Daily Inspiration #459 by Jason Nutter

November 22, 2013 Daily Inspiration 30

Hey Steve did you see this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25046060

I also shoot with an old Leica (a beat up M2), and thought I could share a few images with you and the rest of the readers. You know, just to prove that some old Leicas are still used for making pictures 🙂

Just got back from Hanoi, Vietnam, and in what was a scary endeavour for me, decided to develop my own pictures. YIKES! As you can tell, there are numerous dust/scratch marks on the negatives, but I am really happy to have taken the plunge. Also I am happy with the results considering its my first ever attempt at developing film.

Pictures were taken with said M2, a Canon 50mm f1.8 LTM, and exposed with the Sunny 16 rule.

Film used: Ilford hp5 @ iso400.

Developer: Ilford ddx, 27 degrees celsius for 6 min

F1000010

Just so you know, I started reading the blog when I was using a Nikon d7000. Since then I have tried and sold the wonderful Fuji x100, Canon AE-1 Program, Leica M3 and now the Leica M2.

Thank you for all that you do, and for all the other readers/contributors with sharing their work with the rest of us. Hopefully other readers who are on the edge contemplating developing their own film will take the same plunge I did. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

 

Those interested could see some of my other pictures at:

http://picturing1000words.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading.

Jason

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30 Comments

  4. I’d rather view your home-developed, dusty, scratched neg images than anything out of a digital Leica. Keep going, friend.

  5. I like these a lot, particularly the second one with the obviously start raving mad barber, about to slice the throat of his customer, who has closed his eyes in peaceful anticipation. I wonder how that shot would have looked with the focus on the barber’s eye? It must be a lot of fun walking around with such a simple camera, no complexities to worry about, just use your eyes and take a shot every now and then. Sunny 16 worked!

    The developing and certainly the scanning are very well done, though I would have preferred a more contrasty look, deeper blacks in particular. 400TX and D76 1+1 would have been my choice, but these certainly have excellent gradation!

    • Haha. I had one if those shaves myself. I must say it was a very interesting experience! Throat, nose and lips at the mercy of a man I can hardly communicate with!

      Regarding contrast, would ubderexposing a little more help? Or maybe a filter of some sort?

      • Hey Jason! No, I think with sunny 16 across a whole roll you’re pretty much stuck with whatever accuracy or errors your judgements have resulted in. I don’t know DDX, but seem to remember that long ago there were “compensating” developers, which smoothed out the contrast. ID11 (which is the same as D76) might give you more contrast but a slightly coarser grain as well. Then of course there’s agitating during development; the more you do that, the more acutance and sharpness you get. To be used in moderation!

        This is all delving in my memory, as I stopped developing myself over twenty years ago.

        Cheers,

        Michiel

  6. Excellent work – your blog has some amazing shots. And sunny 16 proves you have a great eye for light and shows off the latitude of film. Who needs a stinkin’ meter?

    • Thanks Jim! Glad you like my work. Sunny 16 is fun but oh so agonising sometimes. You don’t know if you have gotten it wrong until its too late! 🙂 Which makes it extra special when you nail it.

  10. Nice article and images. Thank you! The 50mm LTM 1.8 is my favorite lens right now (I bought Steve’s a while back actually)! I just love the classic rendering it provides. It’s also very affordable.

  11. Thanks for sharing! I’m curious – how did you digitize and process these images? I’ve been developing my own (Olympus OM-1 & caffenol developer – its own story…) but I find that the scanning and file handling process to be challenging. This set looks well-handled.

    • I’m interested in this question too. I’ve been scanning my negatives (B&W and C41) lately using a Nikon D800. I’ve been very happy with the results. The B&W negatives are pretty straight forward, but the color negatives are tricky. I’ve been posting my DSLR “scans” to my Flickr page. I’d be interested in anyone’s input on how to do things better. Flickr Page: http://flic.kr/ps/mTcKg

      • Very fun to work with the coffee. Caffenol.org has recipes and instruction to start out. Once you get your times/formula down it works like any other developer, using supplies you can get at Kroger!

    • Hey Trey/Scott w,

      These were 4 bit scanned at a lab. Really quick and easy. I just can’t get my Dslr working well enough.. seems like the hassle just isnt worth it (especially for b&w shots). Sorry can’t help more!

    • Thanks Ibraar. Glad you liked it!

      Was so fun picturing the Hanoi streets. The people, the sounds, the smells. Felt like stopping to take a picture meant running the risk of getting run over 🙂

      Seeing the snaps come to life after they drip dried in my toilet was pretty cool as well!

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