X(-pro)periments

Today the lab called me! Finally, I got the two cross processed rolls of Ektachrome back and was very… sobered 😦

I never x-pro’d a slide film before but I read a lot about this technique and its popularity within the lomographic community. I also stumbled across some corresponding photos on FlickR that looked quite interesting. Of course this isn’t a consistent look for daily photography, the contrast and the colours are just too weird and surreal (some frames seem to be taken by a camera on drugs), but there’s definitely a time for everything.

While these are my very first x-pro attempts and I was even aware of increased grain, blown-out highlights and abnormal contrast, I already learned a few important things:

• meter/expose to the highligths to avoid a mostly white and blown image. Maybe -1 stop overall would be a good idea to get a small exposure-buffer and a little bit more “blue” in the sky.
• stop down the lens to squeeze the max. sharpness out of it since the grain increases extremely and will reduce the general sharpness of the slide film you’re typically used to.
• shoot subjects that don’t demand a high dynamic range from the film because every bright area like sunny skies, windows, sand etc. will just blow out disproportional, losing every kind of detail.
• the best (highly desired) greenish x-pro effect can be achieved indoors or at night. Outdoor shots in bright daylight just look grainy and very contrasty but not so fruity juicy colour-punched.

Knowing this, most of this “white’n’blurry” frames could have been avoided, but HEY: That’s the reason I shot them. I just learned another photographic lesson…

Let’s get lomographic!

OilTanking Corp.

for export

lomo wagon

   
yellow silo                        Energrease MM-EP2            (no) fire extinguisher

abandoned wagon

lomographic barbie

   
abandoned wagon                          1st class                                 all inclusive

abandoned wagon

seat 113

Actually, I need some Digitalis during the next weeks…

 Category: analog, experiments, photography      Tagged:

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