35 mm Film Street Photography in Japan POV

I did some 35 mm film street photography with my Minolta SRT Super and a roll of FOMAPAN 400.
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#film #streetphotography #minolta

[@richardrainsford4500]

I like the hand washing, cat on the mailbox and Skytree pics

[@jamesford_jp]

Happy to hear :)

[@christophermcmullen5307]

Some tips: Ilford XP-2 is a b& w film that can be pressed in C-41 color processing, reducing costs For print film and manual cameras it's best to test out a manual camera with slide film to see how accurate the meter is. The shortcut is to just halve the box ISO and use that, checking your negatives for good density. Use zone focus: set a fixed aperture (f8, for example) and adjust using DOF scale so infinity is at one end, and note what is your near distance. Take a reading in outdoor light and another for shade. Adjust your shutter speed based on the scene. You might try a yellow filter to improve contrast. Have fun!

[@jamesford_jp]

Some great tips! I didn’t know about testing the camera like that with slide film! I do need to practice zone focusing haha. My GRIII spoils me with its snap focus, so I’ll have to practice doing it with my 28 mm Rokkor lens ☺️ Thanks!

[@christophermcmullen5307]

​@jamesford_jp If you do the slide test set the box speed and shoot a series of scenes under typical lighting in 1/2 stop increments for 2 stops over and under for each scene, giving 9 shots per scene at different exposures. Take notes and review. Determine your meters bias by finding the best slide from each sequence and calculating the deviation from set ISO.

[@marco_renard]

I haven't been hanging around on KZbin much lately, but I was glad to see that on my return you had posted a film photography video ! I've shot fomapan 400 at box speed a lot, and honestly this might be one of my favorite film stock, at least in 35mm. You should be fine rated at 400 ISO, you can even push it to 800 or 1600 if you're not afraid of grain ahah :) If you're afraid your lightmeter might be the problem with your camera, you can double check with lightmeter app you can download on your phone, or even use your dslr ! Have fun with film, experimenting is part of the process !

[@jamesford_jp]

It’s good to hear from you again, Marco 😁 Haha yeah, I probably need to spend some time confirming the light meter is working as expected. I shot a roll of XP2 in the summer and those turned out fine, so didn’t think that was it. What was definitely a factor though is that I simply forgot to adjust my settings between shots several times, especially when things were spontaneous. I wasn’t zone-focusing, so I was changing every setting on the fly as necessary, which was a mistake haha. I’ll keep that in mind about Fomapan. I’ll probably shoot it again, though I may stick with XP2 for B&W since that can be developed in C41. I want to do some color next though ☺️

[@andyhoov]

I picked up an old Konica rangefinder a few years back (which I've barely used because I'm a poser) and that adds the extra joy of realizing you forgot to take off the lens cap for a few shots! The pace and extra challenge of not being able to change ISO on a whim make for a worthwhile experience, but the extra cost of each roll and then development really make shooting film more of a special occasion/luxury sort of thing for me. I'll definitely keep playing around with it here and there, but I'm definitely not abandoning digital anytime soon!

[@jamesford_jp]

Oh no! Shooting film with the lens hood attached is my nightmare 😅 Not changing ISO didn’t bother me so much as having to manually change my shutter speed as I’m working on acquiring focus haha. It’s not that difficult once you get used to it, but coming from aperture priority + AF, I feel very clumsy 😂 Film is definitely more costly than I’d like, which is a shame because I would love to do a lot more film shooting. Makes it all the more fun and special when you do shoot it.

[@76kwamega]

Honestly even though you might’ve shot at the wrong the expo, because of the grain of the film and what you shot at it adds to your compositions and makes them stand out.

[@jamesford_jp]

Well I’m glad you liked them! The lab did a good job in bringing out as much detail and contrast as possible with my underexposure of many of the photos.

[@monikabrandenstein5011]

Nice that you shared the photo experience - a new “experiment” ;-). You managed to take some atmospheric photos. Here on the monitor or television screen it sometimes looks as if there is a very thin layer of dust on it, which in my opinion is one of the reasons for the charm of these images, but on the other hand it is also an indication of the slight underexposure. You brought up the topic. Some details only become apparent upon closer inspection. Like here 6:24 - the eye has to be very attentive because the grays don't differ so clearly from the black and white. This motif 9:17, on the other hand, shows some clear color demarcations of the individual objects depicted on it. The bags, the buckets and the stripes on the awning - these white tones underline the impression. A favorite is 9:55 - the natural white components are enough to compensate for underexposure. 11:24 is also an example of the relevance of light content. Or this 11:56 with the white hairbands. Finally, let me ask a few questions about the technique of presenting these images: Were the photos originally developed as a glossy version or a matte version? Did you then scan the finished images or take them again with the digital camera to show them in the video? Thanks in advance for the reply. Greetings - Monika

[@jamesford_jp]

Hahah yeah, I underexposed too much with many of the photos. Part of my problem, among several, is that I sometimes forgot to change my exposure settings between some of the photos. I’m used to aperture priority and Auto ISO, so fully manual was interesting 😅 As for the development, I did not develop them myself. I sent the film to a lab in Tokyo and they sent me the digital scans/JPEGS that I used for this video.

[@monikabrandenstein5011]

@@jamesford_jp Thank you very much for answering my questions.

[@jamesford_jp]

🙃

[@monikabrandenstein5011]

@@jamesford_jp Here in Europe it's almost bedtime and in Tokyo it's early morning. What a strange difference in time perception!! 🙂

[@jamesford_jp]

Hehehe indeed. Makes it challenging whenever I want to chat or play games online with my friends back in the US 😅

[@Klotschie]

bw films are so much cheaper in germany because color films are basically sold out everywhere. online prices for color films just hurt my feelings. bw films cost about 6 bucks and color films about 9.

[@jamesford_jp]

The black and white film is cheaper over here as well, but with the development costs being higher for it, you end up spending the same or more than some color films.

[@Klotschie]

@@jamesford_jp dev cost is 3 bucks and 0,08-0,16 per print.

[@jamesford_jp]

Nice.