Pig Sty Avenue

What I learned from this negative, digitally "printed" by means of a light box and iPhone: Photos taken indoor with flash using an inverted-lens box camera will necessarily lack subtlety, so this approach should only be used with loud images. 6x9 contact prints with a degree of subtlety require a different camera. I've spent weeks, months, researching this, and I've plumped for the Moskva-5 over the Fuji GW-690, largely because the latter is four times more expensive, but also because of my previous positive experience with Soviet cameras: the FED2 have given me the best 35mm photos, better than any Nikon professional SLR.  However, the negative is encouraging. Look at the way the image of the fairy lights have stretched in the top right corner: this suggests we'll get good image-distortion vignetting, (works very well with trees in Winter). Despite all my precautions, (running the shower hot for a few minutes before hanging the film to dry in the cubicle) dust ha...

This was with the F4, well over a year ago. Kentmere film. I developed the roll last night, using Anchell’s two bath suggestion for D-23, 3+3mins, (with a citric acid stop and plain hypo fix). Underexposed, I got this image with a light box, iPhone and Paint. I won’t do a proper print, wet or digital. That big WILLS distracts too much, (what was I thinking? Why not get him to change the hoodie?); and besides, the real subject are the dice in his hands, but the shadows are cruel, and I should’ve gotten him to hold his hands out at arms’ length  for goodness sake! One lives and learns. I still like the idea, though, properly executed next time on 6x9.