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Photography experiments


qsysue

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I experiment with film a lot. I get bored if I'm not able to get out shooting and end up doing something crazy just to entertain myself.

 

Usually it involved my Holga, because it's so easy to experiment with. Here's an experiment I did with making my own mask.

 

3532687844_527fc298bc.jpg

 

I made the mask out of cardboard and put it in the camera. I ran a roll of film through it, then rewound the film onto the original spool. Then I flipped the mask over (in this picture, it's already been flipped), and ran the same roll of film through it.

 

Results:

 

3533712470_f6fe219b59.jpg

 

3542855884_e8308a0267.jpg

 

The tricky part is trying to remember what part of the frame will be exposed.

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Another mask experiment in my Holga. (Neither of these ideas were new--I tried it after seeing someone else do it.)

 

4518100882_4b2bd52fb6.jpg

 

This one is harder to explain--I didn't rewind the film and shoot it twice. I took one shot, wound the film five clicks, then took another shot. The width of the vertical slits are approximately how far the film moves in five clicks.

 

4511050506_b9fb3805f5.jpg

 

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That L&O pic is hilarious.

 

Another Holga experiment.

 

3857362191_4c693b5ce5.jpg

 

I took two rolls of 35mm film and taped them side-by-side onto a used spool of 120 backing paper and ran it through my Holga.

 

This picture shows the film taped to the backing paper but once I got it in my darkroom bag and tried rolling it onto the spool I realized I couldn't have the film edges sticking off the paper or it wouldn't fit on the spool. So I had to move them so the film strips overlapped in the center of the backing paper.

 

Results:

 

3858673801_80c648353f.jpg

 

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I've done the same thing in an old box camera that uses film 70mm wide. Much easier to get the film onto the spool, doesn't overlap at all.

 

5561277890_83432a426d_z.jpg

 

Unfortunately my scanner chokes on color film when the sprocket holes are included in the scan. That last pic is also redscale film.

 

Here's what the camera looks like:

 

5079677974_e80a5c4e92.jpg

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The pet cemetery I shot that at is in Huntington Beach and it's the sweetest place. I used to drive by it and see all the graves decorated and be bummed that people care so much more for pet graves than they do for human ones--but the first time I went and walked around there it was just the sweetest place. The graves all have little dogs and cats on them and you can just feel the unconditional love animals have for their owners.

 

But yeah, Black Kitty Satan is the coolest.

 

Sort of off topic, but not really--I once walked around one corner of the cemetery and shot all the Princess graves I saw with a half frame camera:

 

4686129653_b18d020ef0.jpg

 

View larger here.

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tumblr_kwx7ljeu5n1qax59fo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1312143424&Signature=8LqYSXnXQO6%2Fsr1FKE%2FS1xDM3%2Fk%3D

 

Sandwiched negatives, original 6x6 neg sandwiched in an enlarger with a blank polaroid 55 that has been scratched to hell.

 

I went through a phase of sandwiching up to 5 negs together to make completely new images. Its a lot of fun. I miss having access to color darkroom as well as black and white. When I have unlimited darkroom access I tend to spend most of my time doing printing experiments.

 

Also, those holga mods are really cool. Definitely some of the more interesting mods I've seen to date!

 

Keep experimenting!

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That's really cool. I might have to try that sometime, if I ever get around to setting up my darkroom.

 

Here's another mask experiment in my Holga.

 

4074084042_ff5147aa45_z.jpg

 

I took double exposures, first exposure had this mask, second exposure was without the mask. I shot the entire roll with the mask in it first, then rewound it and shot again without the mask. For the first exposures, I tried to take pictures of things that would provide interesting textures.

 

4073325047_77e551393e_z.jpg

 

4078035604_6b54b19f67_z.jpg

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That circle holga mask is such a clever idea. Those came out really well and I hope to see more like that in the future.

 

Thanks. I was a little bummed the circle wasn't centered in the frame.

 

Anyone into home developing? Tips, tricks, etc.?

 

I develop all my own B&W. It's not hard. Color is trickier, I've only done it a couple times. Only reason it's trickier is the temperature of the chemicals has to be pretty exact.

 

What exactly did you want to know? If you're talking about alternative kinds of developing, I know you can use coffee. I haven't tried it (yet).

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Flipping lenses....love the look it gives. The most common camera I know of that people flip the lens on is a Brownie Hawkeye. Looks like this:

 

3885584511_306e77f11a_z.jpg

 

It's really easy to take the lens off, flip it over, and put it back on. The camera is supposed to take 620 film, but 120 spools will fit in it. At least some--I have one that has trouble fitting a 120 spool, and another that doesn't. You can always re-spool 120 film onto a 620 spool if you have to.

 

Results in a crazy blur--and a focal distance of about 2-5 feet, varies a little by camera:

 

4296351739_cf68e69f55_z.jpg

 

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Ever since discovering it was possible to flip lenses on cameras with little plastic lenses, I've tried it on a number of plastic 35mm toy cameras--the kind you can pick up at a thrift store for a dollar or two. I've ruined a few cameras taking them apart to flip their lenses--it's not possible with every camera, a lot of them are made so that the lens is attached to it. But an easy one to flip is the Ansco Pix Panorama:

 

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Results:

 

3733402365_a3d139f6ef_z.jpg?zz=1

 

4560082883_afbb36d3fb_z.jpg

 

4555179155_554f5acc77_z.jpg

 

It's one of my favorite cameras to use.

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I do all my own black and white and when I can afford to shoot color I can dev it too. There are surprisingly simple ways to keep the water temp high and consistent in your kitchen sink.

I've done a fair amount of alternative process printing too. Caffenol is a lot of fun, I'll post some of my negs developed in caffenol with a simple formula for doing it when I get home tonight.

 

Totally geeking out over this thread.

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I have more to come. :)

 

How do you keep the temp consistent in your sink? I think maybe my thermometer was just old and inaccurate...I don't know, I'm just not very patient. I did pick up a new thermometer but I don't have color chemicals now.

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thanks. I figured if I started actively posting instead of lurking I may just start dicking around with chemistry and such more often.

 

Here's a few sheets of Ilford FP4 developed in Caffenol. I stil can't place the exact formula I used for these but it was washing powder, vitamin c, and instant coffee crystals. These formulas can be found with a quick google search.

 

The black fogging on the left is from the film tank and nothing to do with the processing. The more saturated looking pictures are pretty close to the original color the bw negs scanned in and the more sepia looking ones are after some levels and curves. I still haven't tryed printing caffenol negatives in a bw darkroom so I'm not sure how well this translate to print. Its a lot rougher than normal developers so at high resolutions you can see the film has more grain and strange texture.

 

I'm planning on doing more coffee developing soon. I've been slowly moving all the pieces for a darkroom into the new place. 4583317730_06ee95b472_z.jpg

4583311356_4bb539cf37_z.jpg

4582682631_1ec62428b3_z.jpg

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Here's another camera mod. I tried this after seeing a Flickr contact who had done it. The camera is a little Russian half frame called an Agat 18:

 

3853586036_041a742991_z.jpg

 

It's super tiny and fun to use. I don't have pictures of the modification I did, but I removed part of the plastic inside the camera that makes it a half frame. Now it's about a 3/4 frame, and the exposures overlap.

 

I didn't remove enough of it to have it completely gone from the frame though, I wasn't strong enough--I used toe nail clippers and pliers and it seriously hurt my fingers after awhile, the plastic is really thick.

 

So a single frame has these jagged edges:

 

4518100960_634c7a2ccd_z.jpg

 

And multiple frames have weird overlaps:

 

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I have to shoot a blank frame to have no overlap between shots.

 

Haven't used this camera in a long time, gonna have to dig it out now!

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very cool stuff, Qsysue!

 

Those caffenol shots I posted were done with a Busch Pressman D 4x5 w/ a old 127mm f/4.7 Kodak Ektar lens. If any want to get into large format photography on the cheap and wants more control than a pinhole used press cameras are the way to go. I've gone through half a dozen 4x5s until it sunk in to use cheaper cameras with decent lenses.

 

This isn't mine, I just grabbed this pic off google. Mine looks pretty much the same though:

BuschD_1fq1b_300.jpg

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One of the photogs here posted a pic on his Flickr account that inspired me to try this next experiment. He was using some film that had been pre-exposed to colored light to create color shifts. Some college students in Europe are selling it and it's pretty pricey. I immediately had to try creating it on my own.

 

I was limited on what I could use (couldn't go to the store) so I had to get creative. I took a cd spindle cover and painted it dark green with craft paint--took a couple coats:

 

5934234639_e2bd5805fa_z.jpg

 

I cut out a bit of the side so I could fit it over the bare bulb in my bathroom. Then I laid the strip of film out flat on my bathroom sink, turned the light on for about 1 second, then respooled it into a film cannister.

 

I took double shots of each picture, one at 100 ISO (which is what the film was) and one at 200, to compensate for the pre-exposure. Most of the shots at 200 came out better, but the 100 ISO shots are still OK.

 

Of course it would have been better to use non-expired film. Next time! Also I think I'll just try to get some colored bulbs when I do this again. Except they're going to be too bright for me to just expose the film by flipping a light switch. Hmm.

 

Results (shot with an Olympus XA):

 

5934797874_7502cf3e03_z.jpg

 

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5935091869_c88baea191_z.jpg

 

Interesting that the color shift is blue, huh? That paint must have mostly blue in it.

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