Drought (with CZJ 35/2.8 and Adox CHS 50)

[miran]

Some more samples taken with the CZJ Flektogon 35mm/2.8 on Adox CHS 50 film. Camera was Chinon CX, film developed in Adonal 1+100 for 1 hour, no agitation. I'm quite new to B&W film and development so I'm still learning and experimenting. I wasn't very satisfied with the last roll of CHS 50, I thought the meter in the camera might be off a bit, so I tried bracketing. I shot 12 scenes, each first as the camera metered, then two stops underexposed and two stops overexposed. Comparing with my digital camera the Chinon indeed meters about one stop over, but I don't see that in the scanned film. The "properly" exposed frames seem best right off the scanner. The overexposed one is useless (it says on the box not to overesxpose or overdevelop the film and they're right), a lot of grain in the highlights and much reduced contrast. The underexposed one looks like it might have blocked shadows but it actually turns out to be the best one! With some levels&curves adjustments in PP you can get very good tonal range, enough shadow detail and very little grain. This will now be my method of choice for the Adox films and stand development. Underexpose by a stop or two, then bring it back at scanning with levels&curves.

So here are the shots. Taken at a local river and fish pond, both almost dry because of the drought. It hasn't rained properly in months and the previous drought before the last real rain (in april or may if I remember correctly) lasted since about october 2011!

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[Yebisu]

Love the last one.

[Nikon75-150E]

#4 is my fav. I hope you guys get some rain soon. We had a bad drought last year. This year the states to the north are getting it.