• 1313: The House on the Rock. (24 Aug 2022. HP5+ @ EI 1600.)
  • 1321: Kinda Fonda Wanda @ Hook & Ladder. (9 Sept 2022. hand-rolled Kentmere 400 @ EI 1600.)
  • 1316?: (probably. Written down as 1306, but is maybe 1316? Or possibly 1272, or something else? Anyway, at the time of this writing, 1306 is still undeveloped and sitting right next to me.)
  • 1309: Gov’t Mule. (16 Aug 2022. HP5+.)

More catch-up from my film backlog! Still have plenty to do. Using my new four-roll tank that I picked up for the first time.. All development here took place at 72 degrees, which was as low as I could get the cold water to come out of the ground. It’s close enough for stand development, anyway. All four are Kentmere 400 exposed at EI 1600; I’m trying a full-stand development here; the massive dev chart suggests a 120-minute full-stand. This is at 1+82, because I thoughtlessly forgot to account for the fact that this is a one-liter tank. Oh well.

Loaded inside daylight changing bag. Pre-wet film for ~45 minutes. During the pre-soak mixed 12 mL Rodinal in 1L tap water. Poured developer in and topped off with tap water. Agitated 40x over the first minute, knocked on the tank several times to dislodge bubbles, and let it sit for two hours. All agitations are all half-agitations, gently (i.e., gently twisting to a 90-degree angle, then gently back).

After 120 minutes, disposed of developer, rinsed in 70 degree water. Fixed in Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4 for 7 minutes (that’s now 34 rolls in this batch of fixer, 8 rolls since replenishment), inverting 10x over 15 seconds at the top of every minute. Reclaimed fixer and rinsed for ten minutes in tap water, then emptied tank, added a few drops of Photo-Flo, filled tank with tap water and agitated 20x, and hung negatives vertically to dry.

Evaluation and notes

Roll 1309

Like rolls 1307 and 1308, the lighting situation made this roll mostly a loss, but developing in a stronger-than-normal Rodinal bath for a longer time salvaged some semi-usable shots (1, 4, 10, 17).

Roll 1313

Mostly a loss: partly because it’s just too dark, partly because I was too stubborn to go find another wire spool when I started to suspect that the spool I was initially loading onto was bent. It was, it turns out; and so some of the well-exposed shots didn’t develop evenly. But there are some more or less unequivocal successes (13, 16, most of 18–25).

All in all, for HP5+ exposed at 1600 in lighting conditions like this, I prefer the 1+82 full stand to the 1+100 full stand: contrast is a lot better, and the edges are noticeably sharper.

Roll 1316

(Assuming, of course, that the roll in question really is roll 1316. This seems like the most likely scenario, but I’m always uncomfortable with anything not 100% certain.)

One of the better rolls shot on this particular day: HP5+ continues to look great in Rodinal, even pushed to EI 1600, especially when the Rodinal concentration is upped to 1+82. There’s some really great statuary photos here (2, 3, 15), and reasonably good results are sometimes available even when decent handheld exposure is impossible (12, 13, 16). The dark atmosphere really brings out the uncanny creepiness of the mannequins and dolls here, too. Itried to make that same bent spool work again (dumb!), but it’s now been thrown out. Still, that lost some otherwise-good shots here.

All in all, a mixed bag, with the good shots mostly occurring early.

Roll 1321

Kentmere 400 doesn’t push to 1600 as well as HP5+, and it’s got a thinner base that’s more of a pain to deal with in the dark. It may also be helpful to try agitating slightly more in the future if I try this again. But there are some nice pictures here of the opening band: 3/16, 7/20, 17/30, 25/38, 26/39, and 27/40 in particular stand out.

Shooting at a concert is always a crapshoot, especially with a manual film SLR, and there’s the standard set of problems here: lighting changing and performers moving quickly are the major culprits. But all in all, this is a moderately successful concert roll.

photos posted