I think this is better than digital photography...

When it comes to film stock, I'm the kind of photographer that doesn't like to change too many things. I love Ilford film and have been shooting with HP5 and FP4 since 1988. Even now, I can count on one hand how many other makes of black-and-white film I've used over the past 30 years. So when a couple of friends told me to try Fomapan films, I needed a bit of persuading. I eventually succumbed and bought some rolls.

At the same time, I also wanted to check out my Bronica RF645 camera which hadn't been used for twenty years. If you haven't seen the Bronica, it's basically a medium format rangefinder camera that shoots vertical pictures when held horizontally!! That took some getting used to!!

I loaded the Fomapan in my favourite ever film camera - the Hasselblad Xpan, and my usual Ilford HP5 in the Bronica. I then drove up the coast to shoot some seascapes.

Onto the technical stuff:

A single roll of 35mm Fomapan 100 and a single roll of 35mm Fomapan 400 were shot with the Hasselblad Xpan. Both rolls were lab developed in Ilford Ilfotech DD. The 100 roll was scanned using a Nikon Coolscan and the 400 roll was scanned by the lab with a Noritsu film scanner. Both sets of scans were left 'flat' with no adjustments in terms of contrast and exposure. Adobe Lightroom Classic was then used to adjust contrast and exposure. Dust spotting was done within Adobe Photoshop 2022.

Two rolls of Ilford HP5 120 were shot with the Bronica RF645. The rolls were also lab developed in Ilford Ilfotech DD, and scanned with a Noritsu film scanner. Again, the scans were 'flat' with contrast and exposure adjustments done within Lightroom.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and thanks for watching!!

~ Jeff

https://jeffascough.com
  / ascough_photo