@@jean-claudemuller3199 Hi Jean Claude! Thank you for stopping by! I have a couple bottles of x-tol clone (from Bellini) that I picked up while travelling. Haven’t gotten around to using them yet, if I ever shoot a large amount of fast film for a project I’ll definitely give that a shot. I standardised on Rodinal because it’s not that easy to have access to everything in Norway. I wanted a developer that I can walk into a shop and buy a bottle of. Ordering online doesn’t always work due to shipping restrictions on some chemicals. common developer like D76 can sometimes be out of stock for weeks until the importer gets a new shipment… With time, I have become very dependant on the compensating aspect of Rodinal. I can use it 1:25 to bring some punch to flat scenes, or 1:50 to tame the contrast of bright sunny days. I even have a recipe at 1:100 for extreme flattening of the curve, for example if I've shot indoors and i want detail both inside and outside the windows… This took me to a place where i'd rather find a film that plays well with Rodinal rather than choose any film and then figure out which developer is good for it. so far i like : 80iso : FP4 100iso : Tmax100 200iso : Tri-x 400iso : Tmax400

Thank you Matthew you are too kind! 😅 I have the script for the next two videos ready, so they should come soon. On KZbin I have enjoyed and revisited several times : “Wrong side of the lens” A talk by Sam Abell called “The Life of a photograph” (several versions are online, he has given that talk a few times over the years and the content evolves slightly) I follow the Louisiana Channel, it’s not only photography but the videos are well made and always inspire me in some way. I don’t follow any of the one-video-a-week photography guys, but I do watch Nick Carver and Bryan Birks on and off. “Walkie Talkie” is also a great series, but I don’t watch every video all the way through. You usually know within the first 5min if there’s something to learn or not. I try to be mindful of not spending too much time on KZbin, so I keep a sparse diet on purpose.

Gatekeeping a photobook lol

Hi! Thank you so much for the kind words!

TIL! Wow I had no idea. Obviously I haven’t been on the moon myself to check what kind of lens the Apollo missions left behind. I was repeating stuff I’ve read online… thank you for setting the record straight! 🙏🏻

Hi Dylan. I actually just bought that lens so it’s a bit too early to have an opinion. In general, I know from using the 120mm that anything wider than the 150mm is gonna have you very close to the sitter for closeup portraits. I imagine with a 100mm you’d get quite a bit of a « big nose-tiny ears » effect going on if you’re framing a head an shoulders portrait. On the other hand 100mm is ideal for environmental portrait, when you step back a little and include some detail around the sitter.

@@nicolaslevy2657 Thanks Nicholas.

Hi Benny! Yes you got it. Metering for the brightest light source will give darker shadows, which can lead to more contrast. I always point the dome straight at the light source. Wherever you decide to point the dome, what’s important is to be consistent, so you get repeatable results.🤓

Hi. Yes, that felt obvious to me, but I should’ve mentioned it for the beginners out there. ✌🏻

Hi, thanks for reaching out! I’m good. I haven’t given up on the channel, but there’s been obstacles to me making one. Loud birds. Two of them. They are the obstacle. Thanks for the encouragement, I’m gonna drop something soon. Just have to move the birds out of the room for a day. 😅

@@nicolaslevy2657 The birds are funny, but probably not ideal for recording :) Take your time!

Hi Drew. I think you got it : when you’re pushing 2 stops and still metering for open shade, you bump the contrast but should still retain highlight detail if the scene was flat. I’d say considering the dynamic range distribution of most films, a 2 stops push for a flat scene is more likely to yield blocked shadows than clipped highlights. But of course the final word is down to you, with your specific film, developer and technique… That’s why some photographers take notes. Try to push 2 stops on the next cloudy day and see how that works.

@@nicolaslevy2657 Thank you for responding! That makes sense and lines up with what I was thinking, excellent and good to know. Appreciate you 🙏🏻

Hi! Thanks for the tip! Since that video was posted I acquired a Mamiya 6 with a 50mm and shot about 100 rolls through it. So my endorsement of 50mm as a walk around lens for 6x6 is stronger than ever!

@@nicolaslevy2657 Good to hear I’m glad everything is working out. I have a newly acquired 503 CW with an 80mm lens. But I have not had the opportunity yet to get out and shoot with it. Having cataracts has been keeping me home bound so far. I’m hoping that will change by next month, keep your fingers crossed.

Hi thanks! I just rewatched that video and I really want to strangle that bird! 😂 Thanks for sticking around. I have a couple favourite lenses, but before I get into that, let me say that a lot of times I simply choose the lens based on how much stuff I want to include in (or desperately keep out of) the frame. For example for the guy in his house with all the artifacts, I used the 35mm because I wanted all that stuff in the frame. When I take a portrait in an office or a room where I cannot control the furniture or what’s on the walls, I’ll use a 85mm or 100mm to minimise the amount of distracting things in the frame. For the picture where the light “cuts” across the face of the girl, I used a 180mm on Hasselblad because I had a very small black backdrop, and any wider lens would’ve shown the edges of the backdrop. Sadly that means that if you want the amount of control that I like to have, you can’t really use one lens for everything 😅 But I totally understand that some photographers can do it all with just one lens. You just accept that whatever is in your frame is here to stay, and you compose to the best of your ability to make it all make sense. 🤓 Anyway, favourite portrait lenses : On 135 : 85mm On 120 : 150mm On 4x5 : 210mm If I had to keep just one : the 4/150mm CFi on a Hasselblad.

Thanks! I love the tones in that picture too. Just a basic tip, before worrying about film choice or exposure/development, consider the light and contrast levels of whatever pic you want to emulate. Too often do I see people who wonder how to get the same look as other people’s images, and their inspiration is shot at golden hour under beautiful sunlight while they’re trying to emulate it on the greyest day of the year… No film or treatment can make a sunny day look like moody fog, or a grey morning look like a sunset 🤓

@@nicolaslevy2657 You're absolutely right.. The light matters..

Hi, thanks for stopping by! If you haven’t seen the video I posted about “Expose for the shadows, develop for highlights”, I recommend you give that a watch 😎 Short answer is : there is nothing you can do about those shadows in development. What you need is simply to expose more at capture. BTW, if one normalises around metering for open shadows, like I do, what you’re doing by metering for highlights is underexposing by 2 stops. So if it were me I’d call what you’re doing rating your film at 6400. As for the ISO standard for film speed (ISO 6:93) they describe metering as “an average of the scene” so again, by metering for highlights rather than an average, you’re underexposing by at least a stop. So according to the ISO standard you’re really shooting at 3200 if not faster. So I’d advise this : set your meter to 800 and keep your metering technique and development unchanged. You’ll be closer to an effective ISO1600. Cheers!

@@nicolaslevy2657 thank you very much for sharing

I'll give that a try! Thank you for your suggestion @@nicolaslevy2657

Hi Mickael! Thanks for sharing your experience. I had a 65mm on the Mamiya 7 back in 2009. I was happy with it but in the end I sold it and kept the 80mm. Never used the 65mm on 6x6 but I’m sure it would work fine too. Since that video I haven’t changed my mind about the 50mm. I even bought a Mamiya 6 with a 50mm so I can more easily walk around with that focal length. It works for me, doesn’t mean it has to work for everybody else… I guess I like to get close, and I like a little bit more depth of field :) I’ll share the 50mm pictures I’ve been taking with the Mamiya at some point. It’s an ongoing series that I’m kinda proud of.