These are some of the older B&W film pictures I have shot at the Jarfly over the last year or so. The Jarfly brewery makes great beer, has some awesome music, and you meet some of the nicest people there.
A few of these photos may a bit blurry but I will share them anyway. With low light and narrow depth of field at f1.4 or so, and my old eyes, I do misjudge the ideal focus at times.
More information on these photos were shot and developed is at the bottom of the page.
These pictures were shot on a Nikon FM 35mm film camera from 1978. The lens is a modern Nikon 50mm f1.8D otherwise known as the “nifty fifty.” The film used in most of these was Kodak Tri-X 400.
Shooting in low light indoors at night is challenging. Using my widest aperture of at F1.8, 400 speed film is not nearly fast enough for hand held use with no flash. To get a faster shutter speed, I pushed the film to asa 1600 with Rodinal developer. At 1600 asa I was generally able to use f1.8 or F2 at 1/60 of a second. A few shots required a 1/30 of a second and a steady hand. One or two brighter lit shots were shot at 1/125 of a second. In looking back, perhaps a push to 3200 asa would have gained one one stop of shutter speed and prevented some blur. I think next time I will try a roll of film at 3200 and we will be able to compare the results.
The recipe I use for pushing Tri-x to 1600 with Rodinal is as follows.
Mix Rodinal 6mL with 600mL water at 68F. This is the 1:100 mix ratio.
After film is in the tank, rinse it with water 3 times.
After rinse, add Rodinal mixture and start your stopwatch.
Agitate for 30 seconds slowly, tap tank on table let sit for 30 minutes.
At 30 minute mark, agitate 4 times and tap tank let it sit 30 more minutes.
At 60 minute mark, agitate 4 times and tap tank let it sit 30 more minutes.
At 90 minute mark, dump developer and rinse 3 times with running water.
FIXER: — Ilford Rapid Fixer 1 part fixer to 4 parts water at 68F.
I use 150 ML of fixer and 600ML of water. I store this in a large dark colored plastic jug. It is reusable.
Zero your stopwatch and start it again.
Now add fixer mix list above. Agitate 3 times and tap tank. Let sit for 1 minute. At end of each minute agitate 3 times. Continue this fixing process for a total of 5 minutes.
Rinse film with running water for 4 to 5 minutes.
Use Foto-Flo wash additive if you prefer, or use straight water if you want.
Hang up negatives to dry.
Further notes:
Many people say temperature is not super critical and and any normal room temp will work. Personally I like to keep the developer and fixer at 68F when I pour them in the tank. being consistent on temperature helps remove one more variable, regardless of how minor that variable may be.
I do not use stop bath for stand development. I use the water rinse and then go right to fixer.
I reuse my fixer several times and test it before use. Here is link on to test your fixer. link
This the exact recipe I use for pushing Kodak Tri-X or Ilford HP5 to 1600 speed with Rodinal. I hope this helps simplify the process for people who want to shoot film but are confused by all the conflicting recipe information I see on the internet.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Perhaps this information may help you if you want to push some film yourself. As always thanks for stopping in.
Jeff