Intentional camera movement on super slow film

 

Using a slow emulsion such as Lomo Babylon 13 opens up the possibility of shooting wide open on a sunny day, which might be useful for capturing environmental portraits. Another use case for low ISO film is ICM photography. If you stop down the aperture to f/5.6, f/8, or beyond, you often will be shooting at or below 1/15 sec, ideal for blurring water and clouds if you are on a tripod, or doing ICM if that is your cup of tea. Naturally, you are free to adjust your exposures to taste. Camera movements during exposure involve a certain element of chance, so you may end up with many unusable frames at first. For this reason, it might be a good idea to practice using your phone or digital camera to get an idea of the possibilities before blasting through several rolls of film. The lack of apparent grain in the above ICM images added to the overall feel of 'flow', a good match with my artistic intent. I'll be doing more film based ICM work for sure.

A short walk with the Nikkormat FTn, the 50 mm f/2 and a roll of Lomo Babylon 13

In May, I decided to stock up on all the film I thought I would shoot over the summer months, and so, imagining the sunny conditions ahead, I added a number of rolls of low ISO films to my shopping cart. As things turned out, this summer was so wet I didn't break out the first roll of Lomo Babylon 13 until the middle of September. The other day, I loaded a roll into the Nikkormat FTn with the 50mm f/2 attached. The meter on my Nikkormat is still working well after half a century and, believe it or not, it goes down all the way to ASA12. So, I was all set.

There are many reasons to choose these types of emulsions beyond just the fun factor, of course. Back in the day, photographers like Lewis Baltz were attracted to super slow films because of, among other things, their fine grain structure. This would allow them to achieve the larger print sizes associated with medium format gear using more compact 35mm cameras. Another reason to shoot with these films, a reason that is popular these days, is to facilitate the use of wider apertures under daylight conditions without having to use a neutral density filter. 

I shot the silhouette of the mobile wide open at f/2 to get an idea about the out of focus rendering of the lens. Pretty okay, and similar to other lenses of that time period, I would say.

You can't judge a film on the basis of a single roll, hopefully the sunny conditions will hold for a while longer. But so far, there is not much to complain about here. The only real frustration was the high degree of curl to the negatives. It'll be fun to go out with other camera and lens combinations and see what happens.

In praise of boutique film stocks

To be completely honest, I am a bit of a sucker for weird films, unusual development chemistries, and oddball photographic processes. So, when I read about an ISO 1 black and white reversal film, I was unable to resist the temptation to pick up a couple of rolls to experiment with. Before the advent of digital imaging and the renaissance of film photography, a film stock with an ISO rating of 1 (yes, one) was not something I would generally ever reach for. These were specialized emulsions for specific applications. But these days, some of these old stocks are being sold as what you might call 'boutique' films. 

In bright sunlight, you'll need a shutter speed of 1 sec at f/16, meaning that you'll need to work on a tripod or use a wide aperture lens. I decided to load up a roll of this film for a relaxing photowalk on a sunny day. I gave a little extra exposure, working at f/1.2 and 1/30 sec, and used whatever was nearby to steady the camera. The film was developed in standard b/w chemistry and yielded a positive image. The smokey character and cool tones of the emulsion is pretty typical of the results you'll see. A downside is that the film backing is a dust magnet. The image was shot on 35 mm film in the Canon F-1 with the 50 mm f/1.2 L lens, and cropped square. Exploring the obscure corners of the medium is fun, like finding a great neighborhood restaurant way off the beaten path.

 
Bon appetit...