Being Experimental

In the last post I talked about the conception of the Lancoast essay and focused a little on the Micropress 4" x 5" camera that I converted to a pinhole camera.  Well, the time had come to test it.

Roe Lee Pavilion - Rollei ATO 2.1
exposed for 3 seconds processed
in Rodinol 1:300 for 12 minute

I had taken a couple of shots with it before but they hadn't turned out very well mainly down to my inexperience with this format of film processing and shooting.  The way round it?  Learn more, shoot more!

The first two shots that came out of the camera had an issue with them.  

Firstly, I developed the negative in a tank with not quite enough chemical in it.  My maths, my fault!

Secondly; there was an artifact on the negative and I couldn't work out why.  The answer was simple and complicated at the same time.

Roe Lee Pavilion - Rollei ATO 2.1 exposed for 75 seconds
processed in Rodinol 1:300 for 12 minute

I had temporarily secured the pinhole shim with masking tape, just to try out the camera.  The bottom of the shin had come away causing a slight light leak on to the negative.  Simple.  The artifact pattern was a little more complicated.  The way the film is produced caused an odd light distribution pattern and was the reason I overlooked the obvious.  Nicholas Middleton talks about it a little here.  This page is invaluable for anyone wishing to experiment with this film.

After taking the camera to bits I re-secured the shim with duct tape (the material without all building projects would fail!).  Time to load some more film.

A few weeks earlier a couple of us were discussing shooting with the pinhole and the length of exposure.  The calculator I was using gave an exposure time of 3 seconds.  Bob thought that it was too short but any instructions I found regarding the film did not intimate any reciprocity failure. So the next shoot was to be an experiment in exposure length.  The first shot was taken at 3 seconds which the exposure calculator suggested.  The second shot was taken using the the reciprocity failure of FP4+ as a guide (is was the only guide I had to hand.  Must luck harder!).   The exposure time became become 75 seconds.  The result, Bob was right!  In fact I think 75 seconds isn't quite long enough!

Both negatives were developed in a tray under red light using Massive Dev Charts recommendations of 1:300 Rodinol for 12 minutes.  The result.  A usable image.  Not quite perfect yet, but we're getting there!