expensive equipment.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Processing B&W film is fairly easy and you don't even need a dark room. They (or did) make darkroom bags that look a lot like a pull on shirt with a zipper bottom. You just put your tank, reels and film inside, zip it up, then put your hands and arms throughout the sleeves and load the film. I have to admit that it is a little harder to use the bag than haveing everything out on a counter. There are many choices for developers and the other chemicals. Distilled water for the developer and final rinse is very important. No need to buy new. There is plenty of great equipment at barn burner prices in the used market. Get yourself a good thermometer that is +/- 1/2 degree of accuracy . It is intimidating to do this via reading books. You may contact me directly through this site and and we can talk on the phone if you wish. Happy shooting

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

I do not know your location but for High end B&W plus Fine Art work there is:

Weldon Color Lab - Specializes in B&W processing.
8945 Exposition Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90034
http://www.weldoncolorlab.com/
310.837.7811 or Toll Free 888.893.5366
Contact - John Weldon.
I have known him for 40+ years. His work is above reproach.
Before its demise, they were the number 1 Cibachrome lab in the world

whitewolfowner

I have always had better luck with Ilford films and really like HP5 (ASA 400). It is so versatile and able to be pushed as far as you want to go. Of course as you push it, it gets grainier and more contrasty.

I have never been able to find a lab that develops B & W film like you can do in the lab. In my book lab processing ruins the film. For processing, I used D76. Microdol gave a finer grain, but also grossly lacked contrast in my book.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

whitewolfowner wrote:

I have always had better luck with Ilford films and really like HP5 (ASA 400). It is so versatile and able to be pushed as far as you want to go. Of course as you push it, it gets grainier and more contrasty.

I have never been able to find a lab that develops B & W film like you can do in the lab. In my book lab processing ruins the film. For processing, I used D76. Microdol gave a finer grain, but also grossly lacked contrast in my book.

I used to use D-76, but it has to be mixed from powder, with the water heated to dissolve it, and then cooled down if you need to use it right away. Then I discovered HC-110, which to me seems to work just like D-76, but it is mixed from a liquid concentrate to no need to heat it.

LensWork

With a digital camera the image recorded by the sensor is always in color (with the exception of the Leica M Monochrom). The image is then converted to B&W by the camera's image processing computer and displayed as a monochrome JPEG on the camera's rear LCD. If the camera is set to save images as a JPEG, then the converted image is saved as a B&W image. If shooting in raw, the raw file will always contain the full color information, regardless if the camera is set to monochrome.

Kuzano

One of the best ways to severely limit your B&W capabilities is to set your camera to monochrome and blow away all the post processing properties of converting in post processing to B&W.

In fact, probably a very large share of the color images shown on the UHH site could be rescued from very blah color renditions by B&W conversions. But there is such a poor attitude about letting go of color and working with B&W on this site.

Folks, a lot of your color images are actually better suited to B&W conversion. Not one day goes buy without posting of color that should have been rendered in properly converted B&W.

Think about it. Some of your stuff would look better in medium to big B&W if you open your eyes and your mind.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

Bike guy wrote:

So earlier this week I received many great responses and suggestions to purchasing a film camera.
Now I am planning ahead for the next step(s).

My interests and caveats for film starts with my love for B&W. I have a color-blind problem where I don't see colors like most (75%) of you do. So my working with my digital images for the last few years has been challenging to say the least. Not everybody sees my colors like I do. Yet when I convert them to B&W, I get lots of complements on them. Maybe my B&W vision compensates for my different color vision?

My film photography will be almost all B&W. Eventually, I will probably want to set up a darkroom in my basement now after all these years I have room to have a clean and dark space.

In the meantime, I am wanting to experiment with several different film types, and have them developed and scanned by an online lab. I do have a high end scanner that I can use to scan the negatives, but that can be a lot of work unless I pick and choose carefully.
So I want to send my films out for developing and scanning; no printing. I can do that at home or send out individual ones for printing.

Unlike my digital photography, my film shoots will be more street scenes, journalistic type of photography, close up and macro. Being a biologist, lots of interesting stuff out there.

Darkroom.com seems to get high marks for a processing company. What are your experiences with them and others that are popular?

What about chromogenic B&W, C41 processing films? Like the Ilford brand. I know I can't develop that one at home. But would it we worth it to try it out and send it to Walgreens (or some other place) to see how it works.

So my business plan is to shoot lots of B&W, have it developed and scanned, see what I did, improve my techniques and then move on to buying the developing equipment for my home lab.

As a recently retired senior, I have so much time on my hands that I need hobbies to keep me motivated.
Wow, that was a mouthful.
Thanks for any advice that this forum always gives.
Jim B.

So earlier this week I received many great respons... (show quote)

I experimented with chromogenic C-41 film and found it to be no better than B&W film. It's also harder if not impossible for most of us to "read" the color negatives, to get an idea of the overall quality, exposure, etc.

Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

I have been setting my dslr to monochrome in the creative mode. That way I can see my images in B&W, JPEG format, as well as the raw file. Yes, many of my blah looking color photos do look better in B&W.

Thanks for the comment.

Kuzano wrote:

One of the best ways to severely limit your B&... (show quote)

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Kuzano wrote:

One of the best ways to severely limit your B&... (show quote)

kuzano, most of the B&W I see here is atrocious and I doubt it could be rescued no matter how it was shot, color or B&W.
I shoot film because it looks like film. I can't even imagine digitizing it.
But this doesn't help with the OP's question.
Developing film is so easy there's no need NOT to do it at home. The problem becomes that if he currently has no darkroom, then he can't print, so digitizing is a viable option as long as he still has the negatives for real printing if he has a shot that's very outstanding.
But darkroom space can be rented pretty cheaply, especially if he's in a big city. It's all about the end results that one is after, a true film look or just a B&W look.
SS

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

Hello, I have been shooting B&W film for 40 years. I process my own film, I own a pro B&W lab in Culver City Ca. A really good film is TMX100, it has a great tonal range and it is easy to work with. You can easily develop your own film, all you need is a tank, reels and some easily found chemicals. Will you be shooting 35mm film or larger? Making digital B&W prints is easy, the printers today do a fantastic job printing B&W. B&W film will give you the best results rather then shooting color and scanning it and converting the color to B&W. If you have a good scanner you can get magnificent B&W prints scanning B&W film. Have fun with this.

mtbear

If you job out the film processing you are missing the point of B&W film. If darkness is a problem I recommend using steel tanks and load them inside a changing bag. Darkness solved.