Tag: film

Polaroid: Type 55 film NOT discontinued

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

Following the story of one of Polaroid’s coating plants closing reported by South Coast Today, several message boards have been alight with rumours that Type 55 positive/negative sheet film is discontinued.

Bill Schwab (who BTW makes fantastic pictures) actually bothered to call Polaroid, and said:

Just got off the phone with Polaroid (easy) where I was told that Type 55 is FAR from dead. In fact I am told sales are quite strong and consistant. I was told there are several coating facilities. I am now forwarding the article David linked to because they did not know of these rumours and want to read them before commenting further.

Check them facts, y’all. Picking up the phone before feeding the fire isn’t hard, it’s responsible. Of course the company may lie to you, but at least you’ve done some due diligence.

Heat-damaged film examples

Nicolai Grossman 3 Comments

Heat fogs film and creates other "interestingness", which is why most people store it in the fridge or freezer (but don’t freeze Polaroid!). It’s impossible to predict exactly what will happen to any given roll of film, so don’t mistake this as a "this is what you’ll get if you take this emulsion and expose it to this amount of heat" reference. It’s different every time, this is just meant to show some of the different effects I’ve run into. Most of these are from a bag of rolls I left in a hot car in summer: same conditions, many of the same emulsion even, different results.

 

Bras

Kodak Portra 400UC 120 in a Holga left out in hot summer sun for about an hour, after which the camera was hot to the touch. This is the frame that was advanced, ready to be shot, and therefore got the most heat exposure. Curiously, the rest of the roll seemed unaffected.

 

Heat Damage Example: Ignore

The distinct red spots are from the heat and the vertical line of white spots is chemical residue from crappy processing. From here on out, the film was left in a hot car, not sure for how long.

 

Less-defined red areas. Kodak Portra 400VC, 120.

 

Mottling. Kodak Portra 400UC, 135.

 

Blue edge. Kodak Portra 400VC, 120.

 

Rusty swath. Kodak Portra 400VC, 120.

 

Rusty swath and mottling. Kodak Portra 400VC, 120.

 

More examples in the Heat-Damaged Film group on Flickr.

Bizarre cross procesing technique: film accelleration

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Cross processing is developing film in the "wrong" chemistry, for example shooting slide (E6) film and processing it in the chemicals meant for colour negative (C-41) film. This is normally what’s meant when people say cross processing, but it can go in almost any direction. You can also do C-41 film in E6 chemistry, or any film in B&W chemistry. The only thing you can’t do is B&W film in colour chemistry, because the bleach leaves you with a blank roll.

Apparently "film acceleration" is a bit more complicated, and sounds a lot like something called the "Henry Beck process" that the owner of my local lab told me about (and I can find absolutely no information on anywhere). Instead of a simple chem switch, this is: underexpose slide film, pre-soak, soup in B&W developer, wash, fix, wash, bleach, C-41. Yeow! But the results do look unique.

Read the how-to, with sample images, at JPG Magazine.

Flickr member pochedunfou also has a large set of accelerated photos, which serves as an excellent reference of the effect across a number of different emulsions of varying age.

Update: pochedunfou pointed me to the Be Great: Accelerate group for the technique on Flickr. Cool!

First ever World Film Photography Day announced

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

This bulletin in the news area of Fuji’s choose-film.com site says:

The first ever World Film Photography Day (WFPD) is to be held on 20th March 2008.

This will be an opportunity for photographers to go out on the same day, shoot some film, and within the following four weeks post one of their resulting images on the WFPD website.

Although it can be said that every day is a photography day it is intended that this one day will help to achieve four things:

  • to celebrate all that film photography has to offer,
  • to bring together film enthusiasts on the same day for a single purpose,
  • to encourage the use of film for new photographers and digital converts,
  • and to keep the film market alive for future generations to enjoy.

It is also anticipated that many photographic manufacturers, retailers, magazines and organizations, as well as other photo forums, will also come on board and participate in and support the day.

The WFPD website includes a free to use mini-forum which is open now, and is the place where images taken on the day may be posted (in a dedicated section that will open for posting one month from the 20th March). As well as a growing links section and a new area for film related articles, there are numerous additional features planned for the site during the year.

The WFPD Calendar:
1st March 2008 – Start of general run-up to WFPD.
20th March 2008 – World Film Photography Day. Get out and shoot some film! Also the image sharing forums will open on the website.
20th March to 20th April 2008 – Time to develop, scan, and post an image on the site or with one of the participating forums.

Further information plus contact details may be found on the site at www.worldfilmphotoday.org.

This appears to work the same way that Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day does, in that you go out and shoot some film and then upload your pictures to their Web site. I can’t find any submission terms, though, so that’s something to look out for before uploading.