allen_ross1

Yes I second what Glen said. At 50 it may be too much. Meter the highlights and the shadows, write them down on a pocket notepad and then split the difference. Also if you're shooting at 50iso stop down to a minimum of F/11 I tend to think to help kinda create a more even exposure.

I had 1 reel that somehow turned a little bit of a light brown color and gummed up and throttled a roll of film. This was surprising to me because I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be sure to thoroughly wash my reels and all my processing equipment with Dawn dish soap and very hot water after every use and scrub with a brush about every other time. I'm so particular about proper care, mainenance and handling of my processing equipment and chemistry that the other day I pulled the chemicals that had been used for aout 5 rolls of film out of the cupboard and just out of curiosity ran a test roll through them which came out perfect, evenly deceloped, no issues or defects and exactly the right density in spite of the chemistry being almost 2 years old. that's shouldn't even be possible and wouldn't be if possible at all without proper care and storage. Anyway. so my film reel needs cleaning and after a little research some said vinegar and some said dish soap but pretty much all said hot water and soak over night. out of curiosity I used 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon of Dawn, added HOT water (i keep my water heater at 150F because I generally like to wash dishes and shower at Bout 130-140F) and let it sit over night. I checked it a little bit ago and the water had this pearlescent look to it and had all these itty bitty bits of silver matalic floaters in it. what is it? is it more likely that it's bits of silver from the emulsions that was stuck to the reels or tank? or is it more likely that the dish soap (a very mild alkli) and vinegar (a medium acid) reacted and took the chrome off the ball bearings in the reels?

If Tri-x is your go to I would say take a fair amount of that but if you want to try something out why not get a few rolls of the other to give them the shot. I know a lot of people who LOVE Tri-X, personally there are times I like it and times I don't. I think it has a little less latitude and comes back with too many inky blacks. Its often used for concerts and night scenes though it's a pretty versatile film that does AMAZING for achitecture. If you're going someplace like the beach, city or desert where there's going to be a lot of scene that are going to be HDR you'll want HP5+ because for general use of comes back a little flat. But it was specifically designed for HDR and for push/pull processing. Of you get HP5+ and are going to push/pull I would highly recommend setting a 1L packet of Microphen. If you shoot a lot of film you can look into a couple bulk loaders and get many films in 100' bulk rolls. Personally if I'm going to be just wasting films I'll go with a bulk roll of Kentmere or "Ultrafine" (they take film stocks and rent and them. One bulk roll I got was like Agfa Optima 100 or whatnot. Decent stuff) 100 or 400, generally 100. If I'm going to shoot something specific where I want to be absolutely certain on quality I'll go with Ilford Delta Pro, HP5+ for push/pull or HDR or Tri-X or Tmax depending on what I'm shooting. Flickr is a great Tool to use when you have a curiosity because you can search say "Kentmere 400 ID-11 1+1" and go through and take a look. You'll have to check the info button to be sure that it is indeed that film and was processed in that developer. Or that it is 3535mm or the format you're looking for and not something else. But it's great to see what a film is capable of and how it looks especially when coupled with a specific developer. You can also type in just the film and search to see what it looks like in different developers, or the developer to see what it looks like in different films. I hope this has helped. Have a good day and happy hunting.

Relax, breath... For most black and white film and paper processes that I've looked into the chemicals/compounds in the chemistry sound kind of gnarly and have a lot of trigger words in the precautions. When in reality many of the chemicals are used in every day things from medications to water/waste treatment, etc. Black and white fixer is generally ammonia-thyalsolphate potassium thyalsolphate and sodium thyalsolphate for the majority of the mix and All 3 of those chemicals are used in the waste treatment process before it's airated and pumped out at the end of the line. Also my dark tank leaks a few drops per every agitation cycle so I just rinse it off my hands in water, dry with a towel and do something else for the 50 seconds till the next agitation. Unless I'm processing paper I don't bother with gloves and even then I might wear gloves and don't bother with tongs because tongs are a pain in the ass. The risk is very marginal. I worked on a polycrete plant working with polystyrene which acts as nerve gas from continued exposure and after 2 years I'm still kicking. I wouldn't worry about it. The chemicals in black and white process are actually very mild and tame. Just wear gloves for paper processing, rinse any off you hands periodically during film/dark tank processing and wash your hands, forearms, counters and equipment thoroughly when you're done. Generally the only reason I rinse the chemicals off my hands and keep a damp cleaning cloth and such handy while processing isn't for my sake but for the sake of the chemicals. I want to eliminate and reduce the risk of cross contamination as much as possible, and because of such self discipline and practice I was able to use chemicals (ID-11 and Kodak paper/film hardening fixer) the other day that had been stored for almost 2 years with fantastic results. So while it's a great idea to keep everything clean and tidy and to be kinda OCD about it Its more the chemicals effecting the other chemicals that you have to worry about because unless you're working in a commercial lab where it's in the air and you're contacting it all day every day for 30 years... You shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I agree with Eugen. There are SO MANY different films and emulsions it's important to know what it is. If it's cold stored it should be fine. I shot some color that hasn't been made since the 90's that was cold stored and there was a little bit of lost of color vibrancy but no color shifts or whatnot. And I want to say I've shot black and white that was long expired and the only think I really noticed was increased grain and a little bit flat. Very easily fixed with a little levels and contrast adjustment aside from the grain. I would say iso 50 on an iso 400 film is probably not the greatest idea. It IS 16 years old but I would say 200 or 160 should be plenty sufficient from older films I shot in the past.

I don't know anything about 4×5. But in the reserves (i just finished my contract) we usually end up someplace sweltering hot, either dry or humid, little to no shade, living in tents or hooches for 2 weeks with no electricity and I've always taken my smaller camera bag/outfit and a gallon zip lock bag of film for any of the almost no downtime we would have. I've always been sure to make sure the film never went through X-rays no matter how safe the TSA people say it is (i don't trust it) keep my equipment in a waterproof bag (seriously we went to AFRICA for 2 weeks, they hadn't seen rain in 10 months, we show up, 3 days later there's a gigantic storm that caused a flash flood in a matter of minutes that flooded our camp in the middle of the night) and even though it's generally mostly sweltering hot and dry I would always ensure the film was in the middle of my seabag or pack with everything else packed tightly around it for insulation. The jungle, dense forrests and rain forrests are probably the only climates you'll encounter where it do not get get at least cool or cold at night. If you keep the film in the middle of your suitcase and pack all your clothes around it and keep the suitcase in the trunk rather than the cabin of your car you should have no problem. The only places (LeJeune, 29 palms/Mojave desert, Mississippi in july, AFRICA in july, etc) that I've ever had an issue with the film being subpar was Africa and 29 palms and even then I think it was mostly a matter of old film and it took me month or 2 to get to processing it afterwards. I would recommend using your suitcase and clothing as insulation and getting it processed as soon as you can get back. Not only is it almost sure to keep it cool, but it also causes very very subtle and gradual temperature changes. There were times I went digging for something in my seabag where it's 115F outside 130F in the hooches and it's like 70 degrees in my seabag.but not only very subtle temperature changes but humidity, moisture, water, dampness all has to get through all the insulating layers of clothes before it can get to your film and such and if you unpack it all for about a half hour in the middle of the day while you eat lunch and keep it in the shade it'll dry it out some.

Claire. I'm not pro myself. But some things that seem to pretty prominent to me... I would recommend a new lab altogether or at least tell them "just process through the chemistry and scan without any filters or adjustments". It looks like a combination of things... Firstly the green couple come from their scanning or filtration but... Okay so Portra 400 and Ektar 100 are some of the very best color neg films out there in my opinion. Very rich, very accurate and have a very wide exposure lattitude. Both are based off of older Motion picture filmstock emulsions that were adapted to C-41 chemical process. I want to say on Portra 400 you can go as low as 50 is 100iso and as high as 2000 or 2400 (I know 1600 iso is almost no different than 800 iso which looks just slightly brighter than 400) iso and still come back with a decent image that can be reigned in to be good in post process. Portra is the closest you can get to slide film as far as luminance, color acuity, shaprness, contrast etc but with a much wider exposure latitude than most other color negative films. So I HIGHLY doubt it's from exposure. ALSO not only are you working with 2 of the best film stocks, but last year I exposed a roll of Superia 200 and one of superia 400 that were expired by more than 2 years on a bright sunny day, over exposed by up to 2 stops over, mixed up C-41 chemistry for the first time ever, processed it at a lower than optimal temp (76F vs 103f) and went over on development time by a full minute adding about 1/2 stop in processing. Asked my local lab I use (Thompson Photo Products) to just scan with NO adjustments at all so I could see if I need to tweak me process and they can out so colorful, sharp, crisp, smooth, evenly toned, not too flat, not to contrasty... They were Damn near perfect. If I could get those results with those kind of odds out of a Wal-Mart shelf film you can surely get better out of Portra or Enter. After about 20 rolls in the chemicals that are only supposed to last for 12-15 rolls I finally got that well and had 2 that were basically junk because of exhausted chemistry. And I'll give you 1 guess at the most prominent effects of the exhausted chemistry. Blown out highlights, flat muted colors and a green cast. However I was scanning on my flatbed and just out of curiosity I took them down to my lab and had them scan them with no adjustments which helped a little with the contrast and green cast but they were still junk. So.. At the beginning of the post when I saw the headline and initial post my first instinct was "bad chems" and I think that's still one of the more dominant defining factors. So firstly I would find a new lab. Secondly I would ask them to "please scan with no auto adjustments" of course in scanning it will have to go through negating the Orange base which gives it a cyan look. But either the current lab is using no adjustments at all or they're using too much. Its better to see what you're looking at first and then adjust from there rather than trying to work around someone else's butchery. Also, if you can, in brighter scenes stop down. Generally if I have 200 or 400 in I'll hang around f8-f13 depending on the lighting and situation. This will help emensly with things as far as contrast and balance between highlights and shadows and you should still be to have shutter speeds around... I want to say 1/1000th on shutter speed? Going by sunny 16. You take you ISO and do 1/iso for direct bright sunlight unless it's high noon or a special condition like that. So to over expose by 1/2 stop for the shadow you bring the shutter speed down to 1/350 for 400 ISO and the as you move down in stops (open up) you move uo your shutter speed. So f13 becomes 1/500, f11 becomes 1/750, f9.5 becomes 1/1000 and f8 becomes 1/1500. If you can try this out and see how it works for you and if it's still a little too bright try adjusting for a "Sunny 19" rule considering you said it's usually very bright out where you are and it seems like the ground reflects a kid of light as well as there not being a lot of trees or buildings to stop or refrain or absorb light. But ranch cat and driveway rocks appear to only be about 1/2-1 stop over what they should be and the high contrast seems to be from the intensity of light along with a smaller aperture like a 5.6 and whatever they're doing to it in the making. But that green cast seems like more of a chemical issues which tells me to advise you to find a new lab because even if you have the camera in P and it's using f5.6 and trying to spot meter for the black cow and the shadows still I don't think is should be that bad especially with the latitude that Portra has. But yeah. I hope I was able to help. Also that sunny 16 rule... There are places you can look it up and print off a template to laminate and stick in your pocket or camera bag that have like a grid chart where you can pick say an EV 5 and go over and compare aperture and go up to the top of the column and it will tell you your shutter speed or whatnot. Sunny 1y is a very valuable rule/took to remember, a while back I was camping with a buddy and we went to a waterfall in the late afternoon, I wanted to take a long exposure so I set my digital to 100iso, and an f22, I metered a few places to get an average shutter speed, took out my ND filters and added 2, 4, 8 for 14 stops of reduction; set up my trypod, got it set where I wanted it, borrowed a pen from a nearby tourist, scribbled on my hand the original shutter speed, 14 stops and counted backward 14 stops from the original shutter speed to find a total shutter speed of 10 seconds, went to 15 seconds just to be safe, put the filters on the lens, hooked up my shutter release cables and clicked. Took a shot at 15, 1 at 10, 1 at 20. Packed it up and went back to the car where my phone was charging and double check with my app and sure enough 10 was spot on. And I wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't remembered sunny 16 and the halving/doubling rule. Again I hope I've been some help and I hope you're able to get it sorted out. You seem to enjoy it, and you're using a great film so between grabbing the bull by the horns and finding a new lab you should be putting out some outstanding images here soon, I've followed you on flikr and I look forward to seeing you taking pride in success in the near future.