General Photography | Instant Photography In London With The Polaroid 600SE

If you are a regular reader of this blog or just a casual passer-by, by looking at a few of the posts that are on here you can no doubt surmise that I have a few rare cameras. A few of them I can’t really use because you can’t get the film for them, but there are ways around that. Click the link to the previous post to find out.

One of my favourite of these cameras is my Polaroid 600SE. It’s not the easiest of cameras to carry around with you, one good example for this can be seen when I have to separate the camera and lens to fit it into my bag. Add to that that I had to take a light metre [due to the camera’s lack of an internal exposure metre], a couple of notepads, pencil and the HD camera for the video. So as you can imagine my bag was pretty heavy. Oh and before I forget to mention, in the video above I give a quick ‘how to’ on using the Polaroid 600SE and things to remember as well.

The camera itself was quite hard to find with a lot of people on eBay either selling it for way too much in my opinion or without lenses, which makes it useless to me. I found myself calling around a large group of local photographic shops at first and then expanding my search. And that’s when I found one at a camera store called Mr Cad [link below] at their Croydon branch.

I got the camera body itself at a slightly reduced rate because of a slight dent on the top but aside from that the camera works perfectly. I have used the Polaroid 600SE is one other blog post and that was my portrait session with Holly Defroand.

Actually the photos that I took of Holly were actually taken on the day I bought the camera, getting a lift from Mr Cad to the train station and making my way to central London. If you have clicked the link it may be obvious that it is only the top image that was taken with the Polaroid 600SE and that’s because that was the image that I was actually proud of from that day that was taken with the Polaroid 600Se the rest were taken with the Canon EOS 50D.

On this particular photo trip [the one that this post is about] I was joined in London by Tom Giddings and Heather Torrance. Both of which had their own individual photographic equipment and all three of us had our own techniques that we were trying out. These are explained in detail in the video which is above. And you can see examples of their photography in the links below.

Street Photography. Now although I have always thought that Street Photography has always lent itself to film photography but it’s somewhat hard to feel inconspicuous when you are holding a Polaroid 600SE as it is pretty big but I feel that with some of the black and white shots that I managed to get some good ones, especially the one of the two old men.

All of the photographs in this post, if you haven’t guessed it, were taken with the Polaroid 600SE. The colour shots were taken with Fuji FP-100C Instant Peel-Apart film and the monochrome shots were taken Fuji FP-100B Instant Peel-Apart film. I used one pack of each. One pack should in theory give you about ten exposures but the majority of my Fuji Peel-Apart film expired in 2005 so photographs are never really guaranteed. Also, the day before I went up to London I found a Polaroid film back with five shots remaining in it and decided to get through those. So on this trip I had five colour shots and ten black and white shots. I am including eleven shots in this post with the majority of them being taken on the Fuji FP-100B monochrome film.

Also a little note, I digitally edited one of the shots, the first shot below had a black mark on it that I decided ruined the shot somewhat. Also, below I have put the links that I said I would include in the video.

Experimental Photography | Brighton. And The Rising Cost Of Postage.

The camera loaded, the plan set, we were on our way. The journey to Brighton seemed to take less time than the one to Dover but I could be mistaken. We got to Brighton and for some reason decided to park a 15min walk away from the seafront. Parking a distance away from where we wished to be meant that after walking for some time we thought it best to move the car to avoid paying quite a bit for parking. One of things that we did was try to find a post office, this was for another project that I am up to. The details and results of this mystery project I will post about when it’s completed.

You may be wondering why I decided to use a camera that was made in the 1930’s that you can’t even get the film for and the answer for that particular question is simple, and the answer is one I can give for the majority of my actions: Because I hadn’t done so before.

Before I forget to mention it the camera that I took along with me was the Kodak Six-20 Brownie Junior UK model. Information of which can be found on the link below

Kodak Information

The film that this particular camera takes [as the name of the camera suggests] is called 620 film. Which can easily be mistaken for 120 film as they are a similar size. When I first bought this camera I only really glanced at it and assumed that it took 120 film and I had already got home when I tried a film and noticed it didn’t work. This camera was produced from 1934-1938 making it quite possibly my oldest camera. I have a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex [TLR] that was make in 1936 [I think] which takes 120 film that I have used on this blog before [as always, the link is below]. Now the TLR takes 120 film and even though it is quite old works perfectly and can even be connected up to a modern studio set up, which I will hopefully be doing sometime this week.

General Photography | London Through The TLR
Date Posted: Friday, 10th September 2010

Travel Photography | Pisa, Italy
Date Posted: Monday, 23rd August 2010

Whilst in Brighton I did look around for some cheap electrical tape to plug up the red exposure window but I couldn’t find any so I settled on the stamp which is also how the camera got its name, The Rising Cost Of Postage. Firstly, the reason I wanted cheap electrical tape was so that when it was peeled of it didn’t take any of the camera off with it and secondly I tend to give my cameras stupid names at times. The Holgaroid that I made was in its 4^th rework when I got some OK photos out of it. OK in that they were exposed correctly, it still didn’t focus. And due to the blurriness and the fact I mainly used black and white Fuji peel apart film in it [Fujifilm FP-100B], I named it ‘The Sweeping Shadow Camera Four’ [link below].

Experimental Photography | Self Made Holgaroid
Date Posted: Thursday, 27th August 2009

Now as with anything experimental, photography or otherwise, you cannot expect good results on the first go and I did make some mistakes this first time. I didn’t wind the film on enough so a lot of the images are over exposed and the stamp wasn’t as opaque as I had originally hoped. A couple of days afterwards I went and got the film cross processed and looked at the results. Now as I had said in the video I know it was going to be an issue when it came to scanning and as it turns out, with my scanner it wasn’t actually possible. If you look at the image below you can see the set up I had to make in order to get the photos to my computer. I taped the film to the light and photographed it with the Sigma 18-50mm lens at 50mm and then once I had got it onto my computer I inverted the colours and cropped the image. Even though it was slide film that I had used, getting it cross processed meant that it had become a colour negative.

Now as you can see in the video, the Kodak wasn’t the only camera I had taken, I had also taken the Canon EOS 50 just in case. And below you’ll find a few photographs from the day in Brighton taken on the Canon EOS 50D and a combination of the Canon EF 28mm f1.8 lens and the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens.

And now you can see the images produced with Kodak Six-20 Junior Brownie. In case you didn’t catch it on the video the film I used was Fuji Velvia 35mm ISO 100.

So that’s it for today’s blog post, there are a lot of links to previous posts in this one. But I feel it’s a good way to make sure that old posts and websites with relevant information don’t get left out. I’ve got another post [and corresponding video] all written and finished but I have to wait a couple of weeks to get the prints done. If you feel like getting in contact feel free.

Experimental Photography | Cross Processing [x-pro]

As you may have seen in a previous post or maybe my Flickr account my bedroom wall is near enough covered in photographs and a few posters. Although, maybe not surprisingly given the nature of this blog and how I spend my spare time, the majority of the wall that is currently covered comprises of photographs. These photographs range vastly in content and method. Most are my own, made up of a series of Polaroids, film photographs, digital photographs and some passport photos for good measure. Even just saying film photographs doesn’t really cover it as there are quite a few different formats of film photographs currently placed into the format that I seemed to have adopted.

The photographs that are up are a mixture of photographs that I am proud of and other of friends and family. Other articles blu-tacked to my otherwise boring white wall are drawings, gig tickets, posters, postcards and the rules for ring of fire to name a few. I am kind of proud of this wall as I had spent a long time putting it all up and an even longer time taking it all down again and re-doing it. This second phase was carried on by my little brother when I moved out in 2009.

My little brother was standing looking at the wall recently, although when I say little he is in fact 19 years old, and asked me why some of the photographs have such strange colouring to them. After looking over to figure out what he was talking about [my first thought was fading or maybe that they had somehow became wet] it occurred to me that he was pointing to the photographs in particular that are cross processed.

Cross processing is the method of getting a film processed in a style for which it was not originally designed. The most common of this is to get a slide/colour positive film [designed for an E-6 process] and have it processed in chemicals designed to process colour negative film [this is known as a C-41 process]. And that is the method that I have mostly practised but cross processing [sometimes known as x-pro] can be any sort of mix so you can put colour films for black and white processing and so on.

Cross processing can result in higher saturation and higher contrast but the results are generally unpredictable adding to the fun of it. Although I would have to say, a really good subject matter is a vibrant sunset as it works really well. I have featured cross processed images on the blog before on my Fisheye2 post and because of that those images will not be featured on this post. As always with this blog I have included links for further information. These run throughout the post but I am also going to place them at the bottom of this text.

Generally my memory is terrible, but as I look at the photographs that I am going to include in this post I can say with absolute certainty that except for the photograph at the bottom the photos were taken on a Pentax K1000 35mm SLR camera using Fujifilm Provia 100F or Fujifilm Velvia 50. Both great 35mm slide films [E-6 Process] in their own right that quickly became my favourite when it came to choosing a film for cross processing.

The other last photo was taken on Kodak UltraMax 400 film still using the Pentax K1000. The photo was taken in a Woolwich building society in Gravesend, a town close to where I live. Not sure why I thought it was ok to take photos but the photo turned out ok and I didn’t get into trouble. Not how the photo has come out with a strong green tint. I only found this to happen when I processed colour negative film in slide chemicals.

The problem with cross processing is that it can ruin the chemicals used for everyday processing so some places maybe somewhat reluctant. I find that Snappy Snaps are usually very good when it comes to cross processing. But you could always ask beforehand and see what they say, from experience it’s best to ask that they write a note on the film docket otherwise there may be some confusion.

As you probably know, the effect of cross processing can be achieved through manipulation of Curves in Adobe Photoshop. This effect simulates the effect of colour slide film in a colour print process [E-6 in C-41] and although it looks convincing I personally prefer the traditional method.

So, below you will find a selection of photographs, all film based and achieved through the different methods of cross process photography. Enjoy.

Links.

http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/film/films/pdfs/velvia_RVP_AF3-960E.pdf

http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/film/films/pdfs/provia_100f_AF3-036E.pdf

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/documents/4c/0900688a8088594c/E7023.pdf

http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Pentax_K1000

http://www.snappysnaps.com

General Photography | Lomo Fisheye 2

It was about three years ago, I don’t remember the exact date, but I do remember it was summer. I had gone up to London to meet up with my friend Heather. It was general day up in central London and at one point we had made out way to the Photographers Gallery. This was when it was still in Great Newport Street. The gallery now resides on Ramillies Street, just of Oxford Street. And I went straight to the shop, as I would usually do, but today was different. Today I actually had money. So I went into and there I saw the camera that I had been drooling over slightly just a few weeks prior. This camera [as you would probably have already guessed from the title of this post] was the Lomo Fisheye2 Camera.

The Lomo Fisheye2 camera is a small 35mm compact camera with a 10mm fixed lens attached to the front of it. This gives you a focal length of 170mm on 35mm film. Some of the main differences between the original Lomo Fisheye camera and the Fisheye2 that I purchased is that the one I purchased has a BULB setting for longer exposures. A hotshoe has been placed at the top of the camera. This is useful so that you can attach an external flash unit to the camera and the ability to make multiple exposures. All of these new features I have used during my time owning this camera.

The majority of the photographs that I have included in this post were taken on colour positive film which was then cross processed. Cross processing is a method of getting strange and unusual colours from your films as the results are generally unpredictable and I like it because it keeps with the Lomo way of thinking. To cross process you need a colour positive film [E-6 Process], expose the film as normal and when you go to get it processed ask for it to be put through a normal colour process [this is called a C-41 Process] and it turns your positive film into a negative film and you get pretty astounding results as times. Not alot of places cross process films these days, so it’s best to ask around beforehand. A good place to try is Snappy Snaps as they are the only ones I know of that are local and still do it.

You can fake cross process results with some presets in Adobe Photoshop. But after seeing the results that this digital processing produces I feel I can say that nothing beats the real thing. One of the good things about cross processing is not knowing how the final print will come out.

One of the shots on this post was featured on the Abduzeedo blog. It was a post entitled 60 Interesting Lomo Fisheye Shots. I actually forgot about this till recently. I have included the link below. Also if you click the word Abduzeedo above it will take you to the main site Abduzeedo website. Do please have a look as it’s a great website and they have plenty of tutorials one there for Photoshop and other image editing websites.

http://abduzeedo.com/60-interesting-lomo-fisheye-shots

In today’s post I have included 13 photographs. All of which were taken with the Lomo Fisheye2 camera in various locations, but mainly in London. They were also all cross processed after exposure except for the black and white photograph which was processed in a standard way. Upon having written this blog I have decided that I am going to be taking my Fisheye 2 out again soon. As it has been sitting atop my printer for some time and I may write a second post with more up to date photographs.

The Photographers Gallery
- http://www.photonet.org.uk/

Abduzeedo
- http://abduzeedo.com/

Fisheye2 Microsite
- http://microsites.lomography.com/fisheye/specifications/