Jonathan's blog

Recently, I would say that photography is my favourite hobby. But it wasn’t always that way.

Throughout my childhood, I’ve taken pictures of important occasions on single-use cameras. My parents would always buy me a single-use camera before a family holiday, for example. I wasn’t interested in the camera, though.

A few years ago (2005, I think) I lived in hall of residence with a guy who had a “fancy camera”. I was so uninterested in it that I have no idea what it actually was. It was digital, and it had a big lens on it. This just goes to show that I didn’t care about photography at the time.

More recently, in 2007, I had a Sony Ericsson K800i camera phone. For a phone, it had an extremely decent camera and could compete with some of the entry-level digital compacts available at the time. But I still only really used it for taking photos of things that were happening around me.

But then, my colleague Paul starting doing his photo-a-day in 2008. I became a keen follower of his photo blog, and started to take “arty” shots on my phone. I enjoyed it so much that I quickly ran into the limitations of my phone and started wondering about buying a “real” camera.

There was a decent superzoom “bridge” camera in the office so I borrowed this for a few days and had great fun with it. Then unfortunately I was involved in an accident and dislocated my shoulder. Stuck at home, bored, I bought a camera. It was a bridge camera, one mark up on the one I’d borrowed from work. I bought it primarily as a high-tech toy, and with not much interest in the art of photography.

This was the stimulus I needed, and with a powerful and versatile camera I tried all sorts of photography. Gradually I became interested in the art of taking photos, and I now try to take photos that are nice to look at, as well as fun to take.

In 2009, I was given an unwanted 35mm SLR. At first I was sceptical – how useful could film be? I bought some film and had a go. I really enjoyed using an SLR for the first time and immediately wanted a DSLR.

In 2010, I caved in and bought a DSLR. I also continued shooting film and I now have a collection of around ten cameras – all film except for the DSLR. I’m still more interested in the cameras and the techniques in using them, but I hope that my work is also pleasing to look at. Make up your own mind.

Back in September 2009, I was given a 35mm SLR camera – a Canon AE-1 Program. I loved it, it was fantastic to use, and I wrote a blog post about the possibility of upgrading to a DSLR.

In March 2010, temptation got the better of me and I bought a Canon EOS 450D. My main concerns beforehand was the loss of the large LCD viewfinder of my Fuji S9600, and in particular, not being able to flip it out for awkward shots, and not being able to see useful information about the camera settings in the eyepiece.

Well I needn’t have worried – the 450D is of course more advanced than my AE-1 and has a small LCD under the optical viewfinder for that information. I hadn’t realised until I tried it out in the shop.

The issue of having to put my eye up to the camera still hasn’t been addressed, but it hasn’t been a problem. I just find myself lying on my belly more, or simply pressing the button and guessing about the composition.

In the two months that I’ve owned the 450D, I’ve taken over 2,000 photos^[1] and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I feel more in control of the photos, and I can’t recommend an SLR strongly enough to anyone who is serious about photography.

I now have three EF mount lenses for this camera. Unfortunately they don’t fit the AE-1 (which uses the FD mount) but this very evening I bought a Canon EOS 300, which is a consumer-level 35mm SLR with an EF mount. You can pick up 35mm camera bodies on eBay for a fiver so I thought it might be nice to make even better use of my lenses.

If you’re actually interested in any of my camera facts and figures, you might like to look at my page of cameras. If you’re more interested in the pictures themselves, then why not browse my photo blog.

[1] That’s about 1.4 each hour I’ve owned the camera

When I first started getting into photography a couple of years ago, I wanted to have a go at everything. I bought the cheapest infrared (IR) filter I could find on eBay and was delighted to find that my then camera, a Fuji S9600, was slightly sensitive to very deep red, and IR. I don’t think it was supposed to be, but it enabled me to take IR photos of outdoor scenes, and very hot objects, such as this light bulb.

When I traded in the S9600 for a Canon 450D, I was slightly disappointed to find that it wasn’t at all sensitive to the same range of IR and/or deep red. There are companies that will do an IR conversion, which involves taking the camera apart and removing its internal IR filter. It’s expensive, and it’s pretty much a one-way conversion.

Then I realised there was a cheap and practical alternative that had been staring me in the face the whole time. My 35mm SLR.

IR film is several times more expensive than regular film, but still vastly cheaper than digital IR photography. I bought a roll of Ilford SFX200 and it was about £8.

I read about how to correctly expose IR film and frankly it sounds confusing. Lots of people recommend using a light meter, but then you have to take into account the filter which is present on the camera but not on the light meter. It’s anybody’s guess how many stops you need to compensate for the IR filter.

It’s also a shot in the dark (no pun intended!) as to the ratio of visible light to invisible IR light. This varies with the time of day, what the light is falling upon, and about a million other things.

I wanted to shoot one or two frames, see the results, and then make sure I was doing it properly before shooting a whole film. Unfortunately that’s not easily possible, so I’m just going ahead and shooting a whole 36-exposure roll. As I write, I’m about halfway through the film.

The good news is that my Canon AE-1′s light meter appears to be sensitive to IR light. That is, with the IR filter on, the internal meter appears to work properly so I can simply use the camera as normal. I verified this with a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation to compare the meter’s behaviour with and without the IR filter. It seems about right.

So here’s hoping that this fantastic little camera will produce me 36 interesting IR photos. We will see – watch this space!

My friend Stu (former organiser of the Photo Challenge and professional photographer based in Leicestershire) has recently launched a photography tutorial website called CameraTutor. There’s not much more I can add other than this info from the site itself, and my encouragement to follow the blog if you are interested in photography yourself.

Starting on the 1st of January, 2010 will be a series of photography tutorials to help you get the best from your camera – it doesn’t matter if you have a top-of-the-range SLR or a point and shoot, there should be something for everyone here. A new tutorial will appear each Friday morning, giving information on a single technique, concept or other thinking point. I hope not to make anything too complicated, and welcome questions and comments on each post in the comments section.

So come along for the ride – I hope I will learn from you as much as you will learn from me, and we can all improve together.

After I posted the other day about building a pinhole camera, I immediately ordered a body cap from eBay. Last night it arrived, and here’s how I made my pinhole camera.

Making the pinhole “lens”

Not only do pinholes have to be tiny in diameter, they should also be made through a thin material. I didn’t even attempt to make a pinhole directly in the body cap. I drilled a 10mm hole and superglued a piece of tin foil over the hole. Using a fine pin, I made a small hole.

Front of pinhole lens

Rear of pinhole lens

Uh, that’s it. Most guides I write have more steps than this, but making a pinhole “lens” for an SLR really is this easy.

What’s the f-number?

The formula for working out the f-number is pretty simple:

           focal length
f-stop = -----------------
         aperture diameter

The aperture diameter is the diameter of the pinhole, and the focal length is the distance between the film and the pinhole.

The Canon AE-1 Program has a small mark on the side to indicate the position of the film plane. The rough distance between this mark and the pinhole is 36mm. Getting a decent estimate of the pinhole is a little trickier, as I need to measure the diameter of the pinhole. The best I could come up with was to take a picture of the pinhole next to a ruler with my Fuji S9600 and a macro lens.

The pinhole

I reckon that’s approximately 0.2mm across.

          36
f-stop = ----- = 180
          0.2

So this is a pretty tiny aperture, and we are going to need long exposures to get it to make a decent picture on film.

Earlier on I pointed the camera out of my window. With the shutter set to its slowest value of 2 seconds, the meter reckoned it wanted an aperture of 8. 180 is 22 times greater than 8, so I need to make my shutter 22 times longer than 2. So we are talking 40-odd seconds for outdoor landscape photography in daylight on ISO200 film. In lower light conditions and perhaps on ISO125 film (such as my Ilford FP4) it’s easy to see that I might need to expose for 2 or 3 minutes.

Although 2 seconds is the longest my SLR can do automatically, it has a mode where the photographer can hold the shutter release for as long as necessary. Never thought I’d need a stopwatch for my photography!

My 35mm pinhole camera

The advantage of making a removable pinhole lens is that I can carry it around and easily change between lenses.

Keep an eye on my photo blog. When I’ve got this film developed I’ll scan and post the pinhole images there.

Update: I have now uploaded some of the pinhole photos.

For some time, I’ve been taking part in Stu’s Tuesday Challenge.

Recently, Stu has had great success with his East Midlands wedding photography business and so doesn’t have time for the Challenge any more.

So I’ve taken over the Challenge and rebranded it the Photo Challenge (so I’m not tied to a Tuesday). I hope the regular contributors on Stu’s blog will continue to take photos for the Challenges. It’s also an ideal opportunity for new photographers to try their hand at some of the challenges and get some feedback.

Why not give it a go?

As my interest in photography progressed, it was only natural I’d one day end up wanting to develop film. I developed my first roll last night by following this guide. It was extremely helpful – but there were a few points it didn’t cover. I made notes while I was developing, and so here’s a modified version of the guide, including my advice.

If you’re interested in seeing what I was able to achieve, some samples are here.

What you’ll need

These are the items in my inventory. I’ve bought “proper” gear where necessary but most of the kitchen-type items came from a supermarket for pennies. I bought the developing tank from eBay, and the same seller was also offering a kit with all the chemicals, listed as Ilford Black & White Film Developer’s pack

• Developer
• Stop bath
• Fixer
• Wetting agent (cheap washing up liquid will do)
• A developing tank
• 3 water bottles – preferably one litre
• 3 plastic jugs – at least one litre
• Funnel
• Kitchen timer (get one with a mechanical knob rather than a digital one)
• Clothes pegs
• A place to hang the negatives sufficiently high that they won’t touch the ground
• A dim light. Colour doesn’t matter- perhaps a torch with half-flat batteries.
• Scissors
• Bottle opener
• Something to stir the chemicals with. I used old picnic cutlery!
• A storage box for all of the above, with a lid.
• Room thermometer

Preparation

If this is your first time developing a film, there are some things you should do first. You should probably do them before every time you develop a film, even if you’ve been doing it for years

1. Familiarise yourself with how to mix each of the chemicals – how much concentrate to how much water, how much you want to end up with, etc.
2. Make a note of how much of each chemical your tank requires you to use.
3. Calculate and make a note of how long each of the three phases should take.
4. Label each of your empty bottles and jugs with a permanent pen so you know which chemical belongs in which jug.

Loading the film

5. Take film, bottle opener, scissors, developing tank and reels into a lightproof room.
6. Organize the materials on a table. You’ll need to know where each item is in the darkness.
7. Turn off the light.
8. Open the film canister at either end with the bottle opener.
9. Take the film out of the canister and cut off the leading tab at the end to create a straight edge.
10. Load the film onto your tank’s spool. The method varies depending upon your tank, but I found my Paterson System 4 tank easy to use.
11. Pull or cut the end of the film off the spool and remove the tape.
12. Drop the loaded reel into the developing tank and secure the lid.
13. Turn the light back on.

Developing the Film

14. Mix chemicals according to directions.
15. Put the right amount of each chemical into the three jugs.
16. Put any leftover chemicals into the plastic bottles for storage.
17. Technically with a good tank you should be safe to have the light on, but it never hurts to be cautious, so at this point I switched the main light off and worked by the light of a dim torch, pointing at the ceiling to softly illuminate the whole room. If you wait a minute or two, your eyes will get accustomed to the low light.
18. Take the top off the developing tank.
19. Pour the pre-measured developer into the top of the tank.
20. Tap the tank against the counter to dislodge bubbles.
21. Agitate the tank by slowly inverting it and turning it back over for the first 15 seconds.
22. Repeat every 30 seconds for the recommended time (usually 5 to 10 minutes).
23. Pour the developer back into the jug.
24. Pour stop bath into the now-empty developing tank.
25. Agitate the stop bath and let stand for 1 minute.
26. Pour out the stop bath and replace with fixer.
27. Agitate the fixer for 15 seconds and then for 15 seconds once every minute for the allotted time.
28. Pour the fixer back into its jug.
29. Remove the lid of the tank and run water into the tank for 15 minutes.
30. Add wetting agent to the water to expedite drying. If you are using washing up liquid, add a tiny drop to the water in the tank and let it sit for a minute.
31. Remove the film from the tank.
32. Gently pull the film off the reel.
33. Attach a clip to the top of the film and hang it up. I hung mine from a clothes horse in the bath.
34. Attach another 2 or 3 clips at the bottom, to prevent the film from curling as it dries.
35. Hang the film in a dry, dust-free area.
36. I don’t know how long it really takes them to dry, because I went to bed at this point. When I woke up, the film was dry and straight.
37. Cut the film into appropriate length chunks for your scanner / envelopes / etc.
38. Store dry negatives in plastic negative sleeves.

Afterwards

39. You can usually re-use the developer several times (although it takes longer each time). Store it in a clearly labelled bottle.
40. You can re-use the fixer. Store it in a clearly labelled bottle.
41. Rinse all of the “dirty” components in warm water and dry them thoroughly before putting them away in a clean place.

Tips & warnings

• The optimal temperature for most developers is 20°C. Processing at a significantly higher or lower temperature will result in soft, easily damaged film or flat negatives. Some developers have a chart on the packaging to give the time correction if your room temperature is different from this.
• Do not remove the top of the developing tank to look at the film until after the fixing stage.
• Use storage bottles that are just the right size for the amount of developer you are mixing. Label a chemical with its name, date and dilution.
• Begin timing each step as you pour chemicals into the developing tank, and start draining chemicals 10 seconds before the time is up.

Since I started playing with 35mm photography a few weeks ago, I’ve been using Snappy Snaps near Clifton Down shopping centre. It came with the recommendation of a friend.

I’ve simply been asking them to develop the film into negatives and then I’ve been scanning the negatives myself. But I noticed that the first few rolls had scratches and dirt on them. Today when I went to pick up the latest roll, they were still finishing with it when I turned up, so I was able to watch.

The film came snaking out of the machine, and the guy working there yanked it out, treating it with all the care you’d think more appropriate for a roll of toilet paper. He put his fingers all over the film, making no attempt to handle it by the edges.

When he came to cut the film into strips, again he handled the film by touching it all over and cut it roughly. I noticed that one of his cuts went diagonally and took thin strips off the edges of two frames.

I’m no expert on film, but it seems pretty common sense to me that you should handle something as delicate as film with care, and not put fingerprints all over it. It’s not like it’s difficult to hold it by the edges, either.

Accredited professional photographer Glen Smith recommends treating negatives in the following way:

Negatives are particularly subject to damage. The smallest spot of dust, scratch or finger print will be enlarged many times when the negative is printed. Always handle negatives by the edges. A finger print on a negative can ruin a print. Negatives can be gently wiped to remove fingerprints but then there is the risk of scratches. Clean white cotton gloves are ideal if not always practical.

This is exactly what anyone with common sense would suggest as a sensible way of caring for negatives, too.

So now I know how my films get damaged during processing, and I think it’s safe to say I won’t be going to Snappy Snaps at Clifton Down again.

Update: There is an example of a scratched negative here on my photo blog.

When digital cameras came out, people hailed it as a great revolution. You could now take thousands of holiday pictures and simply delete the ones you didn’t like. While this is certainly a bonus for some, it can encourage the photographer to be lazy about setting up the scene properly.

My first “real” camera was a digital one. I do try to think about the composition, the lighting and other things. But often I end up going with the trial-and-error approach, and sometimes for photos like this one I would take hundreds of photos with slightly different settings, just to get the perfect shot.

Since I’ve started using a 35mm SLR, I’ve noticed I think much more carefully when taking photos. Naturally, you think twice before pressing the shutter when you know that it will cost you 25p to do so. I tend to take only one or possibly two photos of the same subject, which makes me carefully consider everything.

This can only be a good thing!

The downside is that it can take a while to fill a roll of film, as I have to have up to  36 pieces of inspiration before I can get the film processed When I get my current film done, I’m looking forward to seeing some of the shots I’ve taken over the last few days.

Filters are pieces of glass that screw onto the front of your camera, and they can cause all sorts of unusual effects to your photos.

The good news is that you can buy filters cheaply from eBay (and of course, less cheaply from the high street, if that’s how you like to buy). Before buying, you’ll need to know the diameter of your camera’s lens. This should be written somewhere on the lens barrel or often around the glass on the front of the lens. Look for something like Φ58mm, and then check that your lens has a fine screw thread inside the rim. You’ll need this for the filters to screw into.

Of course each camera (and potentially each lens, if you have an SLR) may have a different lens diameter. If you’ve built up a large collection of filters and you plan on changing camera, never fear! You can buy adapter rings that allows you to use the “wrong” size filters on your new camera.

So let’s have a look at the various kinds of filter you can buy. This list is by no means exhaustive!

These are the rules of thumb that I’ve come up with through experimentation. Hopefully they’ll be useful:

• Always keep a UV filter (or at least some other type of filter) on the lens to prevent scratches
• Consider replacing the UV filter with a Skylight filter when shooting outdoors to avoid a blueish cast
• Use an ND filter when shooting in very bright light to avoid overexposed areas
• Use a CPL or a GND when shooting landscapes with large areas of sky, to make the sky dark and rich
• Consider using a diffuser when taking close portraits to soften skin tones
• Any of the other filters are generally for novelty effects and are not subtle
• Try to use only one or two filters at any one time. Every filter you add can decrease the quality of the lens system, and if you stack up three or more filters, you can usually see the rim of the filters in the photo.

So if you fancy trying something different, I recommend getting some cheap filters from eBay and seeing what interesting effects you can come up with.

Next time, I will write about basic photo editing on a computer.