• 1346: St Paul and environs. (10–19 Mar 2023. Orwo DP31 (as Lomography Fantôme) @ EI 8 in K-1000.)
  • 1319: MPLS / STP / MN Landscape Arboretum. (30 Aug–4 Sept 2022. Orwo DN21 (as Lomography Babylon Kino) @ EI 13 in K-1000.) (on bottom)

Two more rolls, with standard agitation schedule. Both are new rolls I have never developed before.

Loaded inside daylight changing bag. Pre-wet film for ~30 minutes. During the pre-soak mixed 10 mL Rodinal into tap water to ~450 mL. Poured developer in to the two-roll tank and topped off the tank with tap water. Agitated 20x over the first thirty seconds or so, knocked on the tank several times to dislodge bubbles, and then agitated 5x at the top of each minute to a total development time of nine minutes. All agitations are all half-agitations, gently (i.e., gently twisting to a 90-degree angle, then gently back).

After 9 minutes, disposed of developer, rinsed in 70 degree water. Fixed in Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4 for 6 minutes, inverting 10x over 15 seconds at the top of every minute. (That’s now six rolls fixed in this batch of fixer.) 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 1319

Underdeveloped (though I’m sure it was exposed correctly at EI 13), and often dark. There’s very little dynamic range on this film. There’s also plenty of scratches: the film is extremely curly and has an easy-to-damage emulsion.

It does, however, make for some beautiful pictures of the industrial parts of Minneapolis: dark and brooding, with lots of contrast between light and shadow. It really accentuates the late-afternoon light in the shots along Hiawatha Ave. The downside, of course, is that it’s necessary to carefully judge what part of the frame’s being metered, because some of these shots were apparently exposed for the sky (e.g., 9).

Film is also unevenly developed (see, e.g., 3). I think that increasing the development time by 30% or so would be a good starting point if I’m going to use Rodinal 1+50 again.

Roll 1346

First few shots were known to be underexposed by three to four stops, so no surprise that there’s nothing usable there. Trying to bring out detail on those shots really highlights the mineral spotting, which is bad on this roll because it’s almost impossible to get it to be truly vertical while hanging, so water clings to it, even with a wetting agent.

There’s some nice shots on the rest of the roll, though, but boy is this genuinely a high-contrast, low-exposure-latitude film. Some of the shots of the abandoned hotel (04–07) work well, though the snow on the roof is blown out and the pavement is almost black. Some of the industrial shots in the Phillips/Corcoran neighborhoods of Minneapolis look great, too: there’s a real solidity to 12, and the brick textures in 12&nash;15 are wonderful. The contrast and warmth in 21 make it work well, and there’s just a bit of fuzziness that rounds that feeling out. The graffiti in 15 looks great, too. Similarly, graphic-type work, like the signs in 17–20, are great for this film, in part because of the contrast and in part because the grain is so fine.

And I’m noticing again that this emulsion is very easy to scratch.

photos posted