Category Archives: I love this film!
One of the staples of the Structure line of handmade films from Revolog, Lazer will give your pictures a touch of science fiction fabulosity, as if Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker were staging a light saber duel inside your camera. Dazzling green lines appear randomly throughout your roll of film. The effect is more subtle in over exposed shots and brighter in properly and under exposed frames.
Here’s the Lazer effect on an accidentally taken-in-my-photo-bag shot. I never intend to do this, but it’s fun to see the effects in their naked form (so to speak).
One of the first shots on this roll of film is also one of my favorites. Not only did I get a little light leaking, but I got a great green line. This roll was taken in my Smena 8.
I love the look of Lazer in my shots without people.
It’s not as nice through someone’s face, but it’s still interesting.
The first shots on this roll were taken at Playland, the amusement park on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. It’s one of my favorite places to take photos because it’s just so loud and colorful and crazy.
In this double exposure shot you can see a faint light green line on the right side.
This long exposure carousel shot also shows the green line on the right side of the photo.
Overall, I’m digging Lazer, although for shots of people, I’d prefer another roll of Revolog film, like Tesla or Volvox. With Lazer, you can go for an overall ironic look to your photographs, like taking shots of a Civil War Re-enactment with Lazer. Better yet would be to take pictures of a sword fight at a Renaissance Festival with Lazer. Now that would be something!
Yes, that’s a bacon-wrapped beer bottle on the cover of that magazine
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Leave a comment | tags: "revolog", "Smena 8", analogue, Beach, camera, Delaware, exposure, fi, fidelity, film, handmade, ipdegirl, jenni, Lazer, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, philosophy, photo, photography, postaweek2012, Rehoboth, review | posted in I love this film!
Revolog’s Kolor film adds rainbow hues to your pictures, giving them an extra dimension of beauty.
I love how the color shading turns an otherwise hum-drum picture into a thing of beauty. Kolor comes in 36 exposure rolls (love!!). Each frame’s coloring will be slightly different with hues in all shades of the rainbow. These shots, taken at a minor league baseball game, just happened to be shaded green, which really accentuated the color of the seats and field.
Unfortunately, Rite Aid didn’t do a very good job with this film. There were tiny little dots all over the negatives. At first, I thought my scanner was just incredibly dusty, but I think it’s little droplets of residue.
According to their website, the color shading will be more intense in areas of under exposure, making this the perfect film for toy cameras or any other fixed-aperture camera in which under exposure can be easily achieved.
This roll was taken in my Olympus XA4, so I had full control of aperture and shutter speed. Next time, it’s going into my Vivtar UWS or La Sardina.
Once again, I’m thrilled with Revolog’s handmade films. They may be expensive, but they’re worth it. Turning drab memories into a technicolor dream, Kolor can make your film look like it was taken in a leaky camera or cross-processed, all on the same roll. What other tool in your analogue arsenal can claim that statement?
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Leave a comment | tags: analogue, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photo, photography, plastic, postaweek2012, review, Revolog Kolor, toy | posted in I love this film!
I love what I have to share with you today because not only are these pictures from Key West, but they’re on Revolog’s Tesla 2 film. I love Revolog’s films because they add another layer of unpredictability to my photos, creating a little surprise in each frame. This was my first time using Tesla 2 and it’s my new favorite Revolog film, for sure.
With Tesla 2, reddish lighting bolts appear in random places within your picture, kind of like this.
How fun is that? You can channel your inner wizard/mad scientist, like my brother did in this picture.
I used my Lomography La Sardina for this roll, which in retrospect may not have been the best camera for the job. The focus is SO touchy! If you’re not in exactly the right place, your pictures will be fuzzy, and not in a good way. I brought this camera because of the bulb setting and ability to make multiple exposures but I think my Vivitar UWS would have been a better choice. With it’s fixed focus, I wouldn’t have had the problems I did with the La Sardina.
I’m not sure what the trick to getting bright lighting bolts to appear is, but I’m willing to spend more money and play around with the Tesla 2 to figure it out. Here’s what the film looks like when the picture is black. I’m unsure of what happened to this frame. Possibly, the shutter was tripped accidentally in my bag?
I love it!! Freaky cool, isn’t it?
It seems to me the more underexposed the picture is, the better the lightning shows up. More lighting also shows up in the darker places of each photo.
In these pictures, which are exposed properly or don’t have many dark places, it’s tougher to see the lightning.
These two pictures were long exposures. Much like the properly exposed film, the lighting effects are more subtle.
Because Hannah and Michael, the creators of Revolog film, produce each roll by hand, the effects are totally random, so there’s no full-proof way of framing your shot to maximize each film’s characteristic. To me, that’s the fun part of it all.
Once again, Revolog has wowed me. I love the subtle effects of Tesla 2. Because I was taking pictures of an already beautiful place, the lightning didn’t detract from my subjects. Instead, my pictures received a little injection of humor and surprise. I only wish it came in frames with 36 rolls instead of just 12 
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2 comments | tags: "Key West", "revolog", 35mm, analogue, bolt, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, ipdegirl, jenni, lightning, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, long, low, photo, photography, postaweek2012, review, Tesla 2, toy | posted in I love this film!
Yes, it’s another Fuji Natura Classica post, but this one is a little different. Here are the results from the 3200 iso Ilford film, which a friend of mine told me really acts more like 1600 iso film. This is the first time I’ve used this film (I never really had a reason to use it before) and I’m very pleased with the results. Overall, the high-speed black and white film photos are much nicer than the color photos I took using 1600 iso film.
For one thing, the contrast is phenomenal.
This tree picture looks almost like an HD digital picture! I also love the way the pine needles were captured on the floor of the woods.
The weather was overcast on the day I took these shots, but it wasn’t much of a challenge for this film and camera combo.
I also took some photos at the beach at dusk.
See the lights in the background?
The following pictures were taken at a restaurant. I wanted to see just how low I could go with the lighting.
Finally, I took some pictures of my favorite, rusty road sign.
The Natura Classica plus Ilford 3200 iso film is a winning combination! I usually develop my own black and white film, but I sent this roll out to be developed by someone (or something) that can load the film onto a spool without screwing it up. I still haven’t quite mastered that skill, but because I plan on buying many more rolls of this film, I guess I’ll get more opportunities to practice.
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4 comments | tags: "Fuji Natura Classica", 1600, 3200, analogue, Beach, black, callard, camera, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, film photos, Ilford, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photo, photography, postaweek2012, review, white | posted in I love this film!
It’s official: I am full-on in love with Revolog’s line of hand-crafted 35mm film. A couple of weeks ago I posted a review for Revolog’s Texture film, my introduction to their line of color-washed and textured film. I’ve since ordered two varieties, Rasp and Volvox, and run them through my Olympus XA4. My pictures were everything I hoped they’d be and more.
Rasp
Volvox
Rasp film has little scratches all over it. I don’t know what sort of instrument is used to scratch the film but it must be some sort of tiny, fine-pointed, Barbie-sized steak knife. The effect is very nice and not too overwhelming.
It doesn’t appear that Rasp’s characteristic scratches are enhanced by more light, in fact, I’m not really sure what enhances them. Reviewing my pictures, it seems the scratches stand out more in a solid background. Light or dark, I’m not sure the color really matters. Then again, maybe the depth of the scratches on the film is the x-factor. I’ll have to conduct more experiments to say for sure.
Volvox’s green circles turn your photos into crazy, dotted fun. I really liked the resulting dots on my Volvox roll as the orbs were multi-sized, asymmetrical, transparent and totally unpredictable.
I love how the orb effects range from bubbly to smudgy. This is a very fun film!
Revolog’s films aren’t for everyday use, but given the right situation the scratches and dots can add a little extra pop to your analogue art. I’m thinking of using Volvox to capture all the Halloween weirdness in my house. Those green dots look a lot like ghostly orbs and the ghoulish green color will look cool and creepy!
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2 comments | tags: "revolog", analogue, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, hand, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, made, photo, photography, plastic, postaweek2011, Rasp, retro, review, textured, toy, Volvox | posted in I love this film!
What do rusty pipes, peeling and blistering paint and scratched metal all have in common? They’re subjects I love to photograph because of their texture. If you are also a texture freak, you’ll love the Revolog line of films, created by Michael Krebs and Hanna Pribitzer.
Their website www.revolog.net describes their unique films as follows:
“Revolog produces special effect films for analog photographic cameras. Every film is handmade. Currently Revolog sells eight different effect films, but is planning to ongoingly enlarge their stock.The films are sold through the webshop and can be exposed and developed as usual.”
Effects like bubbles, floating green dots; scratches, lightning bursts, lasers and crazy color washes provide an added layer of texture to your pictures. Because they are made by hand, film effects are totally random so, are you going to get a lightning bolt through the middle of your subject’s head or will it be in the sky where it belongs?
Since it isn’t slide film, Revolog can be developed at your local one-hour photo-processing place. I gave my friendly photo technician a heads up before he developed the first roll of film because I didn’t want him to think he’d messed it up. He thought it was one of the neatest things he’d ever seen.
My best results with Texture have come when the film is not overexposed. I achieved maximum bubble-tude in the areas of my pictures that were darker, as you can see from these examples.
It would also be a great film to use in a full-frame exposure camera, like the Sprocket Rocket or the Spinner 360 because the texture is everywhere, not just confined to the frame. I haven’t tried the film in any of these cameras yet, but here’s what Texture looks like fully exposed
The first rolls of Revolog were only 12 exposures but since they have found a new film distributor Rasp, Volvox, Lazer, 460nm, 600nm and Kolor films will be available in 36 exposure rolls through their webshop.
I’ve shot two rolls of Texture film (iso 200) and I can safely say that I’m hooked. I love that Krebs and Pribitzer are flying in the face of megapixels and creating new film for us analogue aficionados. You can never have enough light leak or texture going on in your photos. Can you imagine using one of these fantastic films in a leaky camera? It would be pure abstract genuis. In my opinion, Revolog can increase your toy camera’s power by giving you MORE unpredictability, color and texture. What’s not to love?
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1 comment | tags: "Hanna Pribitzer", "Michael Krebs", "revolog", analogue, bubbles, callard, camera, cheap, fi, fidelity, film, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photo, photography, plastic, postaweek2011, review, texture, toy | posted in I love this film!
It’s been awhile since I’ve written about or reviewed new film but while scanning my latest vacation pictures, I made an interesting observation worth blogging about.
I love slide film because of it’s saturated colors and cross-processing ability. The only type I’m really partial to is Fuji Velvia because it’s so much fun to cross process and see the world through rose-colored glasses
For negative color film Fuji is by far my preferred film as well. I love Porta and the rich, but not too saturated, natural tones is gives. Plus, there’s a nice greenish/bluish tone to it that I prefer over Kodak’s orangish/reddish cast.
Here are some good Portra examples
I’ve realized, however, that I now have a NEW preferred slide film and that is Agfa CT Presica. While scanning my shots the difference between Fuji and Agfa was very clear. The blues were bluer, reds were truer and the overall color a much more accurate representation of what I actually saw with my eyes.
This is Fuji
This is Agfa
You can really see the difference. Now, was my Fuji film expired? Possibly. I don’t even keep track of that stuff. But the camera was the same and the lighting was comparable. Here’s another example
Fuji Film
Agfa
Those last two are among my favorite images from the trip and, again, were taken with the same camera (Vivitar UWS). The lighting was more harsh in the palm tree shot since I was looking up but I think the difference is still pretty clear.
The great debate over which film is best will certainly continue. I’m going to get some Agfa and Fuji (unexpired) and put them through some tests in the coming month. Hopefully the results will yield a clear winner…we’ll see!
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Leave a comment | tags: "cross processed", Agfa, analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, compare, cross, Delaware, Diana, fi, fidelity, film, Fuji, Holga, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photo, photography, plastic, postaweek2011, process, retro, review, Russian, slide, toy, verses, vintage, vs, x-pro | posted in I love this film!
Who else thinks it’s just wrong that my hunter green Polaroid One Step broke in the middle of Polaroid Week?
I was pretty upset. I do have an SX-70 as well but my 600 series was relegated to the parts pile after the velcro strap broke while I was taking it off the shelf. It crashed to the floor and a plastic bit flew away.
After purchasing 2 more 600 Series cameras (the Polaroid Spirit and another camera that was identical to my green one, except it’s blue) I was all set to try The Impossible Project’s latest version of Silver Shade instant film.
According to TIP’s website, PX 600 Silver Shade UV+ has a special UV coating to bring out the blacks and whites. Anyone who has used previous versions of Silver Shade knows it’s tendency to look more sepia-toned than black and white. I was THRILLED with the results I achieved with this new instant film.
I took my Spirit 600 and a pack of this new UV+ film to my daughter’s soccer tournament in Pennsylvania. The weather there is a bit cooler than at home so unfortunately, my white Chuck Taylors were a poor footwear choice. Wandering out into the soccer fields I saw some nice, gnarly looking trees. With my slider set to the middle of the light/dark setting, these are the shots I got.
Not bad. The blacks are much nicer and the whites fall more in the tan/cream/antique white family than the tan one. The sun was brilliant, the weather crisp (around 55 degrees) and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I couldn’t figure out why I was still getting some light spots so I moved the slider all the way over to the dark side and got this
BINGO!!!!
EXACTLY WHAT I’VE BEEN HOPING FOR!!
Beautiful, dark contrasty blacks and grays. White that is sepia-ish, but not brown (like in the previous incarnation of Silver Shade). I also love how there is more definition to the subject in this black and white film. As with other TIP films, it performs randomly in cold weather and by randomly I mean awesomely-randomly! I love what happened to the background in these next two shots.
The cool-looking crackiness adds a little element of electricity to my shots of these power lines. Those random white circles in the middle of each shot? Those are from me holding the film too firmly while I was trying to shield it from the sun. I’m going to try not to do that in the future but it does get the creative thoughts flowing (manipulation, drawing, etc. like the good old Time Zero film of past).
Here are a few more from that pack of film.
The last shot was taken in dimmer light, thus the more brownish tones. No worries. It’s still fantastic.
This latest version of Silver Shade is fan-freakin’-tastic. The improvement in the lighter shades is noticeable. It’s not snow-white and that’s a good thing because I really love the yellowish tones and the authentic vintage look you can create with it.
Seriously, I need to buy, like, 1,000 more packs (So, Santa? If you’re out there? I’ve been pretty darn good this year–downright well-behaved. How about some TIP film in my stocking?)!!
I can’t WAIT to see how TIP improves on this version.
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1 comment | tags: "PX 600 Silver Shade UV+", analogue, antique, black, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, Impossible Project, instant, Instant film, ipdegirl, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photography, plastic, polaroid, Polaroid Processes, retro, review, vintage, white | posted in I love this film!
First off, mad props to The Impossible Project for developing new instant film for classic Polaroid cameras. It’s gotta be difficult and expensive but those of us who love instant analogue photography are thrilled beyond words. I loved their Artistic-TZ release of old SX-70 film but I decided to take the plunge and purchase the Color Slide film when they offered it in a three pack at the beginning of the month.
TIP’s Color Shade film/First Flush is a great way to create dreamy, fuzzy and pastel-shaded shots. Everything about it is subtle, from the simple, white cardboard packaging to the finished image, which continues to change and evolve for a few days after the shot is projected from your camera. I decided to test out the limits of this film while on vacation in New England. The brilliant flower gardens, dark green ocean and blue, cloudless skies gave me plenty of worthy subjects.
Day 1: It was overcast and damp with occasional showers the first day of my experiment. With my first pack loaded and my light/dark dial turned down slightly to ‘the dark side’ I took some shots.
I wasn’t terribly impressed. The color was pretty bland and the whole thing seemed a bit washed out. I went back to the website to gain some insight into using this new product and learned that “the more light you are shooting in, the more colorful your pictures will get”. Cool, so I waited for a brilliant, sunny afternoon to continue experimenting and adjusted my light/dark meter.
Day 2: A lovely, sunny but humid day. I was ready to get some colorful images. My rainbow-striped Polaroid and I hit the beach with the kids. TIP explains that Color Slide film is sensitive to light and that “for up to two minutes” it is crucial to shield the film from light, but it is most important to protect it in the first ten seconds. Their suggested technique is to either shoot your pictures into an empty box or shield the photo with your hand as it comes out of the camera and leave it sitting upside down to develop. Clearly, I didn’t do such a hot job of protecting these shots from the light:
I wasn’t even shading these shots with my hand when they popped out of the camera because I wanted to get a clear idea of how much the sun would affect the film. That tell-tale pink light-leak tinge was all the proof I needed that the film shouldn’t see even the smallest amount of light while developing.
Okay TIP, I’ll follow the instructions now. Using the prescribed method I shot the next few pictures into an empty box and got some nice results:
They scanned really nicely but if you are looking at the actual picture the color is more washed out. Even after a few days of developing I didn’t get the vibrant color I was hoping for but the results are nice nonetheless.
Here are a couple more. These shots of the car got messed up when the film got stuck coming out of the camera because it got hung up on the empty box:
I kind of like that purplish/bluish clot of ink in the middle of the first shot. Since most of my pictures had a bluish cast to them, it made sense that the inks would contain lots of colors in that range. I ripped the white border off the second shot since I prefer to see the rough edges and lines beneath the paper. TIP’s website also features the work of an artist who has done some manipulations with Color Flush. I haven’t figured out how to do that well yet. This was my lousy attempt:
It wasn’t love at first blush for me with this film because I had some preconceptions of what kind of colors the film could produce based, of course, on the old films and inks. But the more I use it the more I like it. It’s moody and dreamy in a much more dramatic way than a toy camera or expired original Polaroid film. It’s the ultimate mood-inducer. You can attain dreamy and moody with a Diana or Holga but PX-70 Color Shade is the way to go for a true Alice-In-Wonderland or I’ve-only-gotten-2-hours-of-sleep kind of feeling. It’s great to have a new tool with which to create art. I look forward to later incarnations of Color Shade and can’t wait to see how far TIP will take this film.
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Leave a comment | tags: analogue, antique, Arts, callard, camera, Diana, fi, fidelity, film, Holga, ImpossibleProject, Instant film, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, photography, polaroid, review, Techniques and Styles, toy, vintage | posted in I love this film!
My husband would SO disapprove.
Let me explain. He is a firefighter. We faithfully change our smoke detector’s batteries twice a year and don’t even have candles in our house because of the fire danger. In fact, we were at a friend’s house one year for a Christmas party and she had LOTS of lit candles around her apartment. He tried to ‘covertly’ blow every last one of them out. Needless to say, she caught him and the story lives as an illustration of how safety-conscious my husband is.
How the heck does this relate to film? Having recently acquired the coveted SX-70 camera and TZ-Artistic film from the Impossible Project folks, I decided it was time to dive into manipulation head-on. Where else does one go for instruction? Why, You Tube and Flickr, of course.
I found this handy video that explained the basics of film manipulation but was still not feeling confident enough to try it myself. Needing more inspiration, I searched Flickr for SX-70 film manipulation groups. The artwork I found was amazing. What one can do with an instant photograph is amazing. There were photos that looked as if they were watercolor paintings and impressionistic masterpieces, photos that looked as if they’d been unearthed from a time capsule from 1970 and some that were whimsical with lines, squiggles and shapes added to otherwise blank areas in the photograph. The possibilities were endless and I was inspired. Some photographers gave detailed explanations of their manipulation processes, which was very helpful. A few described heating the photo to increase the time the emulsion could be manipulated. Sounds fun, right?
My first photo is my absolute favorite. A simple shot of some flowers on a blue table taken from above. I used a Q-tip to push the emulsion around a bit but wasn’t quite satisfied. I took the grill lighter and held it beneath the picture and found that I got these neat bubbles which created interesting snowflake-shaped patterns. I could also squish the bubbles for a more intense look. This got me thinking–what would it look like if I peeled off the white border? I’d seen some photos with the border removed and they were really gorgeous. After deconstructing my photo, this was the finished project
I love the distressed and aged look I got with this one!!
My second attempt was an indoor shot of a palmy plant. I wanted to try to mimic some paintings that I’d seen where a grid is very lightly painted over the entire picture, rendering a really interesting texture to the piece but at the same time, not distracting from the subject. I messed around with this one and heated it up a little and this was the result
Not quite as spectacular as the first one but still kind of interesting.
This shot seemed a bit dark so for the last picture I went outside in the late afternoon light and snapped a shot of a red hummingbird feeder. While it was still developing I traced the outline of the trees with a pencil and traced around some of the details of the feeder. All that was lost when I held the flame beneath it and it bubbled out. No worries, it was still pretty interesting looking.
I much prefer the first picture to the other two and I’ll be mimicking those results pretty closely. What I love most about the whole process is the uncertainty of the results. Since I’m so new to the technique my results are even more uneven, making for some crazy results. Look for more SX-70 manipulation really soon and if you have any helpful hints, please leave them here in the comments section.
Oh, and I didn’t set myself or any parts of my house aflame. Thank goodness!
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2 comments | tags: analogue, antique, callard, camera, cheap, Delaware, fi, fidelity, film, instant, jenni, lo, lo-fi, lomo, lomography, low, manipulation, modifications, photography, polaroid, SX-70 | posted in I love this film!
Yes, that’s a bacon-wrapped beer bottle on the cover of that magazine
ipdegirl
