Film Photography Podcast – Episode 105 – June 15, 2014
The internet radio show for people who love to shoot film! Recorded LIVE from the 2014 FPP Walking Workshop! Special Guest Keith Swan from TheDarkroom.com! New Svema Films! Develop Your Own Color! Large Format Report and Lots More!!
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Show Notes
Film Photography Podcast – Episode 105 – June 15th, 2014
Show Notes By Alex Luyckx
Recorded live at the 2014 Walking Workshop in Findlay, Ohio! Join Michael, Leslie, John, Mat, Dane, Mark, and special guest Keith Swan for discussions about the FPP’s favourite Lab: The Darkroom, Svema Film, Large Format Update, Book of Month, Developing your Own Colour Film, and much more! Grab an ice cold Mister Brown, kick back and enjoy the shoo!
Couldn’t make it out to the Walking Workshop, and want a chance to win free processing (for one roll of film) from The Darkroom? Check out the giveaway page to enter for your chance to win! Note that you must be within the continental United States to enter, have not attended the Walking Workshop, and you need to include 4$ for return shipping.
It’s no lie the FPP loves The Darkroom, so when Keith Swan, one of the co-founders said he was going to fly into Ohio for the workshop the gang was over the moon! So how did the lab start? Keith and Phil Steblay (also no stranger to the FPP) started the lab off as a Commercial lab, catering to California’s camera stores to handle their processing requests but as the number of stores dwindled the lab began to offer their services directly to the customers themselves. They opened up their market to the Internet four years ago and haven’t looked back since! They offer their services to anywhere in the world and do a full range of films, including Infrared colour, and odd and rare formats and types. They’ve also recently teamed up to operate the Ilford USA mail in lab! The Darkroom is also running a special contest for anyone who was at the photowalk on the Saturday of the Walking Workshop, enter your images on their facebook page for a chance to win a Minolta XG-M! (Open to residents of the continental USA only)
Special Svema Films!
The latest addition to the already fantastic selection of film in the FPP store is fresh stock from the legendary Svema line of film from the Ukraine. Svema has its roots in the Soviet Regieme, founded in 1931 soon became the premiere film producer in the USSR they started with just black & white, but following the seizure of the Agfa factory by Soviet forces following World War II adding colour to their lineup.
Their main factory officially shut down in 2006, but recently was purchased and reactivated and now producing a full range of films. Leslie Lazenby, the self-proclaimed Queen of Svema loves them all. The FPP offers up the classic FN-64 along with Photo 100, 200 and others – all Black & White. FPP also carries the Color 125 (C-41).
Ollie (the FPP pug) shot on Svema FN64 (above) and Svema Color 125 (below)
The Black & White film is a fantastic panchromatic film, and the colour has a subtle pastel like pallet nothing like the pallets you see with Kodak or Fuji films. As for developing and handling there is nothing finer, sure the thin polyester based films you might have some trouble getting onto plastic reels (Leslie suggests Stainless Steel – Mike says he’s had no problems with plastic), it will dry perfectly flat, and beautifully easy to scan. The colour film you might see some trouble with in lab scans, but if you scan it yourself it’s easy to tweek in Photoshop. If you’re sending it to a lab, Keith notes, you will want to mention that the Photo 100 and 200 are a thin polyester base, which some films may not be equipped to handle.
With all these non-standard films being offered by the FPP, Leslie suggests putting together an FPP Cookbook got a special formula for a film like the Svema or Eastman motion picture lines? Let us know, podcast@filmphotographyproject.com
Develop your own Colour C-41 – It’s not as hard as it seems!
Mark has been having a blast developing his own C-41 films at the Smoove Lab, and even went and led a workshop at the Walking Workshop on the topic. Developing your own C-41 is not as hard as you may think! You can get a kit that creates a simple three-bath system, similar to doing B&W, you have your developer, Blix (Bleach and Fix), and a Stabilizer. You really have to do the work at a higher temperature than B&W (Between 95F and 105F). Mark, in true fashion has been doing it all over the (temperature) map.
Many however have been scared off of doing it yourself, both Mat and I have ruined some expensive Large Format films and now just send work off to labs. But if you want to give it a shot, you can pick up the kit from the FPP Store, you will need bottles to store the chemistry in as it comes in powder form (so it can be shipped across the border, no smuggling needed), then you just mix with water. You can pick up these bottles easily from your local dollar store or on-line at shops like http://stores.photoformulary.com/
Darkroom Tips
One of more tricky things with the darkroom is proper storage of your chemistry. The first tip for storage is keeping your dry chemistry separate from your wet chemistry. If you live in a very humid area you might want to get some desiccants to keep the moisture down. For your liquids, Mat continues, it’s important to keep it as air tight as possible. You can get accordion style bottles to help keep the air out from Freestyle.
Large Format Report
Yes folks, Ilford is running it’s bi-annual Ultra-Large Format order! If you shoot anything other than the usual 4×5 and 8×10 now is the time to send your order into Ilford! Cirkut, 7×17, 20×24, you can order almost any Ilford stock! Check out their list of offered stocks, sizes, and where you can order it. Mat says that Mid-West Photo Exchange in Columbus Ohio is on the list of places you can put your order in. But you have to get the order in before the end of June!
Book of the Month
Leslie’s pick for book of the month is “Pictures Under Discussion” by John Loengard. This fantastic book was brought to her attention after reading a review of it in a 1987 issue of Peterson Photographic and she knew she had to get her hands on a copy. This book goes deep into John’s reasons, titles, and even the technical aspects of the photos presented, written by John himself. You can pick it up fairly cheap from Amazon, and worth the purchase, Leslie has a hard time putting her copy down.
That’s it for us! It’s been great being in front of a live studio audience! We’ll be back in just two weeks! Until then, shoot us a line either by email or by regular mail (PO Box 152, Butler NJ 07405 USA). Until next time, keep shooting, post in the pool, and get out and enjoy the great weather!
Also, if you want to see our very own John Fedele in SSI (the late-nite TV spoof of the CSI tv show). See the trailer here and keep an eye on the FPP store’s DVD section…you just might be able to snag a copy!