My photography has really taken a hit lately. Covid lockdown hasn't helped but, I have also been busy painting! Nothing arty farty but walls! My son and his wife recently brought a house and it really needed a change of colour. So, before they moved in, we helped out with painting inside the house and, once that was done, we helped them move. Then, a week or so later, my daughter also brought a house and I was back with brush and roller in each hand! Still not finished that one yet!
So, back in June when I was really chomping at the bit to get out with a camera, I went through the film in the freezer and found an expired Fuji Colour Superia 800. Something I had not used before. I loaded the film into Minolta X-700 and promised myself that I would take the camera everywhere with me and at least record what was around me. These are nothing really exciting but they did take the edge off my photography withdrawal symptoms. I used a Minolta MD 50mm f1.7 lens.
I didn't have any real expectations from this film. I had never used it before and had not reviewed it on line (like I do with some) so as to get a benchmark for my outcome. When I viewed the final outcome I had mixed feelings about colour. It seemed to me to be a bit dullish although I note that this film is featured as a 'high speed daylight balance' film. Maybe that was the problem; most of the shots were taken on overcast days. As you can see below, the two photos below that have some element of sunshine in them have a better colour representation I think. The film is also featured to having a fine grain structure and high degree of sharpness but I was disappointed with the high level of shadow grain in these photos. That possibly has to do with the age of the film so maybe next time (if I have another roll of this in the freezer) I will overexpose 1/3 to 1 EV to see if that gives a more pleasing result.
I decided, when I saw the initial outcome with the grain, that I would do some digital touchups to try and improve on that. I have the Nik Collection plug-ins that I use in Lightroom and I use the Dfine programme to control noise for my digital work. I gave it a try (only slight adjustment though; for some reason I don't like to use Digital Software to tweak my film photos. It doesn't seem right!) and it did improve them somewhat.
These photos cover a bad weather experience down on Newcastle Beach. Low pressure weather system and gale force winds produced a huge on shore swell and the waves were spectacular! The weather had been bad for about 10 days and our Schnoodle puppies, Daisy and Archie and our daughters dog, Rocky, went wild when we finally got them out for a run. Mind you they had a great time playing in the mud and were filthy at the end of it all. A couple of the others are just random shots taken on the way to and from work.
So, here they are.
Before I go, I must admit to an accidental travesty. In March, I had loaded my last original Fuji Acros 100 Medium Format film into my Bronica ETRSi. I forgot that I had done that. Two weeks ago, because it was getting a bit warmer, I thought that I should get a roll of Fuji NPH 400 so I could go out and get some Sunrise and Sunset photos with the Bronica. Horror of horrors, I opened the film back and there was the Acros 100! I quickly closed it up again! I don't think that quick flash of light would have ruined the whole roll and so I wound the film on through 2 exposures so hopefully it would take me to an unexposed area on the roll. It had to happen to that last roll of original Acros100....
Hope you're all staying well as are we.
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