I’ve never been excited to write about the one passion in my life where I can express myself through the process of photographs and physically developing the film myself at home.
I have always been a fan of shooting black and white film. The raw expression of the shadows and contrast through light and texture setting apart the captivated expressed emotions from that of colored film. My favorite film stock has always been the ilford hp5 plus. It’s contrasty and very fine grain rendition help create a space in time, expressing a strong contrast story framed against white boarder.
Black and white
There are a few film to choose from. Like I’ve mentioned above, ilford is one of my very favorite. Here are a few sample of black and white film that I have tried and recommend: Kodak tri x 400 as the very close contender to its beautifully rendered grain and contrast that of the ilford’s; a little cheaper on the budget, the Fomapan without having to sacrifice its contrast rendition, and the ‘student’ brand Kentmere for its cheaper price and flexibility to develop in variety of chemicals and broad exposure latitude.
Color film
Color film example on my top list are: Kodak porta 160 rendering beautiful accurate portrait colors. The Kodak Ektar produces a more vivid color and warmer tone, Fuji Provia slide film (developed in E-6) for vivid landscapes. You can also experiment with many expired film like I have and develop at home in C-41 developer and find out about beautiful color shifts you’ll be surprised.
Polaroid film
Before 2016 I have worked with the beautiful FP 100-C for color and FP 3000-b for black and white polaroid film. These are fun peal apart film to work with as you watch it develop before your eyes in a magical tactile and sensory experience while the chemicals react. Sadly it has been discontinued. There are other alternative to shooting with new polaroid film, but what set it apart was the ease of creating the emulsion lift process.
Home Film Developer
My experiment with the caffenol developer has been a long process and I, by no mean, am nowhere close to perfecting it. But then again this is why I love black and white so much and the ease of developing the film. It is a vivid representation of one’s memory depicted in silver halide developed with a chemical magic using regular everyday kitchen ingredients like coffee and vitamin C.
Developing color negative at home requires more attention to water temperature so I needed to secure myself a sous vide in order to keep the water bath at a constant. I will be covering the step by step process on the caffenol and C-41 development in the next few post.
Join me in recreating the journey as I have- a decade ago; which has left a void and the deep longing to re-create, express and live the momment in the wonderful photographic process. The magic of capturing memory in a tiny time capsule through a light sealed magical box and revealing that narative 5 or ten years later. I welcome you to this exciting journey in the wonderful world of film photography.
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