First role of B&W film

[ronlane]

Ron, for a first outing with B&W film you should be tickled! These are all fine shots. Personally, I like grain, but I understand these guys are just trying to get you to see that it can be easily reduced for a smoother look to your images, should you prefer. Either the simple exposure tricks, as gary mentions here, or the use of a yellow filter (or more), helps with contrast. And grain is certainly controlled by ISO (assuming routine processing). Generally for bright outdoors, using 100 or 200 ISO is fine, and indoors or evening outside go with 400 - just like you'd set with digital. You might want to go with a lower ISO for your next outdoors stroll. Regardless, you're lucky to have a lab nearby that gives you fair results like this.

I love your sign shots, too! They have a lot of character. :heart:

Thanks Terri, I felt pretty good about this set of images. There were some that were lacking but mostly with composition. I was using my dslr and the film camera both on this shoot.

Unfortunately, I have 400 in the camera now and 2 more rolls that to shoot before I can get more at 100 or 200, but I will do that.

I'm going on a walk with some other photogs this weekend, and maybe I can get another roll of b&w taken.

 

[Derrel]

SHoot some film photos of the wife and kids! It's always good to have some family pics on tiny pieces of celluloid!

 

[gsgary]

Ron, for a first outing with B&W film you should be tickled! These are all fine shots. Personally, I like grain, but I understand these guys are just trying to get you to see that it can be easily reduced for a smoother look to your images, should you prefer. Either the simple exposure tricks, as gary mentions here, or the use of a yellow filter (or more), helps with contrast. And grain is certainly controlled by ISO (assuming routine processing). Generally for bright outdoors, using 100 or 200 ISO is fine, and indoors or evening outside go with 400 - just like you'd set with digital. You might want to go with a lower ISO for your next outdoors stroll. Regardless, you're lucky to have a lab nearby that gives you fair results like this.

I love your sign shots, too! They have a lot of character. :heart:

Thanks Terri, I felt pretty good about this set of images. There were some that were lacking but mostly with composition. I was using my dslr and the film camera both on this shoot.

Unfortunately, I have 400 in the camera now and 2 more rolls that to shoot before I can get more at 100 or 200, but I will do that.

I'm going on a walk with some other photogs this weekend, and maybe I can get another roll of b&w taken.

If you have not shot any photos just rewind it and get some iso100 if you have shot some rewind it and next time you use it you will have some double exposures

 

[ronlane]

SHoot some film photos of the wife and kids! It's always good to have some family pics on tiny pieces of celluloid!

Good idea Derrel. I'll have to do that.

Ron, for a first outing with B&W film you should be tickled! These are all fine shots. Personally, I like grain, but I understand these guys are just trying to get you to see that it can be easily reduced for a smoother look to your images, should you prefer. Either the simple exposure tricks, as gary mentions here, or the use of a yellow filter (or more), helps with contrast. And grain is certainly controlled by ISO (assuming routine processing). Generally for bright outdoors, using 100 or 200 ISO is fine, and indoors or evening outside go with 400 - just like you'd set with digital. You might want to go with a lower ISO for your next outdoors stroll. Regardless, you're lucky to have a lab nearby that gives you fair results like this.

I love your sign shots, too! They have a lot of character. :heart:

Thanks Terri, I felt pretty good about this set of images. There were some that were lacking but mostly with composition. I was using my dslr and the film camera both on this shoot.

Unfortunately, I have 400 in the camera now and 2 more rolls that to shoot before I can get more at 100 or 200, but I will do that.

I'm going on a walk with some other photogs this weekend, and maybe I can get another roll of b&w taken.

If you have not shot any photos just rewind it and get some iso100 if you have shot some rewind it and next time you use it you will have some double exposures

Thanks gary for the suggestion, but I'll finish off the 400 rolls before getting more film. While it isn't taking me long to go through a roll, I am still trying to save more for dslr stuff.

 

[vimwiz]

If you are developing your HP5 at home it has a huge exposure latititude

It is fine to use at ISO 200 to reduce grain, thats what I do.

Which developer are you using? How much are you pulling it (time)?

When processing at 200 ISO I use Ilford Ilfotec LC29 @ 1 + 19 for 5 mins (Instead of usual 1+29 for 9mins at 400 ISO)

I think the "official" way is to use Perceptol, but I like LC29, its strong and cheap.

 

[Gavjenks]

I use Ilford HP5 400 ISO.

OK. That would explain the grain. Nevertheless nice work. Once you graduate to FP4 or Tmax 100 you will see the difference type of film makes for the type of shot you will make. In meantime if you plan on shooting more landscapes with b&w film, get a set of filters like Wratten 8 or 9, 21 and 25. They help in many ways to improve the pictures.

Alternatively / in addition, shooting medium or large format reduces grain, at the same ISO (since you magnify the negative less to get to whatever display size you're using). E.g., Ilford 400 120 film will show less apparent grain in a given print than Ilford 400 35mm film (by about 1 stop), and Ilford ISO 400 4x5 film will show even less than 35mm (by almost 2 stops)

Pretty much the same concept as why full frame digital deals with noise better than crop frame digital.

 

[ronlane]

Pick up two more rolls of photos this afternoon. 1 color and 1 b&w. Funny, I don't remember much of what is on the color film. I do know that I've gotten some steam engine photos on the b&w.

 

[vintagesnaps]

That sounds like a great subject for B&W. I like the first couple of the architectural shots, and the ones of the signs. Good stuff.

Isn't it fun getting your pictures back? at least I always there was something fun about picking up your pictures and getting to see them.