Topic: Weekend - February 22 - 23 - 24

[EarlJam]

Color me surprised. I don't think I've ever started a weekend thread. First roll through the camera I should have purchased the first time I held one, 50 years ago: Leica M4, silver. There's a long backstory, of course, best for another time.

 Ilford HP5+,  35mm Summi

[Kai-san]

Beautiful light in that shot, EarlJam! And congratulations on the M4.

Chinon CE II / Kaleinar 5N 2.8/100 / Fomapan 400 in Adox XT-3

[Francois]

I must admit that the M4 is quite a beauty.

[EarlJam]

Beautiful light in that shot, EarlJam!

Thanks! In my section of Southern California, southern end of the Los Angeles Basin, northern end of Orange County, the light is pretty awful for much of the year. When it's sunny, the light is harsh and it's often difficult to control contrast, particularly with color film. Spring and early summer, we have a persistent marine layer that's effectively like shooting under a giant softbox, OK for color but uninspiring with B+W since there's zero contrast.  But every once in a while, like the morning I had the camera out on our local trail, there's a little bit of fog and the sun is still low to the east, and everything comes together.

[Francois]

When the light is harsh, you could pull the film. That way you'd get a much wider contrast range in.
I was watching the Figital Revolution channel on Youtube and Steve pulled some 80 iso film all the way down to something like EI 1.5
The contrast range he managed to wrangle-in was pretty insane. He developed it all in Rodinal 1:100 semi-stand.