Pig Sty Avenue

Saturday 9.15 I had an appointment at Parkhead for my 2nd shingles vaccinations. You have to get 2 to make it stick. I got home and put a roll of Kentmere 400 into the F4, and realised the lower display in the viewfinder wasn't working. I did a bit of research and found out about A.J. Johnstone in Hope St. I decided to take the camera in on Monday. I had planned to go to the Men's 10k in the city centre on Sunday, and would still do so, the viewfinder display being non-essential for a couple of rolls. But the side-effects of the shingles vaccine began to kick-in on Saturday night (dizziness, mostly) and by Sunday morning it was clear I was photographing nothing that day.  Monday morning, I managed to get in to work, and whilst the class were doing online tasks, I had a shufty at what AI was saying about my defunct lower display, and I learned that it's likely related to the connections between the finder and the rest of the camera. And so it transpired: the finder can sit ...

 I'm pleased with the two rolls I scanned at the weekend, but they're not as sharp as I would like. The possible reason for that is: the stand that holds the iPhone is not rock solid, so when I press the button, it wobbles. I set a timer at 3s, and watching it carefully, the wobbling was done by the time the photo of the negative was taken. But was it? just a little shake would be enough to soften the image. So, next go-round, I'll make it 5s.

  That's all from Molly and Sparky for now...

 I might try, later, to lighten the front of Molly's clothes, cast into shadow as they are... I'm editing these quite quickly now. 

Sparky loves to run for her ball, but she doesn't realise that she has to give it up in order for it to be thrown again, so you have to prise it from her jaws. I got lucky with the light leaks on this one, could be intentional (though it wasn't). That clover was a bit of luck too.   

 This is why, in the 90s, the F4 was a professional camera. Love it. 

  The more of these photos that I edit, the more I dislike the Nikkor 70-210mm. The learning point is, for the dog, use a 50mm, be in. place she can be off the lead, and get up close. 

I really must find out this man's name next time I go. It was the steam I wanted, but it didn't quite come off with that bloody awful white sky. The lesson here: if the light's like it was this day last month, don't bother going out... You'd be better going to the pub, getting a few snaps there.   

No visit to the Necropolis would be the same without a visit to Charles Tennant, who, 190 years after he died looks as if he's had a few. This is spoilt by a funny light leak by his eyes. It's time to 'fess up about the light leaks. In the darkroom, (aka our kitchen) I dropped a roll of film. I should  have knelt down on the floor and conducted a fingertip search, but I panicked and put the bloody light on, picked up the film and put the light off again. This ruined the first half-dozen or so frames, and left light leaks throughout the first half of the film. Lesson learned: if you drop a roll in the pitch dark, don't panic.   

  This displays a miscalculation of DoF. Or something. It didn't work out, anyhow. 

 I don't know what happened here. Nothing in the frame is in focus? Lack of concentration? Over-reliance on auto-focus? I'm blogging it as a salutary lesson.  

Maybe it would have been better to have her hair silhouetted against that (boring) sky? Or at any rate have found a better background. That's the lesson here, there are plenty of good backgrounds at the necropolis so, find one! And the light-leak on the bottom, a scanning error I presume?    

I said yesterday that I like the look of Kentmere 400 , and I do, but it's not always giving the definite contrasts you'd get with Fomapan, which I'll try next time I get b&w.  I like this one, the way the blowing hair is framed in that gap on the left between the gravestones. No need for air-blowers at the Eastern Necropolis.   

 Would have been better if I'd move a little to my left, and got in more of the sculpted narrative in the top right hand corner, which really is the subject. The grain is much more noticeable on the white face and whiter tee-shirt. Ghostly. Still liking the KM400. 

Here, I was trying to get compression from the AF 70-210mm lens, and I think that worked with regard to the block of flats on the right hand background. Mostly I wanted to get the steam (it's from the brewery) closer into the background, but that hasn't really worked. To get that white steam to be more prominent I'd want a really dark sky to contrast with it, and this was a yucky-light day, so it's white steam over off-white sky. There's a bit of unexpected vignetting on both sides of the frame, which is perhaps why zooms are less than ideal.  I like ol' big-'ead as a subject. He'll be better in Winter with less foliage, and a heavy dark grey sky, and I must try harder with that steam. I love this Kentmere 400: surprisingly unobtrusive grain, contrast and tone just right for the necropolis. Overall, not a bad photo, though nowhere near good enough to print. 4/10.  I'll go back, with the 50mm f1.4 next time. 

 I got the negative scanned in, eventually. And then got it from the phone to the MacBook, and then opened in ON1, and then worked out how to invert the negative. I did a tiny bit of editing, just to say I had post-processed it, kind of. And here we are.  This was shot a few weeks ago on an awful light day, (overcast, around midday) at the Eastern Necropolis. I was using the F4 with Kentmere 400. Just nicely grainy, which was a surprise because I saw a YouTube video about the F4 coincidentally shooting with KM which showed really excessive grain - I wondered if the photographer had pushed it to 800 or something? He didn't mention it.  More of this at the weekend. I shot two rolls of 24 exposures. NB: I started this post yesterday, it's taken a lot of effort just getting the photo inserted. The problem was mostly Google: I had to download Chrome, and then painfully realise it doesn't work with TIFFs. I don't know: has tech taken a great leap forward, and left me behind? ...

 ...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. 

  https://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/MTF.html

  M8, looking west, by the Infirmary. 

 Th F4 has lain in a box, under the bed, for 5 years or so. I hauled it out last weekend. I’d forgotten what an impressive bit of kit it is, but I’d also forgotten what the intimidating range of dials and switches all did, exactly. The manual wasn’t in the box, or anywhere else I could see, but I was able to get one on eBay for £1.16 plus postage, and I sat down with the camera and manual all day yesterday. Today, I’m swotting up on auto focussing with some help from Fstoppers . 

Buy an old camera described as "spares or repair" on eBay or at a car-boot, do it up, put a couple of rolls through it, flog it on for a modest profit. That's the plan. I'm indebted to Richard Haw for his site on this topic .