In my last article, Adventures in Large Format: A Beginner's Perspective, I talked about some of the things I noticed upon purchasing and attempting to use my first 4x5 large format camera. As fun as fiddling with some knobs and taking a photo of a stool was, it was time for me to point my camera at some actual people. After lugging the camera upstairs and taking portraits of some of the awesome characters that work at the bar, it was time to see how I did.
Although I usually develop roll film (both color and black and white) in Paterson tanks with reels, that wasn't happening with sheet film. I was resigned to sending in my film to the lab when I came across the Mod54 Sheet Film Processor. Essentially, the Mod54 allows you to attach 4x5 sheet film in a way that makes it compatible with multi-reel Paterson tanks! Once you load up to six sheets of film in the processor, you put Mod54 in the Paterson and develop as you normally would. It worked like a charm!
One issue I had when loading the film is that I kept accidently touching the emulsion side of it with my fingers, causing smudges. I'm pretty sure that's due to my inexperience with loading and unloading sheet film more than any issues with the Mod54 or film holders. Speaking of holders, they are a pain! I think at least one of them has a light leak. Some shots were severely fogged upon developing, though I'm not sure if that was due to operator error or the holders themselves being faulty. As most sheets were fine, I've ruled out the camera being the culprit.
I shot with Ilford FP4+ 125 film for my black and white, and I'm now convinced it's way too slow for my needs. I don't always shoot in bright sunlight, and in order to get any depth of field, I need to be stopped down to at least f/5.6, at which my shutter speeds were a bit slow for my portraiture. I'll be trying out Ilford HP5 400 next. I also shot a bit of color, but that's where my holder/fogging issues occurred, so I'm holding back judgment on Portra 160NC for now. I'll probably shoot with Portra 400 since I know I'm going to be favoring a faster film.
Thus far, I'm really digging the process, even with the frustration of losing shots here and there. I'll chock it up to inexperience for now and try to make sure I have digital redundancy until I get my bearings. I can definitely say I'll continue to shoot large format, especially for personal projects. There's something really visceral about the image it produces — at least there is when I get it to work!
I love the Mod54. I much prefer developing BW at home. It was definitely tricky the first few times, but after a few uses I was able to get my average time for unloading my holders and loading the Mod54 to under 5 minutes with no annoying finger smudges. I also love an app called holders. It allows you to "load" holders digitally and track how and where each frame was shot as well as keep notes if you want. Really useful.
Glad to see more and more film related articles on F-stoppers!
Ill definitely take a look at that app. Thanks!!
On light leaks - check that you remove and put the dark slide straight in. The tendency is to pull back a bit which moves the holder and allows light to hit the film. We will know more about the problem if you post photos of the negative to show where the leak is.
Keep working with the camera and film and you'll get much more comfortable.
Try developing in Sandy King's Pyrocat HD developer. Really holds the highlights and as a staining developer works great for many types of printing.
Thanks for the tips! I'll check out that developer. I'm just about out of Xtol, so I'll be in the market soon.
Images look great.
It looks like you were using strobe. Sure helps with sharpness and DOF.
Also compensates for the lower speed.
Thanks! They're fine for what they are. I'm just happy I had some people nice enough to let me experiment. I took a few shots at a wedding this past weekend without strobe but with Portra 400, so we'll see how those turn out.
Yes, I have!
I've been working on comparing and contrasting a couple of methods - namely flatbed scanning vs dslr "scanning." I'll be leaving out drum/imacon scans since they are beyond the scope of what 99% of people would attempt at home.
Maybe its because I ran a lab for several years, a little skeeved you are doing this in your kitchen sink!
And without gloves or an apron - aside from generally limiting exposure of your skin to chemicals, I have lost may of my favorite shirts to stray drops of fixative.
Exhausted fixer contains silver and should not be poured down the drain - I assume its going to into your brown containers?
With it any chemical use you should have proper ventilation - your window doesn't even seem to be open here.
I know that not everyone starting out is equipped or has the option to have a dedicated darkroom, but I certainly wouldn't do this where I make food and clean dishes...
Not to mention for you color film - those bleaches and developers are SUPER poisonous
Hi Hans,
thanks for sharing cool pictures, and the tip on the Mod54. Was wondering about what lens you are using?
Cheers.