EFKE film - suitable filters

This 'retro look' thing is a bunch of marketing hooey. Pay no attention
to it.



Peter Irwin wrote:
wrote:

I'm not entirely certain about the exact type of image I'd like to end
up with (this will be my first trip to Eastern Europe) but I'd like to
take some pictures that look as if they might have been taken in the
1920/30s. I'd like to include some street scenes with people in the
historic parts of Prague, Vienna and Budapest, (though I suspect it
will be difficult to come across anybody who isn't dressed like a
typical Westerner, these days).

Panchromatic film will be correct for the 1930s stuff.
Some of Andre Kertesz's earliest works looks like
it was taken on plates which were mostly sensitive
to blue, but the ones from the 1930s look panchromatic
to me.

For many people the most familiar images of the
1930s are from old B&W movies, and it is interesting
to note that 1930s B&W movies were all on panchro
film. The transition to sound films in the late
1920s required hissy Klieg lights to be replaced
by tungsten lights which were rich in red and
required panchromatic film to make efficient use
of the light. I'm pretty certain that the rapid
rise in popularity of panchromatic film for still
cameras had a lot to do with people seeing improved
colour rendering in the cinema.

By the way, I haven't been able to find what the filter factor would be
for a cyan 44a.

Filter factor for the #44A minus-red should be
3 for daylight and 5 for tungsten for most
panchromatic films.

A minus-red filter or ortho film has the somewhat
counter-intuitive effect of drawing attention
to red. Faces will often look rougher, which is
sometimes desired in male portraiture. Red bricks
will come out darker than one might expect and this
may show patterns in brickwork more clearly than
colour film would. Red in flags, uniforms and other
clothing may be reproduced as almost black and show
up rather better than if red were reproduced as
a light shade of gray.

But, unless you know that you want a contrast
filter to show reds as dark, you are best off
using panchromatic film with either no filter,
a yellow #8(K2) or a panchromatic green #11 (X1)
correction filter. Strong contrast filters can
sometimes have a different effect than the one
you were planning on. If you are on vacation, you
won't be able to easily retake the picture, so if
you do use a filter, take another picture without
the filter at the same time.

Peter.
--

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

Tech Pan with a dark green filter to compensate for the extended red
sensativity might be closer, however I thought that all Kodak Black
and White film except for the C-41 films were now extinct.

Why do you think that? I believe Tech Pan is gone, but Plus-X, Tri-X,
Tmax 100, 400, and 3200 are all in stock at B&H. Also you can still
buy a consumer version of one of the C-41 B&W 35mm films at
mass market retailers (I think I saw it at Target).

For a classic look, try Rodinal (clones). That would have been a popular
combination. Another would have been D-76.

"Would have been"? D-76 still exists.

Kodak quit making B&W paper, not B&W everything.

If you can get it, Edwal FG-7 works great with it.

wrote:
Kodak quit making B&W paper, not B&W everything.

Thanks for the correction. I had not seen the actual press release, only
what I read here.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
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