using REDSCALE technique on B&W film

<p>I've been playing with different film techniques and just started my first REDSCALE roll using color film. If you don't know <strong>Redscale</strong> is the technique of shooting photographic film where the film is exposed from the wrong side, i.e the emulsion is exposed through the base of the film.</p>

<p>I'm very curious if anyone has tried this technique with black and white film and if so what the results were. </p>

<p>It really won't do anything special in B&W film because there is no emulsion layer to give a color change. You'll just get really flat, low contrast muddy negatives.<br>

Instead try putting a color filter over the lens and shooting B&W. Red filters increase contrast and make the skies darker. You can also try yellow, orange and green for similar and less drastic effects.</p>

<p>Exposing color film through the base will cause all 3 layers to be exposed equally to blue light and UV. Then, the red and green layers will get their own individual color exposures.</p>

<p>The result is usually a very desaturated, off color photo that is hard to balance in negative printing and is usually unsatisfactory by direct viewing if it is a transparency. Of course, this assumes you even know how to achieve a "normal" speed exposure at all. This alone will take quite a bit of trial and error to punch through the AH layer and account for the exposure through the base. It may require 1 - 2 stops or more of exposure to even get an image.</p>

<p>Ron Mowrey</p>

<p>Thanks for the heads up and saving me from a failed experiment! Here's a shot from my lomo lc-a redscale technique using 200 film with 50 ISO</p><div></div>

<p>That is quite good. I like it.</p>

<p>A bit overexposed and low in contrast. But, I like it. If you like it too, keep playing with the technique.</p>

<p>Ron Mowrey</p>

<p>I think there was too much color correction on it The Red scale I used recently Was almost like I shot it through a #15 red filter.</p>

<p>Yeah... I was wondering why it didn't look more red. </p><div></div>

<p>You need to scan them yourself and turn off the auto correct or have the people who scanned them for you redo them.</p>

<p>Joshua, your picture was probably overexposed and that's why it didn't look more red. I haven't tried redscale yet, but I have seen a lot of people on Flickr who do that. I read that if you overexpose the film, it cancels out the effect and the picture looks almost "normal."</p>

<p>By the way, one problem with those "lomography" cameras, like the Holga, Diana, etc is that you pretty much have no manual exposure control. I think what, they have two f-stops, and they're kind of "iffy" at that. I've even heard a few people say that the f-stops on the Holga are pretty much useless. So you have to choose the film to fit with the lighting conditions ahead of time.</p>

<p>Try redscale with a camera that has manual exposure control (like a 35mm rangefinder or SLR). Maybe this time try underexposing the film a little bit and see what happens. The redscale pictures I've seen do look pretty cool and I might try it sometime.</p>

<p>Here's a shot using Lomo's redscale film I took in Philadelphia on a rainy day.<br>

The effects of the flipped film are obvious here. YMMV. BTW This was exposed right-on, no up- or down-rating of the film.</p>

<p>I think Chris is right that the pictures were overexposed. I called the photolab and they said that there WAS color correction on the photo transfers. I had them transfer the photos again WITHOUT the color correction and they came out looking almost exactly the same. </p>