Tag: diafine

How to get really grainy pictures

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Here are some tips for getting more/larger grain in your pictures:

  • Push ISO3200 film as far as it’ll go in your developer. As a rule, pushing increases grain.
  • Use a high-actuance developer like Rodinal and…
  • Agitate the hell out of it.
  • Shoot as small a frame size as possible (the smaller the negative, the greater the enlargement factor, and the bigger the appearance of grain). There are several options for sub-"full frame" 35mm: the Olympus Pen series are half frame, and Canon/Bell & Howell made some as well. You can get anything from point & shoots to really sweet SLRs (check out the Olympus Pen F and FT for that, I have an FT and love it).

    If you want more cowbell, check out the quarter-frame QuadCam (only $13.95 from American Science & Surplus), or bite the bullet and give those monopolistic rip-off artists at the Lomographic Society way too much money for an Oktomat (1/8 frame) or a Pop 9 (1/9 frame).

    There’s lots of info on subminiature cameras at subclub.org.

  • Cross process color negative (C-41) film in black and white chemistry. Underexposure helps, the only digital manipulation on this was the sepia toning:

    The Depravity of Voyeurism
    The Depravity of Voyeurism, underexposed [I think it was] Kodak Portra 400VC, developed in Diafine. It’s this grainy on a 4×4cm negative, so a submini would probably be really unbelievably grainy.

  • Ilford Delta 3200 film processed in Diafine is a particularly grainy combo for me. Here’s maybe 1/5 of a 35mm frame with no manipulation at all:

    Untitled
    (Bigger version here)

Tin-foil-lined Holga

Nicolai Grossman 7 Comments

Ever wonder what happens when you line a Holga with aluminum foil? Me too!

I crinkled the crap out of it to hopefully get lots of light bouncing around in different directions, and lined the camera, shiny side out. The irregular vignette is because I wasn’t very careful about leaving the edges of the light path clear.

 

The Briggs in its natural shooting environment

 

I expected the lowered contrast, but was thinking I might get some random specular-type highlights. Nope. Of the whole roll, this is the only frame that had a visible artifact (the white wavy form near the top). But this does show that you can easily control the shape of your vignette, just take the back off and put some crap around the square hole you can see the shutter through.

If you care, this is Kodak T-Max 100 developed in Diafine.

Fomapan 100 film in Diafine developer reference

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Fomapan 100 film in Diafine developer reference by Luke Healey

Luke Healey has posted another Diafine EI test (see his previous test of Tri-X), this time of Fomapan 100. Check it out in his photostream at Flickr (larger version available there).

If you’re not familiar with Diafine developer, it’s got several magical properties: it’s a split-bath compensating developer, so it’s difficult to get blocked shadows or blown highlights, one batch can last for well over a year, its temperature range is wide enough (21–30°C / 70–85°F) that you don’t need a thermometer, they recommend you not use a chemical stop bath (just water), film needs to spend at least 3 minutes in each bath (but can spend more), and since the development time is the same for every film, you can develop different emulsions in the same batch at one time. If you’re gentle with the agitation, it’s quite fine-grained. In short: AWESOME.

For more info, see the Diafine group on Flickr, Grant Heffernan, or Sherman Dunnam Photography.

You can buy it from Calumet Photographic, B&H, and Amazon.com in the US, among other places. For the UK, hit Retro Photographic.

High speed Tri-X in Diafine reference, ISO 2000-6400

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

High speed Tri-X in Diafine reference by Luke H

Flickr member Luke H tested Kodak Tri-X 400 film (400TX) in Diafine developer at high speed. He shot the frames above at ISOs 2000, 2500, 3200, 4000, 5000, and 6400 with a yellow filter.

Check it out in Luke’s photostream at Flickr

If you’re not familiar with Diafine developer, it’s got several magical properties: it’s a split-bath compensating developer, so it’s difficult to get blocked shadows or blown highlights, one batch can last for well over a year, its temperature range is wide enough (21–30°C / 70–85°F) that you don’t need a thermometer, they recommend you not use a chemical stop bath (just water), film needs to spend at least 3 minutes in each bath (but can spend more), and since the development time is the same for every film, you can develop different emulsions in the same batch at one time. If you’re gentle with the agitation, it’s quite fine-grained. In short: AWESOME.

For more info, see the Diafine group on Flickr, Grant Heffernan, or Sherman Dunnam Photography.

You can buy it from Calumet Photographic, B&H, and Amazon.com in the US, among other places. For the UK, hit Retro Photographic.