First attempt at long exposure with film

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I took my Century Graphic 23 with Xenar 3.5/105 to the local river - the Duddon; more specifically to the rapids at Duddon Hall. I want to try a long exposure to blur the water. I did 60 secs at f32 with a pair of cheap Chinese ND4 filters on the Xenar. Kodak Industrex MX125 x-ray film developed in Ornano ST20 diluted 1:10 for 10 mins at 20C. No PP, as they came out of my old Epson Perfection 3200 flatbed then resize for web:

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Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

both great! Congrats!!!

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Cheers. I couldn't get to the flat rocks at the edge of the river to get the best viewpoint because the slopes are steep and too slippery, couple of years ago my NEX nearly ended up in this river due to slipping so this time I was cautious. I forgot to take my stopwatch so I had to count one-one thousand, two-one thousand etc. So in all, I had some luck. Smile

izvar · Joined: 17 Feb 2011 Posts: 252 Location: Moldova

Congrats, Ian! Nice images!
I just bought some Fujiyama ND filters (ND4 & ND8) I'll try it the next days.

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

worked out great!

I'm thinking about at what point does the foam start to retain some detail, shutter speed wise... at less than 1 second

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Cheers guys. Not sure on that one Jussi, you could take a series of shots with a digital camera at different shutter speeds in order to find that out, I suspect you are right, around 1 sec.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Interesting results for such an extreme film!

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Cheers Orio, it's only blue sensitive so tonality isn't the best, but it has virtually no grain. I have to rate it at ISO 12 and stand develop it as it can be excessively contrasty. I just use it for testing lenses and learning to shoot large format style with film folders, cut sheets etc. it was very cheap, 100 sheets of 15x40cm cost me 99p on ebay plus 12ukp postage. I can cut one sheet into 8 6.5x9 sheets for my Century Graphic so I got 800 sheets worth for 12.99. I also have a box of Konica-Minolta x-ray film that is also blue sensitive but that seems to be more like ISO 3 despite being 'Super-Rapid'. Smile

Those are great shots Jussi and very informative, thanks for posting them. I like the 1/2sec one best, good to see that a pretty short exposure is enough to make nice creamy blur on the water, so my 60 secs with two ND4 filters was probably overkill.

For comparison's sake, here's the same two shots but on Ilford FP4 expired in 1989, developed in Microdol-X:

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

I shall have to get me to a creek with very slow film -- and I mixed up a batch of Perceptol so I can go even slower... Awesome water photos, Ian!

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Cheers Jussi. Perceptol is the same as Microdol-X so it will work nicely. What I love about Microdol is the way it increases highlight detail and with long exposures of moving water, blown highlights are a real problem, so I think Perceptol/Microdol is ideal for this application.

Look forward to seeing some shots, maybe you could try some paper negatives in that Graflex SLR of yours, rate it at ISO 3 and soup it in dilute Perceptol would be my best guess.

TVR · Joined: 19 Jan 2012 Posts: 97 Location: Brandon, MB

Ian, long exposures on running rivers always look as if they have saran wrap on them, really ghost like Cool

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Cheers TVR, that's the effect I love too, sometimes looks like white smoke too.