Post your photography skills! (self-gloss) - Page 228

Hmm... it's a love relationship. I have the Mamiya 645 1000s which I got quite cheap (170 €) together with a 80mm f/1.9 lens off eBay in mint condition. It's a solid camera, mostly metal with quality plastic. The lens hoods look like a plumbers tool but I think I should use it, the lenses seem to lose more contrast without it than I'm used from the Canon EF lenses (less sophisticated coatings?).

It has some drawbacks though. It's one of the Mamiya 645 models which has no replaceable backs, so you can't rotate it for portrait format. With the waist level finder you're stuck at shooting horizontal. That makes me think I should have gone to a 6x6 like Hasselblad or a Rolleicord. I don't want to get a prism because I only bought it because I want to shoot wlf.
Also the 80 1.9 is difficult to focus (it behaves like ~ 50mm f/1.2 in fullframe), I heard the 80mm f/2.8 is smaller and sharper.

But in the end, image quality is incredible. Makes me wonder what 6x9 would look like, that's twice the space.

That is from when I was shooting the bridge


Now I'm kinda considering what to do. I love shooting analog because of the way the images turn out (so I consider a Leica M, Voigtländer Bessa or Rolleicord), on the other hand it's a pain in the ass to get stuff developed and scanned (I have the choice between cheap & slow [2 weeks, 8 €] or fast & expensive [1 day, 18 €], scans are only 1.5 Megapixel at both). Unfortunately it's hard to get that look from digital. Analog b&w has my heart.

You could always get your own photo scanner? You can get some Epsom and canon models cheap. Yeah the developing part sucks to pay for everytime. The fuji X series produces close to film straight out of camera than any other. I feel your pain though . I'm in the same boat.

I think the only option would be the Epson V700, that would cost me 600 €. The Nikon ones are better but the run around 2k, that's not what I'm willing to spend. Same for the new Plustek. I have seen some good results from people who use their DSLR. They typically build a holder, that's what I'm planning to do on the weekend. I only need the digital versions to check for sharpness and exposure, if I would want to have it printed nicely I'd anyway want it printed by hand from the negative and not from a scan.

I have a Fuji X100 and while it does great OOC JPEGs, they don't have the grain like film. That's the only complaint I have about the DSLRs, they look too clinical for my taste, they lack the organic feeling of film. While I can get the colors and contrasts nice in Lightroom, they grain doesn't look the same. But I can live with that.

I guess a big part why shooting film is so much fun is just that you don't see the result instantly, there is a higher satisfaction when you finally have the developed negatives and can see if you screwed up or have done well. With digital, I just bracket the scene with x different apertures and exposure times to make sure I nailed it .

I want to shoot a lot more film so I'm contemplating setting up my own darkroom. Large prints optically produced from negatives is expensive and there aren't many labs around that do it anymore. I'm def going to get a decent scanner one of these days. Everyone around here wants way too much money for high res scans.

On a side note I found a #29 red filter in one of my camera bags. Hmmm, I have a roll of B&W film and the skies are supposed to cloud up and get stormy. Just might have to go out and do some really high contrast landscapes.
Edited by Crane's - 11/20/12 at 5:30pm

So if what I remember about a 29 filter and black and white film is correct I should end up with landscapes that look something like this.


Trouble on the Horizon by DYSong Photography, on Flickr

Wow.

That cloud is looking mad.

That cloud is awesome

We get some mean ones around here but nothing like the ones in Oklahoma. Some of those are just incredible. Here's another workup of the same storm. What one needs to remember is this storm is 12 miles high and 60 or 70 miles away from where I was standing.


Rough Road Ahead by DYSong Photography, on Flickr

Damn those clouds are insane.


A little scene from the Netherlands:

Not my picture but what do you guys think of the post processing?

I think it's unbalanced and causes the viewer to focus on the girl in the middle.

^^just looks like a run of the mill photo set. I don't think too much about it because I don't think the person photographing did either. They didn't bother to burn all the stuff to the left of frame and the faces are blown out. It just seems like some candid shot.

more from the L35AF fuji superia converted to BW post

I think I'll be buying the fuji x-e1 and 35mm f1.4 lens

Anyone else thinking about getting the x-e1?

I thought about it. I like the look of it, and the same sensor as the x-pro1. However, I'm just going to settle with the x100 for digital and get a contax system for film. I do think the xe-1 would be a great system though!

That's pretty crazy. It reminds me of John Davies photography in a strange way. Or even the Maier-Aichen untitled series. Incidentally, both were auctioning at Phillips de Pury in London this past month.