Way over exposed holga negatives

[christin_buehrer]

<p>

<p>I shot 400 speed film on a bright sunny day with my holga camera, then water bathed my film but still got super super overexposed film. Does anybody have any tips on how to print these very dark images?<br>

Thanks :D</p>

</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>You could try Farmer's Reducer on the negatives. Practice on some scrap negatives first tho', it's tricky stuff.</p>

<p>Or just increase the exposure time and try to print through the negs. It may take a minute or longer but sometimes that works. Try selective application of yellow and magenta filtration in combination with dodging and burning to control contrast, since overexposed and overdeveloped negs are likely to be extremely contrasty.</p>

<p>And next time remember to stick with slower film for daylight use with the Holga. Save the 400 and faster films for indoors and nighttime use. Because it has very limited exposure adjustments based on simple cameras from decades ago, it's intended for ISO 50-125 film in average daylight conditions. In the heyday of those simple cameras on which the Holga is based, 400 speed films were seldom if ever used. The old Brownie, GAF and similar simple box cameras I used as a kid in the 1960s were always used with slow speed film and I never had any problems with overexposure, even tho' I developed and contact printed my own stuff and, at age 8 or 9, barely knew what I was doing.</p>

[jon_shiu]

<p>Hi, one thing you might check, if your Holga has it, is that the setting for Bulb has not accidentally been set. It is the little switch below the lens that is used for long exposures. I once printed some pictures for someone who did this and got nice impressionistic style photos. Took around 4 minute exposure at grade 4.5 or so to print.<br>

Jon</p>

[evan_goulet]

 

<p>400 in bright sunlight will produce some dense negatives. For my particular style, I generally use the following film processing:<br>

Beach or snow, bright sun - ISO 50<br /> Regular bright sun - ISO 100<br /> Shade on a sunny day - ISO 200<br /> Overcast or deep shade - ISO 400<br /> Twilight - ISO 800-6400<br>

All these are with either HP5+ or Neopan 400 in the camera. I use HC-110 for pull processing and D76 for push processing or box speed processing.</p>