Much of my free time is dedicated to photography. On this channel you'll find vlogs from my travels, tutorials on how I process images, and short films. If you enjoy my videos, please consider subscribing to the channel to keep up to date!
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Haha shooting waist level finders on the side break my brain. In theory you could 3D print a panoramic viewfinder mask for TLRs that support them (I know my Rolleiflex T does) to help with composition, then whack a prism finder on the top. Which would actually be an advantage of using a TLR over something like a 6x7 camera (e.g. Pentax 67 or Mamiya 7) to do the same thing 🤔
This is an interesting method! I have a Minolta Minoltaflex and might try and do this one day. I think next time, use a small level to level out the photos next time since you don't really have proper frame lines to compose the shot, just an observation and recommendation!
@@gunnerovergaard9646 yeah, attaching a level would certainly have helped, it's tricky by eye. I'd be tempted to make a card template to stick in the finder to show the resulting field of view too... Good luck if you give it a go!
Waist level finder with a non-square format is a great fun idea, a bit learning to juggle while looking in a funhouse mirror. Had a friend in college who bought a Bronica ETR (645 format) but couldn't afford the prism. He tried taking some portraits and...borrowed the money from his dad for the prism! 😄Excellent experiment though, good video 👍
@@terrysankey3982 yeah, the gymnastics of it means it's not something I'll do often... But nice to know I can. I probably need to take some 800T to the city... Thanks for watching!
@@parolajd Thanks, glad you liked the end result! I won't claim it as a unique idea, although I think most people aren't stupid enough to try it with a TLR :)
Coal barn in the dry, potentially unique!? Enjoyed the video and images. Have thought of similar with square frame, just wondered if using an empty 35mm canister on the take up spool would negate the need for a dark bag? And the film could be sent away for processing?
@@280bunny Hmm, that's an interesting idea- I guess the problem would still be getting it to "detach" from the original canister without the dark bag. I guess if the final shot has wound into the take-up canister then opening the back in light would be ok...
The camera is usually on auto white balance. The camera is indeed full spectrum. You'd need to then create a custom white balance in Lightroom to get the effect you want. I made a video a few years ago that explains it, and should still be mostly relevant: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5zorRVZhmnk.html
@@JamesBillingsPhotography thank you so much for quick response :). I just started IR and its so confusing and complex :/ i just have a few ir filters at the moment and am considering getting it converted to full spectrum…. Thank you again
@@travelyeti4357 The filters will be a good start, but you'll probably need to do much longer exposures if the camera isn't converted (basically the filter lets through only IR but the unconverted camera tries to block IR) - you can battle through it with long exposures hopefully!
@@JamesBillingsPhotography wow !!! As i am teaching myself i am so unknowledgeable of the process. I thought just having the ir filters on a normal camera solved the problem…. Hmmm so you are supposed to use an IR filter on a full spectrum? I just assumed if you got camera converted you wouldnt need a filter…. I am so ignorant of this of all this 🤦♂️
@@travelyeti4357 it just takes a bit of time to get your head around... So a normal camera out of the box will have a filter over the sensor which blocks IR (because for normal photos, IR light is bad) When you do a "full spectrum conversion", that filter is removed, so now the camera can see visible light and also infrared light. So to do IR photography, we need a filter to now block the visible light, and that's what IR filters do. You can either get ones that go on your lenses like I have in the video, or your "full spectrum conversion" can actually be an "infrared conversion" where they put the IR filter on the camera sensor. But then you can only use the camera for IR and nothing else. If you have an IR filter with an unmodified camera, then you have what I described before- one filter letting through only IR, then a second filter blocking IR. So the end result is no light at all. In reality, the cutoffs are "soft", and different cameras block IR differently... so with a long-exposure on a tripod, you might will get something. You'd need to experiment.
@@raybeaumont7670 That's fair - it's definitely "distinctive" and certainly splits opinion. It's fun to play with, but I'll definitely be sticking to Portra or something for anything important!
Some of the best colours I've seen someone get out of this film, I think. Well done! Did you home scan? It doesn't have any of that usual strong orange cast that most people get out of it, which usually seems to be lab scan related. Rating it slower here has definitely helped with that crushed contrast look too, I did my first 135 roll at box speed and it's a cool look, but a bit strong for me.
@@masterfullymediocre Thanks! Yes, I home scan with my Sony A7Rii and then convert with NLP. These didn't need much work, and standard NLP settings seemed fine. I set the white balance off the unexposed gap as usual. Tbh this 120 perhaps doesn't need quite as much overexposure as the 35mm, some of my highlights are gone forever and the shadows seemed to recover a little better. Still had to dial back the contrast a bit on some shots though :)
@@JamesBillingsPhotography NLP does seem to handle it quite well, even for such a strong look with the film. I may have to give it a try, colour balancing through VueScan was a bit of a headache, although it did eventually come out quite well. It definitely has a narrower latitude than a lot of colour negative stocks, it's an odd film. You seem to have a pretty good grip on it though!
James, I appreciate you going over step by step on processing your IR working file. I am just getting back into IR again after a very long time of not doing it. Just purchased a few various IR filters and can't wait to get rolling with them. Am very interested in the color swap. The image you made in this video looks beautiful, and gets my creative juices flowing. Looking forward to seeing more on IR from your channel. Cheers.
I good question! I'm not entirely sure, but my guess would be that in the sun, the stonework was similarly warm to the trees and thus reflected a similar amount of IR. It's also possible that there's a lot of moss and stuff in amongst the stonework that causes a similar result... but those are guesses :)
Just buy an old bog standard pre digi camera (35mm or 120) with lens that have the IR red dot on them and shoot .(and a good book on the subject AND NOT the one for digital camera shooting)..🙄🙄
Enjoyed that, James. I do like those spindly trees from the boardwalk. It’s a shame it’s so close to KL and Hunstanton with their accompanying light pollution but I imagine there’s some night shots to be had to the north east and south east.
@@nightscapejournals Indeed, I've not been there at night but I think light pollution could well be troublesome. Maybe it's one of those spots where it could work to your advantage though, something for the trees to silhouette against?
Interesting idea- I've never tried combining the two. I'm now also wondering what a combination of colour from a standard shot combined with the 850 filter for luminance might look like...
it's quite an useful video, yet, i wonder if you're aware of the not so seducing "ehm"s? they clearly steal all the attention, what a pity! perhaps it'll be a worthwhile revelation of counting them yourself.
Hello there James, very beautiful place and fascinating pictures you’ve taken there! It’s interesting how the pictures taken by film seems and feels more nostalgic than those ones taken with digital. Also, the whole video was very calming and peaceful, had a great time watching all throughout the vid!
Interesting location. I found your vid from your post on DP Review. May I ask what time of year you were there? I know you said Autumn but which month? Thanks in advance.
@@JamesBillingsPhotography Thanks for the swift reply James. I’d considered travelling to Tenerife or La Palma for astrophotography but the thought of the crowds put me off. (Most of my work is done in the far northwest of Scotland where I live, so I’m a bit spoilt with remoteness and having the place to myself!) I did go to Fuerteventura a couple of years ago, which held a lot of promise, but we had Calima for the whole week we were there, so the night sky was a write-off. I think it affects the eastern islands more than the western ones. El Hierro certainly looks promising,and I guess you had good clear air after that storm passed through.
@@TarrelScot I've not been to La Palma- Tenerife has the advantage of being high up (you'll see I stayed in the hotel up on the volcano which was much quieter than the resorts on the coast... but you do get tours coming up for night-sky-tour trips which were annoying, perhaps don't set up in the popular viewing spot! On El Hierro I had hoped to get the milky way behind the lighthouse in the south-west- you're obviously low down but if the sky is clear it would make a great shot. I'm considering re-visiting, maybe next year - I can't hit a cyclone twice, right? :)
Great video and shots. It’s a foreground that’s now definitely on my list. There are a few interesting looking areas to the west of Kings Lynn by the Wash that I’m hoping to scout. I can imagine exactly what it was like when you scared those bats / birds / killer squirrels.🐿️
Look forward to seeing what you come up with - there's some more things out towards the firing ranges I think (control tower type stuff) but not sure how accessible they are...
@@JamesBillingsPhotography that's exactly where I had in mind, together with seeing if there's any residual infrastructure around the trial banks, which i think were part of a tidal energy project.
Enjoyed that, James. Film using a TLR definitely looks like an immersive and cathartic process - completely alien to me and not sure I need the extra complexity, but very enjoyable to watch. “The algorithm is a mystery”: never a truer word spoken.
Yeah, I do enjoy the slow-process of it. Apparently some folk used to shoot weddings with them, no idea how! As for the algorithm- my IR Processing one has almost 46k views now, most of my other videos are between 50-300 views. Go figure!
awesome video, ive noticed with my edit, following your video, there is a slight color cast still of the chosen colour ive gone for is there a way to offset/remove that?
Kinda depends - sometimes I've wanted to get rid of a remaining pink tinge on leaves, and do that by adjusting the red and magenta HSL settings in lightroom to lower the saturation to 0. Latest updates to lightroom have some cleverer colour adjustment options but I've not had chance to fully explore those yet...
Glad you like the photos! Settings for that were pretty standard stuff- 20mm lens at F8, 1/15 second. I also used a polarising filter I think to help reduce reflection on the water.
what brand of IR filters you chose? nice to get a view of what brand is best....thanks for video. Have conversed DSLR to full spectrum and got step down/up rings to use a 72mm 720nm filter. looking forward to some sun so i can get out and take the shots
Looking back through my Amazon purchases, it's a variety... I have a few Green.L brand, a couple of Hoya, a Neewer... I probably just pick up what's in stock and reasonable money at the time!
