Pig Sty Avenue

 ...At last, we're getting someplace. The light box for camera-phone scanning arrived.  There was an early set-back: pressing the On/Off button made the light flash on for a second or so, then off again. I tried plugging the USB for the power source into a different socket, and hey-presto! it went on and stayed on. The trickiest part was setting up the "magic arm" to hold the iPhone - really fiddly to get the phone in the right place above the light box. But I got there, kind of, and managed to get a negative from the roll I shot with Molly at the Necropolis.  I opened this up in ON1 Photo Raw, remembering the olden days when I (and almost every photographer I knew) used PhotoShop, the "invert" button was easy to find. Not so in ON1, now... So I've had to resort to the 2026 equivalent of reading the manual: beginning a series of video tutorials. On the one hand, it's all very complicated and is going to take a lot of learning. On the other, wow, it can b...

This photo was taken years ago, with the Ilford Sporti, on Fomapan dev'd in Rodinal. I really like the contrast and tones. I've been looking at a few other examples of Fomapan w/Rodinal and, any shortcomings in composition aside, they're just what I want in black and white.  Fomapan has come back to my mind today because I've got 24 exposures back from Boots: an Orangemen parade on an unusual kind of Kodak color film, "Kodak Max 400", (NOT T-Max, just "Max") and I got it because I like the way it looked on Flickr , and, well, it was cheap (£12.47 for four rolls. Every single exposure is severely over exposed to a very uniform extent. Muddy. I had a quick play around with the levels in ON1, and it seems unlikely anything can be done. I was horrified that there might be something wrong with the F4. But, probably, something is wrong with the film, out-of-date, bought on eBay. I'm thinking, maybe it's been through an x-ray machine at an airport. ...

From a forum on Photrio: Newbie DIY C-41 Recipe/Formula/Process | Page 2 | Photrio.com Photography Forums My note of recipe from Jacobson et al, 1988 Developer Water to make                  1l  Calgon                                                                 2g Sodium sulphite anhydrous              2.2g   [already have] Potassium bromide              1.5g  [already have] Potassium carbonate (anhydrous?)      37.5g Hydroxylamine sulphate              2g  CD-4  (“add 6 hours before use”?)      4.75g [ Axel Color   £12.70 + £29.60 (!) P&P] ...

 It doesn't work on Bitmaps. Until this afternoon, I hadn't thought of BMPs for at least a decade. I took the photo below (I think) in People's Sq, Shanghai, and found it on a CD where the "Lomography" shop in the French Concession loaded it after dev'ing, (if I remember correctly). The light leak and overall impression suggest I was using a box camera, maybe the Gevabox? Anyway, I like the way it somehow invokes the mugginess of Shanghai.  Anyhoo: Da Vinci doesn't work with bitmaps. More importantly, it doesn't work with Nikon's own RAW files, NEFs and I've just bought an elderly d50 (£30) to use as a scanner. Heigh ho. Luminar Neo instead, maybe?

Yesterday, to the Necropolis with Molly and the dog. Snapped 2 rolls of Kentmere 400. I need to work on finding good compositions, but I did find one as we were leaving: a Victorian man's head on a pillar. He looked a lot like Karl Marx. But the best thing about him was the steam from the brewery just behind him. I need to go back alone and think more about how to frame him. AND do some research on photographing steam as a background.  I dev'd one roll just now, and I'm waiting for it to dry. Meanwhile, retrieved a box of Loersch sheets for 35mm from a dusty corner of the flat, and I'm starting a new folder. Next task: get a decent but affordable neg scanner.  I realised yesterday that my new camera bag really won't do. It has a single shoulder strap, and the F4 being heavy, it's really uncomfortable to carry around. So I need to rehabilitate a rucksack type bag currently on top of the wardrobe. This will also help to blend-in when photographing on the streets, ...

It's fairly easy to get colour film developed, not so black and white. So I've located all of my old chemistry (see table), Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook, and my faithful Paterson tank, and I'm ready to dev a roll or two of Kentmere in the next few days. Getting them scanned or properly printed is another matter. Sodium Thiosulphate Sodium Sulphite Anhydrous Kodak SB8 stop Citric acid Kodak D23 Sodium  Carbonate  2nd bath Hydroquinone Sodium  Metabisulphite Metol Sodium  Carbonate  Light anhydrous Borax Sodium  Tetraborate  Decahydrate  Potassium  Bromide Meanwhile, I managed to get a copy of Jacobson et al's Manual of Photography. It's the 8th edition, so published in 1988, the year the F4 hit the streets. It's very technical, but leavened with a diet of YouTube videos.