Printing or Scanning? What's best? Lomography films in the darkroom - Berlin 400 and Lady Grey 400

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Do grainy films look better when printed in the darkroom? HERE'S YOUR ANSWER!
Well, maybe not the answer, but an interesting experiment nonetheless. And I can now confirm that I definitely prefer the look of Lomography Berlin Kino 400 ASA film when it's properly printed. The digital scans, done with a camera and a light panel, really came out looking rough. But the prints from the same negatives are great. At least I think they are.
This was the result I was hoping for, that despite the super rough look that the Berlin has when scanned, it's actually really nice when printed. Something to bear in mind!
This also raised the question of is Lightroom tinkering with negatives acceptable?? What do you think?
Let me know your thoughts!
Some affiliate links to the good stuff:
Ilford PQ Universal developer: amzn.to/4bzguYO
Ilford MGRC Pearl 8x10: amzn.to/3SuatUI
Lomography Lady Grey 400 in 120: amzn.to/3uvgYP4

Опубликовано:

11 фев 2024

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Комментарии : 21

@gregwardecke 5 месяцев назад

I can’t tell you how jealous I am of you in your darkroom. It’s the part of photography I enjoy the most. Due to moving mine is boxed up and mocking me from storage. 😞 Good bit of work. Thanks for making the video.

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

Dig out the darkroom greg!! Don't wait a minute longer! Whilst I would suggest that darkroom is nothing to envy (I have to de-rig the whole thing every time I finish), I do love having it, and having the option. How long til you can have yours up and running again?

@garychatfield6709 5 месяцев назад

Nice printing session. 99.9% alcohol spray will clean the negatives of dust and fingerprints. Carry on vlogging!

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

Good to know, thank you! I'm so scared of doing anything to negatives for fear of wrecking them. But alcohol is ok? It won't mess them up. Might try some on a neg I don't like.

@MarcoRoepers 5 месяцев назад

I didn realize that adding more contrast will also enforce the visibility of dust and other imperfections. Thank you for this insight.

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

It definitely does... imagine there was no image there, all you had was a clear transparency with fingermarks and dust on it, then you add contrast, it's all going to show up more! An annoying side effect of indistinct negs!

@jhogan54321 Месяц назад

I'm very new to the darkroom so it was so nice to see your honest failures in the first part (it's not just me)... forgetting to change the f.stop ... I had worse... exposing a nearly full box of paper.... (omg!). I particlarly found the differences in grain between scan and print of great interest .... I'll be taking note of that. Thanks very much for the videos you upload and your excellent and very practical presentation. In fact some of your videos helped me decide to experiment with pinhole photography which I have come to love. Speaking of which... I have some rolls of Lomography Berlin 400 and Potsdam 100 but can find no information regarding reciprocity failure (neither for Ferrania P30 nor P33)... any advice on that would be more than welcome. Thanks again.

@the120ist 25 дней назад

Ohhhh, if honest failures are your thing then you're in the right place!! It's definitely not just you! Really glad you're enjoying pinhole! I come and go with it, some days I love it, some days it's not for me! But I love the experimenting, for sure! Now... reciprocity failure for those films (btw I did q quick google and all I found was you asking the same question on the Flim and Darkroom User forum!). I don't have any figures for them myself. However, there is great speculation that the Lomography films are repackaged versions of other brands. So that might help with the search. Rumour has it that Berlin is repackaged Orwo 74, and Potsdam is Orwo UN54. But I have no info on this, or if it's true!

@nvrumi 5 месяцев назад

You really should have more subscribers. I mean it. This was fun. I haven't printed in a real darkroom in a very long time. I hope to have room for one someday (better be soon... I'm old). I quite like the Lady Grey. That's an interesting stock. Did you consider pushing it a stop to add a little grain to it? Would you consider that? I sure do like the negative quality. Fun stuff! Thanks!

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

Thanks, I'm not in a big hurry, the subs a trickling in! As long as I'm making vids which I enjoy and you guys enjoy watching, I'm happy! I would recommend trying to squeeze that darkroom in wherever you can. My darkroom is also my garage, my workshop, my "studio", and the store room for all the household crap and kids bikes etc.! It's a busy space. I have completely de-rig the whole thing when I'm done every day, which is a pain, but at least I can do it. Didn't take much to blackout the garage, most of the gaps are filled with a cheapo amazon bedsheet, stuffed into the cracks! I haven't pushed the Lady Grey, I'm not much of a pusher. I only push usually when I need the extra ISO because the scene is too dark. But it would make the Lady Grey very contrasty. Definitely something to try though.

@thenutter2003 5 месяцев назад

nice prints.

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

Thanks! The copy stand shots of them really don't do them justice. I need to work on that!

@chenmunn 5 месяцев назад

That mannequin!😂 Have me a shock! Love the images. So natural! Which 120 setup did you use?

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

Ha ha! Everyone has to have a mannequin right?! All the images I printed were shot on a Bronica ETRS. You can see the shoots here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PEJinqvPq_k.html and here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dolwVyLpf_M.html

@tedphillips2951 5 месяцев назад

Another informative & interesting video. You keep motivating me to get into the darkroom to make prints, now all I have to do is do it.

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

Ha ha, that inertia is a b**ch. I have a lot of sympathy. My darkroom is, as you can see, also my garage, and my workshop, and my studio. So every time I want to print I have to set it all up, tables, enlarger, trays etc., and then put everything away again when I'm done. If I want to print, I really need to want it! But... once you're over that hump, and you get yourself moving, it feel good. Go do it! I keep meaning to make a vid about my garage darkroom and the various improvements I've made to it, all in the name of convenience. Because the difficult of getting going is a major factor in my inertia, so I've tried to streamline as much as possible.

@richardmoore8899 5 месяцев назад

Interesting video as always. You certainly weren't selling me on the Berlin 400 in the last video or indeed for most of this one. That said an interesting and thought provoking example of how grain/contrast can be a good thing adding some subtlety to subjects (in this case portraiture). So yeh it could be useful for some applications. Being of a certain age my family and friends don't always want super sharp and fine grain. It's not something your model needed and who looks great in her specs btw. Rob is a guy made for sharp prints. Oh and lastly - was it my imagination or did your prints look better in the video while you were handling them than in what I presume were digital scans ?

@the120ist 5 месяцев назад

Ok so firstly, yes absolutely the prints were so much nicer in my hand. When I put them on the copy stand they came out patchy and rough. Which is a real shame. But again, it reinforces my point that the unavoidable digital stage in all this, which allows us to share these images, adds its own artefacts into the mix. So it's very difficult to really show these things in a proper light! Totally agree with you though, sharpness has a place, grain has a place. I'm definitely guilty to yearning for more resolution, over aesthetic values of things like grain. You don't see any films advertised with "rough grain", presumably because it doesn't sell. You'll only ever see "fine grain" or maybe "pleasing grain structure". Which tells you a lot about the vast majority of film buyers and what they want. Or think they want!

@neilmartin8143 5 месяцев назад

Just wondered if you printed the digital scans and compared them side by side with the darkroom developed prints, if that makes any sense. Enjoying your videos and always look forward to the next. Cheers