thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
Yesterday i got my package delivered. I found a guy online who'd sell me a 120mm reel for R$35 which is a fair price. He also had at least one 35mm so I told him I'd keep both. I actually said something like "listen mate. I need it and need it for yesterday. Don't really care the price tag just tell me how much & send me the gear."He's done so and now I've got: 2-tanks; 1-120mm & 3-35mm reels. :-)More than I need but......at least I will be able to resume works. Innit?! "Sunny 16 Rule" and EXPOSURE Table (Light Value)I finally understood how that thing works and I wish to share it with a reader who might feel stuck at the same place I was until yesterday or so.This post mentions the Rollei because it's the camera I have and love. My Canon AE-1 or your camera will follow the same science !The reason I revisited this subject is a post on a forum where a guy asked for help reading the table BUT a shed load of "connoisseurs" flooded the poor guy with their own confusions and doubts. Things like: 'it doesn't really work' or 'it is supposed to be used together with a light meter' or 'that si from the days (before digital) when photographers could not get true esimates of light value and exposure and had to guess' (almost true) or even 'here is the link to a Rollei manual - it tells you all you need to know. Period' (I wonder if the guys knew it, really.....prob not....).So.....you've got yourself a Rollei? What the heck is that table with weird numbers and pictures on the back?!?This is what I talk about:Now MY Rollei is the Rolleicord Va (almost 100% absolute sure about that :) and my table only goes up to ASA 100. I have a manual showing up to ASA 800 but in which ASA 100 is missing. What you do? You read inbetween. I see numbers ASA 50 and 200. 100 is exactly in between.For more on rolleis go to rolleiclub.comNow let's decryptograph the table itself, shall we! Happy timeFirst thing: DIN is a very old film sensitivity scale. But ASA is the same as ISO. So, if you know what ISO means, stick to the ASA side and you'll need no convertion at all.Take a good look at the table and its figures. It has 10 big scene pictures on the top two rows; 10 small pictures on the bottom two rows (with a picture of the sun shining on the top one on each side and, on each side, a pic of the sun overcast....looks like it's raining though; and in the middle a dense black area with white numbers sided by the ASA (ISO) values. The dense area is the EV (Exposure Value) matrix!Breaking it down to pieces - red circles belowTOP COUPLED PICTURES (BIG SCENES): Determining best EV for composition quicklyIn the pic above you'll see five (5) sets of two pictures, one on top of the other. The idea
here is to tell you the best average EV (check my preceeding blog post) for a given scene and light.As explained, we need to evaluate the light spreading over our subject plus the shades coming from it - if any.Let's first call each couple scenes (one on top of the other) by letters A to E. There are, therefore, 5 sets of two pictures (scenes) :: A, B, C, D, and E.A: (up) High Mountains without foreground - (down) Open beach. That is very brightly light open places, snow, sand, reflexions etcB: (up) Sport scenes, wide lawns open spaces - (down) Bright streets and squares, Parkings, Parks, wide concrete areas, Open Landspaces.C: (up) Landscapes WITH foreground - (down) Groups in the open.D: (up) Groups in shade - (down) Street scenes with shade. Bright alleys.E: (up) Groups under trees or lightly shaded subjects - (down) Groups in glassroofed halls, Galleries, Trains station (well lit, no deep shade areas).EVALUATING SHADE:Can you see that the first row has a sun picture on each side, while the second has an overcast sun (though it looks like rain! lol) ?Those are the SHADOW values, to be adjusted with the light values.Upper Row: +0 -1 -2Lower Row: -1 -2 -3Up row shades (shape): dark & short dark & medium\same length dark & longShades in a sunny day: dark, distinct, sharp and with edges easily noticeableShades in overcast day: varying degrees of softness to barely visible or, at the farthest spectrum, Absent (remember last post and the quick Sunny 16 table!). That can be seem in the lower row. Shades are always almost non-visible.Example: It's sunny, dark and edgy short shades. EV -0. But let's say it's late in the afternoon and the shades, you notice, have grown very long, longer than the object itself...then do EV -2 (15 becomes 13).Or even, it's overcast but you see no shades, and it's very bright. Do -1 EV (15 becomes 14).Remember to check that on the next sunny or overcast day. Even today, when writing this blog, I had a very gray, heavily overcast day. Although it was extremely bright outside, there was NO SHADOW at all. Inside the flat, with the bright light coming into the window, there were shades - long and barely visible. What does that mean: for an outside subject I choseF5.6 - 1/125 (EV 12 = -3EV) and for the inside F4 - 1/4 (EV 6 = -9EVs). Worked nicely.EV SCALE itself - How to use the Rollei table:Now adding up the two information above and using it in the real world.You'll now match (cross) your ISO with the scene you are shooting, adding the EV shade modifier if applicable.Ok so you are shooting a football match, it is sunny, no big deal of clouds. The players have their dark shades clearly noticeable. The shades edges are sharp and also about their heights. Which scene picture are we talking about?Resp: B, upper row.So we know that we need to take the EV values (numbers) directly below the scene. They are 11, 12, 13 and 14 BUT
your ISO is 100, so your base EV is only one, is the 14 --- below the picture and beside the ASA 100. And since the shadows are dark and a bit long (we might infer it's in the afternoon) the modifier is -1 EV. The resulting EV is then 14-1 = 13 !What do we do with that!?! Very simple.....Recap that the Sunny 16 "straight" is only a starting point which is F16 - 1/ISO - 15 EV (EV 15 == +/-ZERO EV compensation under the Sunny 16 Rule ! EV 15 is the starting point, sunny bright, midtone subject), then;Set your Rollei like this: F/16 aperture - 1/ISO shutter speed on the coupled knob and on the diaphragm knob (the one with the red numbers) find the number 15.......You've set Sunny 16 on your Rollei!! If you don't have a Rollei go on, the idea can be modified to other cameras (even digital). Especially if you use the EV and LV Chart.Back to the examples:EV 13 is -2 EV or + 2 stops of light needed in relation to EV 15. Move the EV knob up until it's set to 13. Now look at the coupled knob and check what the Aperture/Shutter says now......it says1/125 shutter speed BUT now the aperture is set at F8 ! And how many stops is that? Two!You opened up for twice more light (F16->11->8) keeping the same shutter speed.With that you correctly exposed the scene starting from Sunny 16 and reading the table on the back of your Rollei.Let's analyse if the table makes sense...if it correctly exposes the frame by means of our old friends: charts EV and LV.I want to take a pic of my friends. We are quite close to each other and amisdt many trees, like in a park, with some shade (lightly shaded). I can say now that this scene is letter "E". And lets say it's a couldy day outside. I can now expect that the correct EV compensation for this shot will be around (11-1=10 EV) under the Sunny 16; and that is shooting F4 @ 1/60s ! Checking that against the charts EV 11 is "open shade" which looks right, and the extra +1 EV adds to the fact that the subjects are in the shade. Furthermore EV 10 is also F4 - 60sThe chart also tells us we might use F2.8 - 125s or F8 - 15s and get the exact same exposure. Line "10".The EV Math: 15 - 4 full stops = 11. Minus 1 stop (or +1 EV compensation to make things brighter) = 10Go back to the Quick Sunny Day table and you'll see that it also tells you should use F4.All methods lead to a same result. You may add or subtract to get better exposures. You may even choose different settings but the base Sunny 16 Rule is all set on your Rollei, ready to help you in a blink of the eye!How nice is that?!Another thing. Once you have set the diaphragm ring (red numbers knob) to your chosen
EV the F-number/Speed coupled knob will show you all different setings you may choose from keeping the same exposure value.Example: Set the EV number to 7. Then move the coupled knob up and down and you will get all possible same exposure compositions:F16 - BulbF11 - 1"F8 - 1/2F5.6 - 1/4F4 - 1/8Hope I've been of some help.If you use the Rollei setting please let me know of your experiences and also help me add to my Charts different situations and light conditions.cheers
So here we are again after a couple weeks without anything great. Caffenol Carioca presents its first results: overdeveloped negatives, but alas, it's experimental after all and was indeed the first time...Practice makes perfect.As I said before, the idea here is to use the common household kitchen stuff to obtain a Green Developer and Fixer. Stuff that won't kill your baby, burn your skin, make you blind, intoxicate you and your dog, things you can leave around the house not caring to leave a skull sticker on to warn people they are at risk ingesting or handling it. AND THAT'S GREAT STUFF, innit!For years what actually prevented me from developing my own negatives at home was the chemistry involved. Not-any-more.As I told you guys my journey started with my grandad's old Rollei. Then I went online, researched, read a lot, watched videos on youtube, bought some basic stuff and made a friend. It's worth mentioning him because he was the guy who actually made sense of the "green fixer"; and although the substance involved has been well known to 'kinda fix okay' for the whole existance of Photography a quick search online will show you that the results were - in the least - less than satisfactory and short lived. Sea Salt as a fixer simply did not work and ALL THE WORLD was out there to make sure you got that or be treated as a fool to believe otherwise.Even then, a few fools with a fixed (sorry, pun) idea in their heads would still try it. As of today, we are four people (04). And it works. Just follow the recipe I'll explain later. But this subjetc will deserve more than one post. Don't worryBTW this friend is Henrique Souza, or by the nickname Cronocrator on Flickr, and his blog is at the address http://caffenolcolor.blogspot.com - Please check and contribute to his work.DEVELOPING WITH CAFFENOL:Starting with my recipe, which turned out to be too strong I reckon now:But first, nomenclature:tsp = teaspoon (circa 5g / ml)tbs = tablespoon (3 tsp)MEASURES:The developing thank volume is of about 500ml. Less actually. You can't fit 500ml. Consider your proportions accordingly, ok. But most important of all, even if you don't have exactly what the other guys have been using, it's ok as long as you use the same measures for all you work. In a different way to put it, if ou can't measure in ml do in ounces, or liters but then ALWAYS stick to the same measures so you WON'T mix different scales. I bought a general kitchen measuring beaker and will do the whole process using it. Simple as that.RECIPE:2 tbs of cheap (caffenated!!!) instant coffee4 tsp of washing soda2 Vit-C Redoxon 1000mg tabletsSTEPs:1] dissolved the coffee and the soda in different recipients. MIND the 500ml maximum volume of your tank (your tank might take more than that so just find out how much it takes before you start the process - add water to it and measure how much it took):- Add 250ml to a container then add the
2 tbs of coffee. Mix until it all dissolves.- Add 200ml and the 4tsp of Soda to another recipient or in the measuring beaker/cup itself. You don't need a hundred plastic pots to do this. Two will do just fine. Mix and break any hard crystals. It should dilute 100% . It will look like regular water (yep, don't get confuse and drink it....)- Add to Redoxon and allow it to completely dilute. Make sure it does!2] Mix all three together and make sure to mix well.3] Add the mixture inside your tank (preferably with the film already in the reel inside, a' course!)You don't have to do this in the dark. Actually, after doing the film-reel-tank hedious game all the developing process takes place in the light. Watch tv!DEV TIME:I did 20 min. MISTAKE. The recipe is too strong. I suppose 7 to 12 min tops will bring better results.Overdeveloping make the negatives DENSE - that is, too DARK. You'll see in my results what does that mean.Try and get the temperature around 20 degrees Celsius. Too warm and it overdevelops too. I did it at about 30 C.... And easy way to do it is to use some cooled water to do the mixin.Attention: add the cool water after you mixed the soda. I found out that the soda in cool water becomes big rocks too hard to dilute!! I ha to add hot water to dissolve it. The caffenol mixture must be used within 30min's time. CAVEAT: The Vit-C tablets are messy. They foam up and make a good froth. Just like draught beer but not as tasty! By messy I really mean messy, spilling black smudge all over. So be sure to add those two in the recipient with the highest side you have. I was told that adding soda to it cancelled the spilling over....never tried. Vit-C reduces the time of development by a half and reduces fog and stains. But the tablets are not 100% pure Vit-C and then you have a few issues form its use....As I said, this recipe works fine but is rather strong. I'm presenting what I've done here, but my next batch will suffer adjustments such as: no more Redoxon (Cronocrator's tip), 1 tbs + 1 tsp Coffee and 4 tbs of soda. Do at your own risk or simple go online and try one of the bomb-proof recipes the guys post online at Caffenol.orgI'm all about experimenting. Besides, my film is not the same as theirs!--------------------PROCESSING THE FILM - IN PICTURESTime to add some photos, as promissed.First, a gentle advice given me by Cronocrator. Wash you film before starting. Add cool water from the tap to the tank, put it down the drain. Repeat. It gets the negatives moisturised before starting the developing process preventing the developer to stain the film and washing away the die from the film (purple or blue die, depending on the film maker)I usually prepare the Salt Fixer before (since the caffenol is only good for 30min!) But that is a new post......Kitchen measuring beaker
with about 500ml water:2 Coffee tbs and Redoxon before adding to coffee mix (illustration of the tablets):Adding 250ml water to coffee and the Vit-C later: 250mlJust placed the 250mln water in the coffee cup then vit-c,Result of using a short cup for the Vit-C mix....Mistake made once only! It was worse than the picture shows...Should have used the measure cup and not the short cup...Mixing the Soda to have the complete Caffenol mix. I did both mixtures before adding water to them. Adding water was the last part, except for the Vit-C which was added to the coffee-water mix already done:Water for the soda mix: 200ml4 tsp of sodaMixing soda and water:Mixing all together now - coffe + vit-c & Soda: you don't need the funel!Final solution of CAFFENOL ready to use (oh yeah, it's caffenol done there!):NEXT Step, adding the Caffenol-C mix to the Developing Tank:amount left in the measure cup (tank fits only less that the full 500ml)DEVELOPING Time and Do's:Nice. Once you have added your Caffenol to your tank the process takes from 7 to 15 min depending on your recipe and if you have Vit-C. Solutions without Vit-C take longer, like 30min. You'll have to gently shake the tank, mix the caffenol inside it so the developing solution affects the whole of the film, leaving no imperfections or stains.If you shake too much or too hard you'll get too much GRAIN and overdevelop. So you will move the tank gently every 30 sec. for the first 5 min or so. Just turn it one side to the other, up and down around its axis. This is called semi-stand. Then let it do it's trick. Wait a few minutes and turn a bit more. If you turn too much you'll get a lot of grain.Drop the caffenol down the sink and begin the stop and washing bath:change the water a few times to make sure you washed it really well and no caffenol is still on the filmLast thing: wash the negs still in the tank with a bit of dishwashing soap.....it prevents water stains to build on your nice negs!DONE. Now you have to FIX your negatives if you want them to survive light.Now a few scanned pictures of the results.I had a really difficult time using a (two different ones actually) table scanner so I decided to try something I saw on youtube - using my digital camera to 'scan' the negatives. It works.I jerrybuilt a system far from perfect but as you'll see I am now able to show the resulting negs and somewhat correct them on the PC.You'll need:- digicam with manual focus or able to focus from very close distance (macro mode)- lamp- one completely white sheet of paper or glass/plastic (much better than paper actually, I'll get one myself)- a tripod is great if you have one.The results came out fairly crooked because I shot the cam at an angle (the camera wasn't at 90o angle to the neg, but rather about 60o. That said, my scans lost quality and....the light wasn't even
onto all parts of the neg. Still, I'm happy to have SOME results to show. It's all about home-made, green, experimental Caffenol, right!?Poor man's scanning system: Get a side table lamp (white light is better than yellow), place the sheet of paper onto it (won't start a fire, ok), place the negative onto the white sheet of paper (you might need to cut the negs separately) then focus your camera and take a pic. Bob's our uncle.I shall first show the negatives the way they came out of the camera (duely cropped out of the frame sheet-of-paper-lamp, then I'll show some quick fixes obtained on GIMP:Camera used - Canon S5 IS 8MPAs you can see the edges (numbers and ID of the film) are well fixed and look good - proving the negs were indeed developed correctly - in short, the developing process worked as it should!Now the tweaked negs in GIMP: Invert + Dessaturate. Don't know if the order matter though...I used the shadow brush on a few.HAVE QUESTIONS? WANT TO SHARE INFO? Write me.Cheers!
I'm new to this blogging world and I have a few doubts about the functioning of my blog.So, when you click on the links (say to Cronocrator's blog) do they open? Or on the photos I posted of the process, do they open... Do the pics open bigger?Let me know if this blog is working properly! GOOD FRIDAY !Right. Got back from the market with my pots and coffee (instant) yesterday - even posted about it.Now this morning I woke up and took a trip to the stove to destroy a few of my wife's kitchen utensils. That, was not the original idea........believe me......Main idea here: one can successfully turn sodium bicarbonate into sodium CARbonate (washing soda) by heating the baking soda which releases teh second "C" (from teh BIcarb) leaving a mono C....Carbonate. Tadah.I bought two small 100g 100% pure bicarbonate pots at the local pharmacy near work. Paid quite a lot (R$ 7.40 each) and for sure I won't be using that place ever again!!!Before I continue I will offer a word of advice. Don't be too stupid in the kitchen ok. Mind that things burn and melt ;)I, somehow yet to be established, managed to melt the teaspoon measure, make two holes in of my new pots (the small red one) and deform its bottom, and burn the end of a silicon spatula. So beware of idiots in the kitchen; and if you're one yourself, have an adult come take care of you......I had now less than 100g in the pot because I'd been testing if my washing soda was indeed soapier than the original pot content (baking soda). Let's call it from now on WS and BS, respectively ok....So things to test for:-WS weighs LESS than BS. by some 20%.-WS has less volume than BS, so you'll end up with less in the pot than you started with. I'm counting on less than 20% loss....-WS is indeed soapier (by a lot). BUT it makes NO FOAM okay. That's detergent.-WS will form a few big clusters of powder when cooking-WS will turn out a very thin powder-It smells strong and sour when WS starts to change so you'll know easily when the process starts (and works).-WS dissolves really well (nothing shows up) in waterI let the pan on medium-high flame for some 10 min at least. It's good to be sure that all the BS turned into WS.Mix the stuff from time to time. Again, use a silicon spatula or a wooden stickPut a lid on to make things hotter inside the pan and have your WS quicker.Nothing else of importance to mention here.ButI put the WS inside the BS original pot, because it was tight and had a screw-on lid. WS in contact with air and moisture (air) will eventually trun back into BS !!I cooked the WS in two batches and used a funil to put the resultng WS into the BS pot. BTW I placed all BS in the red pot before starting...Great stuff. I'm stopping here.Below a pic of the little frying pan I used.
It's been a while since my last post. The last batch of caffenols came out so much better. I have not shared them on my blog yet. There was nonetheless a problem. I didn't shake enough and the negarives came out with a lot of brown spots all over. They must be undissolved crystals. A pity.....Well furthermore i am without time!! No kidding. Life is frantic with the coming of my long trip to the usa. Spending time with my wifie's family and travelling around the mountain states. Going climbing camping eating chilies etc. And....my my camera Nikon D5100 with 300mm lens waits for me there!I also haven't had time to make a rig to work as my scanner so uploading the result in a crappy way again doesn't look very attractive to me.I have another roll of 120 in my Rollei its been weeks now but nothing worth registering came up! Boring weeks i should say. But cannot take my rollei to the usa ...not this time.I was writing a post about diffracting and stopped because i was getting to techy with it. Soon though.....diffraction effects for dummies.Well keep visiting me and i guess see you guys soon.Cheers So...bought the reels yesterday. On the mail.Keeping up with my cost informing the whole thing plus courier came to R$122.00Decente price for one tank - three 35mm reels - one 120mm reel and overnight shipping. Second hand goods in great state and since i now have two tanks i may sell one to recover some money!Cheers Disappointent--------So just got my dev tank by mail today morning, after 2 months trying to get the hold of one. It's cute, small - fits in on hand. BUT it came without the reel!!! Quite disappointing....I checked before buying and was really certain the reel would come with it.So I'll try today without it, just placing the film in whatever manner it comes into de tank and see what my results will be. I JUST CAN'T wait any longer.....Will be trying to get a reel for the future.Now, it's time to finally start Caffenol-ingcheersPhotos:The package:The BoxThe tank: opening the the chemicals and parts apart Hi there.As you know Cronocrator started this project. I just informally named it ;)Four people are now trying to prove Sea Salt CAN be used as FIXER. Check my previous post (s).Not any salt. Not table salt. But sea salt in crystals. Those you use in barbecues and steaks, salads etc.Sea salt has most of Earth's minerals....and.... IS TOTALLY GREEN CAFFENOL!!! HURRAYUnfortunately there is a correct way of mixing / preparing the Salt Fixer, otherwise it's just water + salt. There's a right temperature! A right dilution, density! A right time!I'll keep adding info to this post but I feel like I must kick his thing off for now, so that we may, perhaps, find other contributors to the "Project"First off, you'll need a density of 1.2 or over. That means, in simple words, that the 1L solution must weigh 1.2Kg.The way you do it is NOT adding 200g of sea salt to