054: Overexposing Phoenix - Does Half the Speed Mean Double the Success?
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- čas přidán 8. 04. 2024
- I go out and try to shoot some street photography in Manchester city centre telling my camera that the Harman Phoenix inside it is 100 ISO. It's a grey, overcast day and I struggle with the light. Should I have asked the lab to 'pull' my film? What do you think of the results as they stand?
(I’m not a film emulsion expert, technician, or colour scientist…just a photographic artist…so take my views on anything scientific with a pinch of salt (or pepper).
#filmphotography #streetphotography #35mm #overexposed
Thanks for posting this informative test - I’ve been holding off shooting Phoenix until there’s more user information on choice of iso. As ever, appreciate the crafting of these videos.
Thanks again for watching! Hope you are enjoying your photography 🙂
I used my first roll of Phoenix a couple of weeks ago and got a good proportion of decent images, the rest being duds to varying degrees but I was able to learn something from each.
The main lessons were that the dynamic range is even less than I expected so it's essential to find subjects with even lighting. The second major lesson was that deep shadows look awful - avoid!
As I was actually paying for each shot (first time in nearly 20 years) I decided to get my money's worth by looking for very colourful subjects, so went to Portobello Road in London on a nice sunny day. The most colourful subjects in direct sun came out the best. I used an old 1960s Nikkormat with external meter which I haven't done for a very long time and I think I messed it up on a few but nobody's perfect.
The first roll was at 200 but yesterday I took about half a second roll at 100. I want to finish it up in evening sunlight just to see how it behaves.
With well lit subjects the grain is perfectly acceptable in my opinion, but gets increasingly grim with darker or shady areas which is why I think they need to be avoided.
Overall it's a good first film from Harman, and they are perfectly open and honest about it being experimental so I think most people are willing to give them a bit of slack and support them in developing something better.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the film...really interesting to hear how it went. I wonder what the roll you shot at 100 will turn out like...if my experience is anything to go by, probably better. Enjoy your photography 🙂👍
Interesting vlog, thank you. Iam at the moment testing expired b&w films. My oldest one is going to be 24 yrs old. Any experience or advice on shooting expired films ?
hi Steve, thanks for watching. The only expired film I've shot so far has been the Vericolor III that was 30 years old and I did a vlog about last year. Next time I'm at a camera fair where I can get some cheap out-of-date stuff I'll do some more tests and might be able to offer better advice, but until then I'll just repeat what I've been told by others which is to overexpose by around one stop per decade expired...but remember storage conditions have an effect (if it has been kept cold then there's less degradation) and it might be worth bearing in mind that higher ISO films tend to lose sensitivity more than low ISO ones...not sure how b/w differs fro colour...I guess at least the colours can't shift! Happy shooting...and let me know if you learn anything that might be helpful to me when I get my hands on some film to try out...
There's no way to test for how expired film exposes unless you get sealed multipacks because of the time they have been sat around unaccounted for. A stop a decade is a good rule of thumb for c41 but I've seen E6, for example, expose fine at box speed after 25yrs and need 3 stops overexposure
I'm sorry! I like Ilford film and chemicals. Not this film. No! The grain is awful. Please read this, some lenses cause grain! It's true. I shot a portrait in studio. Used same roll in 2 cameras. The Leica-M with 135mm and Spotmatic also 135mm lens. Identical exposure! The Super Takumar in Spotmatic, was way grainier. It's an easy test! So your Zoom lens may cause grain, but it's a horrible film. (A Dutch photographer of great technical ability agreed with me, on grain).
Thanks for commenting. Interesting what you say about the lenses...I'll have to try swapping to the 50mm prime to see if I find the same difference. I don't think the film's horrible, but it's certainly different - and less "flexible" in my opinion - than other films I've used. I have one more roll to play with...and I'm waiting because I really want a sunny day to shoot it at ISO100 and then get the lab to pull it...after doing that I reckon my mind will be made up one way or the other...Thanks again for watching the video, and have a good week 🙂