Back in June, I took a walk around Leicester’s cultural quarter to admire some of the new street art that was created during the ‘Bring the Paint’ festival of the previous month.
Tag Archives: velvia
Better news!
Sorry to post these pictures again, but you seem like a friendly bunch…
You might remember my Good News, Bad News post from earlier in the week, when I mistakenly ended up getting a roll of Fuji Velvia (E-6 slide film) cross-processed in C41 chemicals. Well, today the negatives arrived back from the lab (I used the scans they’d emailed previously) and so I thought I’d have a go at scanning them myself and making some correction to get rid of the worst of the cross-processing effects, as I’m not a big fan.
I read somewhere that if you tell the (Epson) scanning software that a film is black and white negative, but set the output to 24-bit colour, it would help – I have no idea why. Anyway, I did this with the first two shots on the roll, taken into a setting sun on Newcastle’s Swing Bridge and it worked. The colours were much more accurate, with none of the previous excesses:
Compare these to the previous, lab-scanned versions:
The colours are still a little wonky, but I prefer them…
My 52 rolls so far:
Good news, bad news
Good news – I started another roll on our trip to Newcastle at the start of the week, and finished it on a trip to Wakefield on Tuesday.
Bad news – It was Velvia slide film so I wouldn’t be able to process it myself.
Good news – I had been meaning to try FilmDev.co.uk after reading about them on Tim’s posts on 52Rolls, so here was an opportunity.
Bad news – I didn’t spot that they only process C41.
Good news – David called me and asked if I wanted the film cross-processing, so I agreed.
Bad news – I don’t really like the look of cross-processed film.
Good news – 24 hours after I dropped the film at our local post office, I got the link by email to download my pictures. An excellent service.
Bad news – I still don’t really like the look of cross-processed film!
All shot on a Yashica-Mat 124G with Fuji Velvia 100. Cross-processed and scanned by FilmDev. The crazy variations in colour I guess are due to the variety of lighting conditions, from shooting straight into a low sun on the swing bridge in Newcastle, through sunny conditions outside the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, to the artificial lighting inside of the gallery. I’ll have a go at scanning them myself when I get the film back, just to see if I get different results.
Incidentally, I went to see the excellent Martin Parr show that included the picture shown above which continues to be one of my very favourite photographs. If you get the chance to go, it really is worth it.
And don’t worry, photography was permitted!
My 52 rolls so far:
Wrocław Brutalism – Plac Grunwaldski
The previous couple of posts have featured brutalist buildings from Berlin and photos that I took on our way to Poland last month. Once we arrived, I’m pleased to say that the concrete didn’t let up and I spent some time visiting some lovely Soviet era creations including the 6 towers and associated commercial blocks that make up the Plac Grunwaldski in Wrocław. The estate was build between 1970 and ’73 and designed by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak. They are in a terrible state now, but still make for a real landmark on the Wroclaw skyline.
Once again I used my medium-format Bronica SQ-A camera and a selection of Fujifilm Velvia 100 and Kodak 400Tx (that I processed and scanned at home).
Plac Grunwaldski, Wroclaw, Poland
Bronica SQ-A, Kodak 400Tx
Plac Grunwaldski, Wroclaw, Poland
Bronica SQ-A, Kodak 400Tx
Plac Grunwaldski, Wroclaw, Poland
Bronica SQ-A, Kodak 400Tx
Plac Grunwaldski, Wroclaw, Poland
Bronica SQ-A, Kodak 400Tx
Plac Grunwaldski, Wroclaw, Poland
Bronica SQ-A, Fujifilm Velvia 100
Plac Grunwaldski, Wroclaw, Poland
Bronica SQ-A, Fujifilm Velvia 100
Plac Grunwaldski, Wroclaw, Poland
Bronica SQ-A, Fujifilm Velvia 100
Berlin Brutalism – Forschungseinrichtungen für experimentelle Medizin, Kramerstraße, Steiglitz
On our way to Poland last month, we had an all too brief stop-over in Berlin. I only had a couple of hours spare while Gosia went to see the sites and I spent them visiting the Forschungseinrichtungen für experimentelle Medizin having seen pictures of it on-line. Continue reading
PKS Syców
On our recent trip to Poland, I took my Bronica SQ-A, Zorki 4 and Lomo LC-A and used them to photograph my usual Polish subjects – old Polish cars, socialist architecture and the things that sort of sum the place up and show how different it is to all that is familiar in England.
As usual, I processed my own black and white films (a collection of Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP5+) using whatever chemicals I have to hand, and as usual, I quite enjoyed the processing. However, scanning negatives is always laborious and usually takes me a couple of rolls to get the settings and workflow that I’m happy with. I need to check the condition of my scanner somehow and print some of the negatives to see how they look without the digital part of the process to see if it is my negatives, the scanner or just my haste to get through them.
Enjoying the convenience of having two backs for the Bronica, I also took a couple of shots on Fuji Velvia that were processed and scanned by Peak Imaging.
These first few pictures were taken at Syców’s bus station. Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Samochodowej, or PKS, can be translated as Motor Transport Company and is a major Polish enterprise dealing with inter-city public transport using coaches. It was created as a state enterprise in 1945 in post-war communist Poland as Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa (State Motor Transport). In 1992 it was renamed to its current name. Until recently it had a monopoly on suburban bus transport in Poland. Recently it has been broken up, with many new companies being privatised.
Buses in Poland appear to still be popular and I’ve read that part of the reason for Syców’s development into a town the size that it is is because of its bus connections. At some point during the 1960s, a pretty typical Soviet era bus station was built in a style and from the materials that almost everything else built during that era was; ie. modernist straight lines and concrete.
I’m not sure if it has ever been refurbished or even painted, and it looks a pretty desperate place to spend time waiting for a bus. While taking these, and for the first time in Poland, I was approached and warned against taking pictures, being threatened with ‘Ochrona!’ I didn’t hang around to find out if the guy was serious…
