Our first Shoot, Develop & Print Workshop

As I write these words it’s been a couple of weeks since our first ever workshop at the Adventures on Film Darkroom and I am STILL buzzing from the experience!

Three people took part in this workshop - all of whom had shot with film in the past but were looking to get back into it, brush up on their skills and learn some new ones too.

The format for the day was a location based portrait shoot with our wonderful model and long time creative collaborator Danni, after which we then went into the Darkroom to develop our film and create some prints.

You’ll have no doubt noticed the preponderance of video in this blog - yes friends I’ve recently rejoined Instagram after a long hiatus - I have been enjoying creating some video reels of our workshop shenanigans! Give us a follow HERE

A lot of work went in to getting the darkroom ready to welcome our first guests and we had a wonderful day together shooting portraits, developing the film and making some prints.

A huge thank you to Gary, Andrew and Damian for taking part and of course to Danni for being such an amazing model and to Jony Hunter for shooting the video and BTS shots of the day!

We’re going to be organising some regular workshops beginning in the new year covering so watch this space for details and if you’re interested in taking part then please see HERE for more details or get in touch via email info@chrischinnockphotography.com

Going for Gold!! Kodak Gold 200 Review

A quick note before we begin: The majority of the text here was written back in August 2021 but the blog was languishing in the ‘draft’ folder since then and I’ve been so busy with other things that I am only now (December 2021) getting round to completing it!

There is no escaping the fact that film seems to be getting more expensive - price rises across the board from Fuji, Kodak and Ilford. This has prompted a bit of a rethink in terms of my ‘go to’ films. In fact it’s also driven me partially back into the arms of digital (the horror) but more of that another time…

I’ve spent a couple of years shooting almost nothing other than Portra 400 and I love how consistently awesome it is especially when it comes to shooting in low light. But recently I’ve refrained from shooting it in any other conditions - the price rises (and hey - more are on their way) mean Portra has become a specialty film stock for me, one which only gets used when I absolutely require that level of flexibility.

I’m a glass half full kinda guy so I’m viewing this as an opportunity to start looking at alternatives and as it turns out there are some amazing film stocks available at a lower price point which do brilliantly when you have lots of lovely light to play with! During what passed for summer here in the UK I took some of these films out for a spin!

In today’s blog we’ll be looking at Kodak Gold 200 which is a classic ‘consumer’ film that has been around in one form or another for a long time.If you bought 35mm Kodak film from the chemists in the 80’s/90’s there’s a fair chance it was this stuff that you bought! I’ve shot Kodak Gold a few times before - usually for street and travel stuff but I’d never used it on a portrait shoot until HERE. I was really pleased with how it turned out and keen to really get a feel for what it can do.

These photos were taken on a beautifully sun drenched late afternoon in the picturesque town of Saltaire with the wonderful Lauren who as well as channelling some retro 60s/70s vibes with her outfit also brought along her classic mini which she restored herself - when Lauren commits to a look, she goes all in!!

Kit wise as you can see in the inset picture I was using the Nikon F3 for 35mm duties - these shots were either on the 85mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.4 AIS lenses. I’ll share photos from the Pentax 67 in another blog at some point (in the next decade at this rate)!

I think the images can speak for themselves (but rest assured I’ll waffle on a bit about what I think too…)

Yikes!! Contrast: Check. Tones: Check. Grain: Yummy, check! Detail: erm… Check. Not much to complain about here, I shot these at box speed 200 as I wanted to see how it looked and I am very happy!! The grain structure is very much present and personally I LOVE it! If you’re one of those ‘I don’t like grain people’ then get the fuck out of here… no sorry! I’m joking! come back! :)

The classic film look really suits the style and look for this shoot - I feel like we’re shooting the cover of vogue circa 1971 or some marketing materials for British Leyland!! (I think these are good things)!

In this shot above we can see how the film (and the glass) handles backlit/direct sunlight which was just cresting the trees in the background - I really like playing around with positioning the light in my frame to affect contrast and tones, it gives a whole other look and is another part of why I love film - you can make your editing choices in the moment using the natural resources that you have to hand!

A huge thank you to Lauren for an amazing shoot! We couldn't have asked for better weather, a better location or a better film stock to suit this style.

In conclusion then - Kodak Gold 200 is fucking brilliant! If you have lots of golden sunlight then you can’t go wrong! I’m not sure how well it will push or handle under exposure but perhaps that’s a blog for another day!

Can you dig it? Shooting Rollei Retro 80S with an Orange Filter

A few weeks ago I scheduled in some much needed time to get out and about with my camera and shoot some film - the existence of this blog may give you the false impression that is literally all I do - gadding about awash with film and film cameras - don’t believe the hype my friends!!

In fact of late I’ve been finding it very difficult to make time to get out and shoot - I am very pleased therefore to present these images as proof that I recently carved an hour out of my busy schedule to do just that. These images represent a much needed reminder to myself to make space for creativity for the pure sake of it, to stretch my legs - literally and metaphorically.

This little micro adventure on film (it literally lasted about an hour) was a stroll through Magwoods just outside Huddersfield - a beautiful stretch of woodland along the edge of a valley, I had no particular goal in mind except that it was a sunny day and having spent far too long staring at a computer screen I grabbed my Nikon F2 and the Nikkor 24mm 2.8 lens, an orange filter and a roll of Rollei Retro 80S film and set off on my expedition!

Rolle Retro 80S is a film I have shot quite a bit over the last few years I’ve travelled with it HERE and shot Portraits with it HERE and I’ve always been really pleased with the results - it’s a super contrasty film which absolutely sings in good sunlight - I was very interested to see what effect an orange filter would have and I was not dissapointed!! Using an orange filter with black and white film gives you even more contrast, the blue sky shows as more dark and contrasty and if there are clouds present it will make for a bolder and more dramatic sky - the image above is a good example!

As well boosting contrast and making the sky look AWESOME an orange filter when combined with a film like Rollei Retro 80S will also give a look verging on the infrared - with lots of bright whites and deep dark black tones, I love it! Rollei Retro 80S is such a finely detailed film in the first place and the orange filter has just dialled everything up to 11 (how much more black can the shadows get? None. None more black) ;)

Gone are the days when in my working life I would travel up and down the land, thus having plenty of opportnities to shoot some street/travel/casual day to day shots - in fact aside from portrait shoots I can’t remember the last time I went out and just shot a roll of film for fun! It was great to just be present and focus on my surroundings - allowing my eye to be drawn where it may - as it turned out I was particularly drawn to the texture and details of the trees (well I was in a wood so it’s not too surprising) I love the punchy contrast in these images which works great with the textures of the wood.

After strolling through magwoods and along the valley I remembered that there’s a derelict mill along the route (to be fair - in this neck of the woods you are never too far away from a derelict mill) but I had completely forgotten about the derelict digger that rests near by (or maybe it just wasn’t there when I last came this way a few years back) either way my attention was completely taken with this mechanical monster.

I have a thing for abandoned things. Is it just me or do you feel it to? The ineffable pathos of ruin…The machine stops….amidst a tangled mass of weeds, slowly being engulfed by the twisting tentacles of branches…. great innit?!

I proceeded to cover the scene like some CSI photographer covering all the angles, looking for clues to this long forgotten crime!

I’m trying (and failing) to come up with a snappy metaphor or analagy or something to end on - I was hoping I could think of something smart and (moderately) funny to link the difficulties I’ve been facing in making time to get out and shoot and discovering this burned out digger - so instead I’ll just say this: making time to do creative stuff just for the heck of it gives me great joy…it doesn’t matter one bit whether the resulting images are any good (although to be fair I really like these shots) the satisfaction comes from spending a short bit of time not distracted by this or that, not thinking about the past or what is to come but just being present, keyed in to my surroundings, focussing (literally) on the details, being open to whatever is around the corner and making the most of whatever I find there (especially if it is a burned out digger) hang on a minute - was that a metaphor, similie or analogy??? I need to check google and find out! Until next time friends - stay safe out there! :)

Creating colourful dramatic portraits with LED lights on film

I’ve been experimenting with LED lighting and coloured gels in my portraiture, in particular I’ve been exploring new creative themes taking inspiration from some of my fave Sci fi movies as a way of experimenting with lighting to evoke the mood of the original films and it’s also been wonderful to play around with characters, settings and stories.

I was fortunate to collaborate once again with Charlie and Jony to create two really distinctive looks. Firstly Charlie channelling her inner ‘Ripley from Aliens’ and Jony doing an amazing job with a ‘Deckard off of Bladerunner’ look. We finished the shoot with Charlie joining Jony in a Dark Future Dystopia by reprising her role as ‘bad ass Terminator Cyborg’ from our previous shoot HERE.

Once again this was an all Kodak Portra 400 affair, I rated the film at 800 and had the lovely folks at Exposure Film Lab push development two stops. Camera gear used:

• Nikon F3 / 85mm 1.4 / 50mm 1.4

• Pentax 67 / 105mm 2.5

We shot both of these looks in their cellar using a simple lighting set up involving one LED panel light and two small LED pads with some coloured cellophane for ‘gels’. Jony provided extra atmosphere by streaming the background music to Aliens during the Ripley shoot too!! ACE!

For inspiration I rewatched Aliens which is one of my favourite films paying particular attention to the lighting and colour pallete used in the film - I picked out blue/green and yellow as the main colours and then tried to replicate that multi million dollar budget movie with a few cheap LED lights and 99p worth of coloured Cellophane! You know what? I absolutley love the results!!

I searched out a suitably sci-fi looking rifle for ‘Ripley’ and Charlie did an absolutely stellar job creating the look with an awesome outfit, hair and make up - she really is one of the most creative souls I have had the pleasure to work with, she’s amazing! :)

Interestingly (well i think it’s interesting and it’s my blog, so get lost) for the Ripley images the 35mm frames look the best, they have a grainy/grittyness which is very appealing and truth be told I missed focus quite a bit on the Pentax 67 shots for Ripley and even those shots which I didn’t just don’t have the same feel as these 35mm shots.

Now we move on to a look inspired by Deckard from Bladerunner another of my all time fave movies!! For inspiration I watched both the original film and the recent 2049 movie and actually took my lighting inspiration from both films - I decided I wanted to combine the darker/noir feel of the original movie with some of the colour palette of the later film.

Jony did an awesome job not only with his outfit but also bringing that noir detective/bladerunner vibe - very very cool! I was so happy with how the lighting worked out giving a very dramatic effect.

Interestingly (yes! it IS interesting - now shush) the Pentax 67 shots look best on this look (if I do say so myself) I was shooting this handheld at 1/30 and wide open at 2.5 so Depth of Field is razor thin and there is a little bit of camera shake creeping in on one or two frames but I care not! Love these shots! Huge thank you to Jony for absolutely nailing the look here!

Props wise I bought a custom nerf gun and also some ‘neon bullets’ which are actual (empty) bullet casings but with a blue LED light inside! There really are some randomly specific/amazing things available in the internet aren’t there?! I think they look great on the shot - definitely add to the sci fi vibes.

In fact the whole Dark Future look is created by the lighting on this one as without the LED lights or the neon bullets then Jony’s look could be from any time period - this is one of the things I love about experimenting with coloured lighting, it really is transformative!

As if that wasn’t enough creativity for one shoot using the exact same location we then stepped it up a gear and brought Charlie and Jony together for a few final images. On these I really wanted to push the lighting to see what was achievable - and wow!! We created a set of promo images for an imaginary Sci-fi Cop show!

With Red light as the main lighting and blue just in the background and picking out little details and reflections - the high grain just adds to the lo-fi/low key appeal! An awesome end to an awesome shoot! It was a real pleasure to work with Charlie and Jony again, such lovely creative folk to work with :)

As for the lighting, I am really enjoying exploring the creative possibilites which coloured lighting brings to my photography. LED lights are a game changer for the film shooter because what you see is pretty much what you get which allows you to control and adjust your lighting by eye. I continue to be amazed at the flexibility of Kodak Portra 400 it really is wonderful stuff! I would urge anyone reading this to introduce some dramatic colour lighting into your film photography and push your creativity to the limits! It is such an enjoyable experience!

From the USSR with Love: Portrait shoot with Soviet lenses on 35mm film

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy the process of preparing for a photo shoot almost as much as the shoot itself! The anticipation of all those endless creative possibilities to come, the excitement tinged with a nervousness that naturally accompanies these thoughts: Will everything work? Am I up to the task? Will it piss it down with rain like it has done all day today....

Film photography invites you to make creative decisions up front (not all of course as development, processing and printing are large factors too) but your choice of film, camera and lens are important considerations. Perhaps more so on film than digital as each film has different characteristics and vintage lenses have their own unique qualities that they bring to the table.

My main 35mm set up is an all Nikon affair but I also have a thing for Soviet lenses, there is just something about them that I am drawn to which allows for some interesting creative possibilities (or maybe it’s because they’re cheap)! While I love Soviet glass I’ve found that Soviet cameras on the other hand can leave a lot to be desired - in my experience they aren’t that reliable and since (annoyingly) M42 lenses won’t easily adapt to Nikon mount cameras I have added a couple of Pentax Spotmatic bodies to my collection which I use for my M42 shenanigans, I’m not going to go into a big review of the Spotmatic F because I’ve already done that HERE suffice it to say that it is a very very fine camera indeed and an absolute joy to shoot with.

So let’s talk lenses then, we’ll start with the Helios 44-2 which you can see at the top left of the image below - it is renowned for it’s ability to do swirly bokeh. But this is no one trick pony and it’s certainly not a novelty or toy lens. It is absolutely sharp (the caveat being that sharpness as a concept is MASSIVELY over stated) it has lovely contrast, tone and detail too and the bokeh is wonderfully smooth as well having some good swirly patterning. The best part? Mine cost me £10! I bought it attached to a broken Zenit camera for £25 - kept the lens and sold the zenit body for £15 :)

There are loads of versions of the Helios 44, I’ve had several later versions all of which had really stiff focussing rings, I tried out this earlier 44-2 version and it’s my fav so far. The build quality is very good, focus is smooth and it has a preset aperture control so you choose which aperture you want using a ring on the front of edge of the lens, you can then adjust the aperture manually so you focus while it’s wide open and then stop it down to shoot (it takes longer to explain than it does to actually do it) this works well for me as I have a Spotmatic F which won’t mount non Pentax lenses with auto aperture pins (note to anyone reading this wanting to use a spotmatic for Soviet glass - if you have a Spotmatic F then stick with preset lenses or if you’re looking to buy just get an older Spotmatic).

The Lens attached to the Spotmatic in the image above is the lovely Jupiter 9, it’s an 85mm f2 lens - this focal length is one of my faves to shoot, especially portraiture. Slightly more rare than the Helios (but that’s only because they made literally a kabillion Helios lenese) the Jupiter 9 is a very very lovely bit of glass indeed - build quality is excellent, focussing is lovely and smooth. I bought mine via evilbay from a seller in Russia for £70. There were several versions of this lens, this is the single coated version dating from the mid 80’s i think - later multicoated ones seem to be at a premium far above any real world advantage you might expect. One of the most impressive things about the Jupiter 9 is it’s size- it’s almost the same size as the Helios!! It looks like a 50mm prime lens which is amazing! It makes for a very compact and portable portrait combination.

A few words about the shoot itself and then I’ll let the images do the rest of the talking: I chose ilford HP5 for this shoot because it was kind of overcast and we were shooting under tree cover so I wanted something flexible enough to handle any situation, I shot it at 800 and I love the results! HP5 absolutely sings when it’s pushed and I think these have a lovely tone and feel to them. A huge thank you to model Danni AKA Pandora Belle - she absolutely nailed it on this shoot, Danni is a very talented model and it was really great to work her on this shoot.

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Helios 44-2

Helios 44-2

Helios 44-2

Helios 44-2

Once again my thanks to Danni for being such an amazing model and also to Exposure Film Lab who develop and scan all my portfolio work - they’re the best!

To say that I am over the moon with the results would be an understatement! First run out with the Helios 44-2 and the Jupiter 9 and I am so happy with how the images came out - in fact I think they make a good pairing, they have similar characteristics. The Helios has a little more swirl in the Bokeh where as the Jupiter 9 is buttery smooth but they both have excellent sharpness, contrast and detail but then you already know that as you’ve just seen the images right?! I’ll certainly be using this set up again in the near future and putting and I’ve really enjoyed shooting black and white portraits for a change, i use colour a lot in my portraiture so I wanted to mix it up a little, for me casual/day to day and personal work I’ve found Ilford HP5 to be such a versatile film, but I’ve never shot portaits with it - I love the results!

Kodak Pro image 100 & Portra 160 review - Portrait shoot out

Now that I have FINALLY settled on some camera kit that I’ll be keeping around for the long term I can focus my energies on exploring different film stocks - not that I wasn’t doing that anyway but I was finding flitting from one camera to the next a bit of a distraction, for the record the cameras which have won my heart are the Nikon F2 and Pentax 67 - today’s blog features a portrait shoot on the F2 shooting with a shiny new portrait lens and using two different film stocks Kodak Pro Image 100 (a new film to me) and Kodak Portra 160 (a film I have used a few times before)

Whilst the main focus of the conversation will be on looking at the two film stocks first up I’ll take a moment to show you the kit I used on this shoot, I’ll then take you through the shoot itself.

I have just bought the very wonderful Nikkor 105mm 2.5 a lens which has a HUGE reputation as an amazing portrait lens, when i bought it the focus ring was quite stiff so I sent it off for repair to a chap called Miles Whitehead who did a great job of fixing it and it now has silky smooth focus action - I would highly recomment Miles if you have some camera kit in need of some TLC check his site out HERE. In fact as I write this I am reminded that Miles also serviced my F2 when I bought it so double thanks!! :)

I was originally going to include a few thoughts on the 105mm lens in todays blog but I loved using it so much that I think I’ll reserve that for a dedicated blog all of it’s own - suffice it to say that it’s reputation is very well earned, an amazing piece of glass!

Ideal for portrait, weddings and social events dontcha know…..

I think most people will be familiar with Kodak Portra 160 which is a mainstay of Kodak’s professional line up, but what’s this Pro Image 100 all about? I’ve been shooting a lot of Portra 400 and 160 recently and whilst I love both film stocks I am always interested in trying new things and the results I’d seen from Pro Image appealed to me - the other great thing about Pro Image is the price! I got this for £25.95 for 5 rolls!

This film stock has only recently come to the UK/European market - despite being around since the mid 90’s, the stock was only sold in warmer climates, big thanks to the good folks at Nik & Trick for being instrumental in making the case to Kodak for getting this film available in Europe :)

Ok so I have a lovely film camera - check, a great portrait lens - check, a shiny new colour film - check, a beautiful location to shoot in….check! What’s next? I need someone to photograph! Fortunately I’m part of a great facebook group for photographers and models to network and arrange shoots - Danni is someone I met through this group and we’ve shot together before when i was testing out my Pentax 645, you can see those images HERE.

Also worth mentioning at this point that i had my films processed and scanned by the good folks at Exposure Film Lab who I must thank again for their brilliant work, I use them for all my colour films these days because I just love the results I get from them - check them out HERE

The vibe for this shoot was a really natural summer look to make the most of the bright sunshine, we had a beautiful location filled with light, flowers, tall grass and trees - let’s GO!

First up i loaded Kodak Pro Image 100…

Ok then at this stage in the proceedings the word at the forefront in my mind is wow! Danni is a very talented Model which makes my job much easier and the Pro Image film is just lovely :) Let’s move on to the Portra 160 which I loaded up next and we’ll do a bit of a comparsion at the end, here’s the Portra shots…

The entire shoot lasted about an hour (if that) we went for a stroll through some lovely scenery and together we created some properly beautiful portraits full of light and life! Danni is a great model she did a brilliant job on this shoot, she puts lots of character into her work and is just a natural in front of camera, this really shines through the images - we’ve worked together before which I think always helps so we’re relaxed and comfortable working together and meant we were able to just get right into it and enjoy the shoot. I’m over the moon with the photos we created together - thank you Danni :) Check out her portfolio HERE.

In summary then both film stocks are clearly capable of wonderfully sharp, textured images with great skin tones, colour balance, contrast and detail - I therefore love them both! They each have their own look so whilst they’re comparable I think there are some differences to take into consideration. This was never intended as a ‘one film versus the other’ contest in which we have a winner and a loser but rather an opportunity to look at how these two film stocks worked under the same conditions - to that end I simply invite you to make your own mind up which you like best - or maybe like me, you like them both?!

Here’s a few of my thoughts on each stock:

Pro Image 100 - it has a wonderful grain structure, punchy contrast and I love how it handles the greens and yellows, shadows perhaps not holding as much detail as portra, it has a classic film ‘look’

Portra 160 - minimal grain as you’d expect from portra, slightly muted colour palette although in these images it produced stronger contrast than I’d expected, Portra definitely holds on to more shadow detail and also perhaps slightly sharper.

What does all this show us then? Well they’re very close actually, much closer than I’d have thought! One aspect which does create an opportunity for comparison is the price with a five pack of Portra 160 retailing at around £35.99 and a five pack of Pro Image around £25.95 then clearly if budget is the deal breaker then Pro Image is your winner, if you absolutely must squeeze every bit of detail out of the shot then perhaps Portra is the one to choose - ultimately we’re all winners here as we in the UK now have access to the lovely Pro Image and I’ve got 4 more rolls sat waiting to go! I can’t wait to shoot it again.

Portraits on film - Night shoot with Cinestill 800T and Lomography 800 Colour

Sharing details of another portrait shoot, this is part of a major ongoing series I’ll be working on as a I rebuild my portfolio - it gives me an opportunity to share some insights on the cameras/films I’m using, the story behind the shoot itself as well as a place to share those photos which might not make it into my main portfolio.

Having made the switch to full time film only and also recently adopting the very wonderful Pentax 67 as my main camera I have been keen as mustard to rebuild my portfolio, to explore the creative possibilities (and challenges) that shooting with film offers and basically have a shed load of fun along the way :) To that end I have been seeking out opportunities to collaborate with some of the very creative souls I am fortunate enough to know - hence this series of blogs! :)

This shoot was for my mate Paul who is a Music Producer under the pseudonym ‘Gamma Prime’ he’s been working on some new material and wanted a set of publicity images to help promote the new work.

The idea was to shoot at night and make use of available artificial lighting to add some creativity to the portraits, this assignment called for some special film stocks - Cinestill 800T and Lomography 800 and I also used a roll of Kodak Portra 400 too. I’ll give you a bit of an overview of these film stocks along the way and some thoughts on their particular qualities in use. I hadn’t used either the Cinestill of Lomo films before so I was excited to try them out - Cinestill is an expensive option and Lomo is more of a budget offering so we’ll see how they stacked up against each other.

First thing to consider when shooting in low light/night time is to take account of sunset! Golden hour light is there for the taking either side of the actual sunset so before I broke out the Cinestill and Lomo films I used a roll of Kodak Portra 400 to snag some of that golden hour light.

Kodak Portra 400

Shooting with the Pentax 67 you only get 10 frames per roll of film so you really have to make each frame count! As the light fell I loaded the roll of Lomography 800 and since we were still in golden hour I used the first few frames here. At this point it’s worth stating that in a stand up contest Portra 400 vs Lomo 800 there’s really not a huge amount in it, they’re both great films although I think Portra has the edge - crisp grain structure as you’d expect from portra and shadows hold up well with lots of detail. That being said the Lomo film is no slouch and it has a very definite character and feel all it’s own.

Lomography 800

We drove into town for the night shots and took a walk through the University Campus to take advantage of the artificial lighting and interesting architectural features. These first couple of frames are still on Lomo 800 and I really like how they came out - a very definite grain charachter which I like very much, shadows don’t hang on to too much detail but in this artificial lighting I think it adds to the effect.

Lomography 800

The images below are all shot on Cinestill 800T - this film stock is repackaged motion picture film, the stuff they use to make Hollywood movies! I was very excited to try it out and it did not dissapoint! the letter ‘T’ in it’s name designates that it’s a Tungsten balanced film so it was designed to be shot under artificial lighting - as you can see the tonality and detail are really great here.

Cinestill 800T

Note my iphone acting as a fill light here! Focussing was getting a little difficult as it got darker so this helped - I’m thinking of getting a little LED light to help in future

Cinestill 800T has been processed to remove the Anti Halation layer which in some conditions gives lighting a strange glow, it also appears quite prone to light leaks as you can see on the left side of the above image - although in this case I kind of like the effect!

This shoot was planned as a portrait shoot for a friend to create some promotional images for his work as a Music Prodcuer - you can check out Paul’s music HERE :)

I hadn’t planned to compare and contrast these film stocks but the differences between the final images and the way I shot them presented the opportunity to reflect on the different charachters of each stock, overall I like all of these films and very happy with how they came out - here’s my thoughts on each in turn:

Portra 400 - what is there to say about this film which hasn’t been said already? It’s a classic for a reason and is one of my firm faves - clean grain, great details and rich colours. I’m tempted to explore how flexible this film stock is maybe pushing it to 800 and beyond in lower light to see how it coped. Portra is my go to film, a quality product capable of wonderful results.

Lomo 800 - this was a bit of a wildcard choice and it’s a very solid performer, espeically when you consider the price for a pack of three rolls of 120 is about £18. I shot it in good light and in low light in both situations it doesn’t hold up shadow detail as well as the other two stocks but this shouldn’t put you off, the grain structure is more prominent than either Kodak or Cinestill but this is also not bad news - it gives the film a look all it’s own which is good.

Cinestill 800T - this film blows me away - I love the colours, contrast and tones but more importantly for these shots it’s how the film handles shadows with details holding up really clearly even in very low light, it’s expensive stuff that’s for sure but it’s definitely worth a shot in the right conditions. It’s proneness to light leaking could be annoying if you have ‘THE’ killer shot and some random leaks could spoil your hard work - on the other hand it could just add something to the image!

It’s worth stating at this point that I was really pleased with how the Pentax 67 worked on this shoot, I was able to achieve useable images down to 1/30 of a second in low light which pleases me very much! The 105mm 2.4 lens continues to impress me with it’s ability to create 3D like images with pristime sharpness and beautiful bokeh too.

I have some more creative portrait shoots lining up over the next few months so I’ll be continuing the portraits shot on film series and looking forward to exploring more wonderful film stocks!

Portrait shoot with Arya Ravenswood

I recently had the pleasure of working with my friend Arya Ravenswood who is a practicsing Occult Magician & Witch. Arya wanted to create a fresh set of images to use on her website and Social Media (the occult is a very 21st Century operation ya know) and I was thrilled to be asked to help Arya realise her creative vision!

A huge thank you to Arya for the opportunity to collaborate on these images, check out Arya’s website HERE and also a Periscope TV channel HERE Arya has a real gift - go visit her website and find out for yourselves!

Since I am in the process of rebuilding my portfolio it was a great opportunity to put my new Pentax 67 through it’s paces on this shoot. To mix things up a bit I also used my Nikon F2 as a second shooter, filmwise on both 35mm and 120 formats this was an all Kodak Portra 400 affair mainly to give a consistent look and feel to the images so that they can hang together as a set and also because I bloody love the stuff!

Working with Arya was amazing, she created two really strong (and of course very Witchy/Occult inspired) looks for us to shoot, we chose two locations (one for each look) and got to it - here’s the first look shot in a local graveyard.

We didn’t scout the locations beforehand so it was very much a case of paying attention to our surroundings and allowing ourselves to be drawn towards particular details and working with them; having explored one graveyard we moved on to a second just across the valley. As i reflect on these images now I am reminded of the beautiful surroundings, the palpable stillness, the lush green of the grass and moss covered graves contrasting with Arya’s monochrome outfit, the Occult and Christian symbolism, life and death - as above so below….

Our second look for the day was an opportunity tor Arya to channel her inner Stevie Nicks with a more bohemian, naturalistic look replete with lace, jewelry, bangles, occult symbols and also incorporating the tools of Arya’s trade - a bronze knife, a crystal ball, a chalice and cauldron. We chose some local woods for this look emphasising the natural elements and giving us a new setting to explore this side of Arya’s persona.

This second set of images is certainly more expressive than the first and the wooded location was the perfect backdrop - walking through the trees we came upon a rocky outcrop which provided the setting for our shoot being set back from the main path and out of view of inquisitive dog walkers and their dogs! (I’ve never seen people skidaddle so quickly upon hearing that we’re doing a ‘Witchy’ shoot)! ;)

The combination of the Pentax 67 and Nikon F2 worked great for me - the Pentax is capable of some uniquely stunning images with a very distinctive, almost 3D look which I love, the F2 is no slouch either and some of my favourite images from the whole shoot came from the 35mm camera, I think this will be my default combination of cameras for the foreseeable future.

There were so many images to choose from on this shoot! It was great to work with Arya to create these images and full credit goes to her for styling the shoot, she did an amazing job on the day too and as a result we made some powerful images together, I think this is some of my best portrait work to date (if i do say so myself) I wish Arya every success in her Macgickal endeavours!

Review of the Bellini Foto 1 Litre C41 development kit

I realised recently that for someone who says that they don’t shoot much colour film, I shoot a LOT of colour film! In fact over the last 12 months I’ve been shooting colour film stocks more and more regularly - so much so that i finally decided that developing colour at home was a viable option. This was something that I’d done once before a couple a few years ago but I found the results less than impressive and the chemicals difficult to handle, short lived and therefore expensive.

So having cast about for a suitable kit to get back in the colour film developing game I landed upon the Bellini Foto C41 kit purchased from Nik & Trick Photo - you can find the kit HERE - I must stress at this point that I am not being paid (or to cut out the middle man, sent free film) to say nice things about the Bellini Foto kit, this is my genuine honest feedback on the kit (spoiler alert: I think it’s ace) these are just my thoughts and experiences using it. Likewise I’m not being paid to promote Nik & Trick Photo either (spolier alert: I think they’re ace too) they’re a great independent film retailer and champion of all things film, so I am a champion of all things them! ok now all that is out of the way - on with the blog!

There’s quite a bit involved in todays blog in which I’ll focus on five things:

1: An overview of the Bellini Foto kit

2: The additional bits of equipment I used

3: My approach to developing

4: Scanning the negatives and the results

5: Conclusion

I think that people (myself included) can be a bit put off colour developing because it’s a bit more of an involved process which is true to a point, but really if you can develop black and white (HERE is a blog i prepared earlier on that subject) then really you can do colour - the key aspect which always gave me pause for thought with colour developing was the short shelf life of the chemicals themselves, with the previous kit I’d used lasting about a month which for my purposes is not long enough - happily there is a solution to this problem which I’ll explain later on, first let me show you what’s included in the kit.

1: An overview of the Bellini Foto kit

The kit i used is the 1 Litre version and comes supplied with Concentrated Developer, Fixer and Stabiliser plus a ready to use bottle of Bleach, mixing the concetrates is very simple as you can see from the instructions pictured above that are included in the kit.

You get enough developer and fixer to make 1 litre working solutions and loads of stabiliser - enough to make 10 litres! more than enough - which is good because I promptly spilled half of my bottle of stabiliser on the kitchen floor! :(

The key thing with developing Colour even more so than Black and White is to ensure you keep water temperature at a constant 38 degrees, it’s critical in fact!

It’s worth stating at this point that whilst none of these chemicals are any more dangerous than stuff you have under the kitchen sink, since you are working directly with the chemicals then gloves are essential, as is working in a well ventilated room - this goes for black & white and colour developing - safety first folks!

2: The additional bits of equipment I used

Getting the Bellini kit is one thing but getting set up to develop colour film you’ll need a few extra items (I’m assuming here that you already have all the kit and caboodle required for black and white such as a developing tank,reels, changing bag, measuring jugs, thermometers etc ) I’ll list the colour developing specific items and provide some explanation of their use along the way:

Sousvide - yes I had no idea what this was until i started looking into colour film developing either!! its a tool used for heating up water for cookery (madness i know) i bought mine for £25 off amazon (other megaretailcorps are available) you can see it pictured on the left below, it’s the U-bend shaped thing which clips to the side of the container and heats the water up. I guess it’s not absolutley essential to have and you could control water temp with a kettle of boiling water I suppose but for me the sous vide just takes all the hassle out of this aspect of the process, you set the control to 38 and wait for the it to do it’s thing - it will then keep the water at that temperature as long as you require.

Water Bath - Heating the water up in a water bath so that you can then heat your chemicals up to the required temp, as you can see from the pictures I used an old plastic box that we had knocking about in the shed, works perfectly!

Wide neck bottles - you can see them pictured above, chemical storage bottles with nice wide tops for quick pouring, and plastic for ease of use, you could use empty pop bottles if you like but these were cheap enough and cost me £10 for a set of five.

Glass storage jars - ok so these I bought to store the chemicals in when not being used, you can see them pictured above at the back of the photo. I got them from Nik & Trick along with a little vaccum pump and rubber stopper thingys (I think they’re supposed to be used for keeping wine fresh but clearly they serve a much better purpose here) fill the bottles with your working solutions of developer, fixer and Bleach - then using the vaccum pump and rubber stopper you pump all the remaining aire out the stopper seals the bottle et voila, your chemicals should now be good for approx 6 months or possibly even longer! definitely worth getting unless you shoot loads of film and can develop regularly so you won’t need to store stuff for long

Funnels - you’ll be pouring chemicals from bottle to bottle and then into developing tank and back into bottle - get yourself some funnels, label them so you keep things seperate

Theremometer - i have a glass photographers thermometer which is nice and accurate I used this to check on the temperature inside my developer bottle during heating

3: My approach to developing
Step by step instructions are included in the kit and there are a number of different steps required in this process and the timings are quite short so you need to be on your toes and paying attention to whats going on, especially when trying out a new process - for me having something like the Massive Development App to guide me along my way during development is usually my preferred app but unfortunatley whilst in all other aspects the the Massive Development App is amazing, it is actually completely RUBBISH at creating custom development procedures, I mean it’s possible to do but it’s very clunky and not as good as it could be….fortunately for us there is another cheeky little phone app out there which can help, it’s called Develop! and it’s great!

It allows you to easily custom build a film developing process with timings and agitation cycles - you can then press ‘play’ and the app will give you a visual guide to keeping on track through the development procedure, lovely! I find this super helpful and takes some of the pressure off and not having to refer back to the print out instructions that come with the kit when you’re trying to keep an eye on everything else that is going on - highly recommend this app, oh and the best part? it’s free! (i think? I can’t remember now - if it did cost something then it wasn’t very much)

Following the instructions (via the help of the Develop! app) made this a very enjoyable process - setting everything up and getting your chemicals up to working temperature is the long part of the process, once everything is set then the whole process is over in less than 15 mins - you can see from the developing timings on the left above how long each stage takes and the agitation process required.

I messed up the stabiliser stage though - i poured the stabiliser away after use when it turns out it is re-useable for a few films before needing to be changing, this coupled with me spilling half of the concentrate as I was getting set up wasn;t brilliant either, fortunately Bellini supply LOADS of concentrate enought to make 10 litres worth so I think I’ve still got enough left for some more developing sessions with this kit

4: Scanning the negatives and the results

The moment of truth! I was blown away by the results! clear and spotless negatives which allowed for lovely colours and tones when scanned - of course scanning colour film at home is an art form in and of itself sometimes, but after a little bit of jiggery pokery i was able to get the colour balance i was looking for (I won’t make an already long blog post even longer by discussing the vagaries of scanning - maybe in a later blog) suffice it to say that the negatives I had developed looked great and with minimal processing work i was able to achieve some really lovely finished photos which you can see below.

For more photos from this shoot take a look HERE I developed 3 rolls of 35mm in one go - two portra 400 and one portra 160, the beauty of the C41 process is you can develop different ISO films at the same time with the same process, really pleased with how they came out, of course scanning wise I would still use a professional development service for critical or professional images as the scans are just so much better but I think for personal projects these are just great.

5: Conclusion

Ok so well done for making it this far! my conclusion? I think that the Bellini Foto kit is amazing! i was very impressed with the quality of the negatives and final images, the process was relatively straight forward and I would feel much more confident in using this next time around. I like that given the right storage that the chemicals will last a while and that they are good for approx 12 rolls of film which makes this a great money saving on having films developed professionally - that being said I do need to spend some more time creating a consistent workflow for my scanning and colour balancing to get accurate colour rendition. On some of the photos they came out perfect straight away but others did require a bit of fettling in Lightroom - which is fine - scanning colour film will defintely be a topic for another day though and I am very pleased with the results I was able to achieve on my first run out with the Bellini Kit, I would definitely recommend it.