Canon EOS 3 - 400 Lomo (digitally converted)

And here are some more of my roll from yesterday's post that I converted to black and white digitally

Warned you that roll had a lot of cats :p  Mainly Peachy too because she likes being around me/people more than Gremlin does. You'll often find Gremlin under a tree or watching things from afar whilst Peachy needs constant love and reassurance and companionship! Every once in a while Gremlin will meow for pats or even jump up on my lap and I make sure to give him lots and lots of love!

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Film Camera A Month - Feburary

For February, I choose my Canon EOS 3 camera. It's a film camera with a lot of different options to play around with and it takes my digital higher end lenses so this month I could do close ups! It's funny because most of the film ended up being of Peaches and Gremlin though some of my favourite photos of them. Can I just say how much I love this monthly film challenge!! So far I've only manage a roll each month but to be honest that's one extra roll then I had previously been using :p When I see the cats doing something cute, normally I'd just grab my iPhone or digital but since I'm trying to have at least one roll completed each month it's meant I've found myself grabbing for my film camera - hurrah!

I also need to point out there are some super sad photos on this roll and a little disclaimer for those who don't want to scroll. I found a dead sugar glider :( :( I'm still coming to terms with treating all animals as equals but there is something that happened in my brain when I saw him that made me super super sad. I guess to be honest, it made me more sad than seeing something non cute and fluffy. 

At the start I couldn't even deal with seeing his little body. I rang Ben to debrief but he was in the thick of work, so I went around the garden and collected little flowers and a soft rag and a box with the thought that I would pick him up and put him in it. It took me sooooo long to pick him up (I'm definitely clearly not okay with death). When I did, I just spent the longest time looking at him - makes me weepy to even think about those moments and then I had the courage to pat his head and really examine how amazing they are! I felt privileged and sad to have got to spend so long marveling at him. I decided I definitely needed to take some photos and thus why this post may not be okay for some people and I totally get that! If you think you are okay to see them, I promise there is nothing gruesome or gore-filled just a little lifeless creature (still deserving of a warning).

For those playing along at home, I used a lomography 400 colour roll and I set my camera to 200 ISO but had it processed at 400 so essentially pulling the film because I'm all about that softness of late!

 PEACHY!

The blue tongue I got to relocate - that was such a good day for me because (and sorry for repeating myself from instagram) but blue tongues are definitely top five fav animals of mine :)

I've actually begun a clay sculpt of this little dude, so he'll never be forgotten :)

 His little feet were incredible!

Oh my gosh I love love that photo of gremlin on the right! He is such a funny cat, he suffers from resting bitch face but he's also got a whole bunch of other expressions usually fueled by his scaredy cat ways, I'm not even sure what face he is doing here, maybe just a general unsure vibe!

Cutie Pie Peachy, who often finds herself banished from my room (after a few warnings!) because she likes causing havoc. Just the other day she literally clawed her way to the top of my white scrim (cloth behind her in the photo above) which caused her and the scrim to fall backwards on top of my kangaroo planter which broke tragically :( Peachy was a-okay though, which hey, clay can be rebuilt right!

Tomorrow I'll post a couple more from this film which I converted to black and white:)

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Floral Friday: Made Me Smile

This week's Floral Friday is all about flowers that 'made me smile' which I love. I've chosen a photo I took on our trip to Port Macquarie, a couple of weeks back now. Having just dropped Ben back at the airport on Wednesday (gone for another 6 weeks) it was a nice way to cheer myself up, looking through our holiday snaps.

I feel like I've been choosing quite cliched flowers for my Floral Fridays but I'm not going to lie big colourful hibiscus make me happy and definitely remind me of my favourite season, summer. By the way, I'm desperately trying to hold onto any glimpse of Summer - unfortunately I'm also currently wearing a jumper :P

I took this photo using my canon eos 3 film camera and 800 lomography film.  I'm really loving lomography's film, I feel the colours are so nice for the price :) When I was researching hibiscus flowers I read about how they are unfortunately attacked by a variety of bugs which made me focus in on all those poor little leaf holes - get better plant!

Floral Fridays is a monthly photography project with different themes each month. This series is about fun and taking time out to smell the flowers. To play along, please email Trishie (trishie@underlockandkeyblog. com) for next month's theme

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Canon EOS 3 - Fuji Superia x-tra 800 - expired

Okay I'm back on the Fuji game this time with 800 film (fast film ideal for lower light situations). A bit of a disclaimer first - before buying this film I didn't realised it was expired, so in all Fuji fairness I really need to try some non-expired film before making final judgements :p Perhaps the reason I don't like Fuji (weird contrasts, not so flattering colours) are because the films I've tried have been expired.

STATS
7 keeps 16 fails (wah wah wah)

Fail Reasons: I took most of the roll inside a bowling alley for J's birthday I was hoping it would react like the Lomo 800 film indoors and really make those colours pop and crazy. I found most of my shots were just boring. Now this could of been the lighting (it's a pretty loose experiment when you are doing your test shots in two different locations) but this roll back (possible my worst ever) gave me little reason to buy Fuji again. The two shots I did like (posted above) would of been impossible not to be exciting because of the colours but the film didn't enhance them - just delivered as is. I enjoy film for its ability to manipulate colours but if on the otherhand you are someone who wants to record more accurately a scene than perhaps Fuji is for you :)

Things to remember: Don't rely on this film to make the real world more exciting :P

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Canon 3 - Ektar 100

I'm back on that film review train and this time it's my Canon eos 3 camera with Kodak Ektar 100 film. I think this is a no brainer combination for returning good results :) Quality camera, with quality lenses and quality film - ticking all those good boxes!

I don't have the actual stats on how many shots turned out from this roll but all those 'a film photo a day' shots I posted whilst I was in Singapore were from that roll and if memory serves me it was a happy batch of film. If I want predictable photos I'll shoot with this combo knowing also that Ektar does some nice colours for landscape shots :)

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Canon EOS 3 - Lomography 400 b&w film

We get to compare the lomography 400 b&w film to the t-max 400. I'm just going to say I think t-max has the edge. I liked how the t-max roll came back with more contrast which is something I personally appreciate in black and white photos :) I found I had to use the lomography b&w in really sunny locations to get the same contrast that seemed to come more naturally in the t-max. That said I'm a big fan on black and white and apart from focus issues (my biggest downfall!) I was really happy with the roll that came back. 

You guys also get more pics from the wedding too! I tried to have with me throughout the day my digital camera, a film camera with a colour roll and a film camera with a b&w roll...excessive much :p  

I'm thinking more about my focus issues, with this roll I had learnt not to rely on autofocus and just manually focus but it seems my eyes let me down, especially at night.  With digital photography I'd just look at my display screen and re-take the photo if it wasn't in focus which is something you can't do with film.  Dani (from the awesome blog the cat you and us) pointed out in the comments that focusing wide open (low aperture) on the canon 3 would be like playing Russian Roulette (Thanks Dani!) I kind of didn't think about that but it makes perfect sense.  So 1.4 means not much is in focus, which means what you want to be in focus (say the eyes of someone) has to be dead on - a more narrow aperture, that keeps more things in focus, gives more of a buffer zone :)

So the solution I think is to kick up the aperture especially in low light situations or maybe buy some glasses! If someone has another suggestion for improving focus I'd love to hear :)

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Canon EOS 3 - T-MAX B&W film

Okay it's time for some black and white film. Now the problem with black and white film is that it requires a different processing to colour film so my local shopping centre lab was unable to process it as they don't have the equipment. After sending it off online to get it processed the roll ended up coming to just under 50 bucks *gasp*. Luckily the Australian lomography site has just started offering processing and they can do all types and offer a much more reasonable price. I sounds like their spokesperson but really I'm just happy to not have to pay a crazy price!

Now all I can say about black and white film is you can't really go wrong. I had a feeling this would be the case. As long as you make sure the shot you're taking has strong contrasts or is interesting because you can't rely on pretty colours to save the day. 

I'm not even going to do the stats on this as the whole roll came out fine except for a few shots where the scene lacked depth. The T-MAX also comes in 100 speed film and up until recently they also offered 3200 but have since stopped production. Kodak also makes a TRI-X b&w film which is meant to be even more forgiving then the t-max aka you can't stuff it up if you over or underexposed it! They also do a BW400 which according to the kodak site gives creamy tones.  Definitely some future films for me to play with :)

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Canon EOS 3 - Lomography 800 Film

Unfortunately I haven't run a 400 lomography film through my EOS 3 (such contempt for 400 film :p) but I do have the 800 Lomo film to show you guys! I took most of my roll of film indoors. I'd loaded it into my camera knowing I'd be in low light situations. Remember the higher the number on the film the more sensitive it is to light and thus performs better in low light situations (though the more visible grain too!)

STATS

14 keeps 22 fails

Fails Reasons: Not in focus

Things to remember: I know the 22 fails seems bad but low light meant the auto focus really struggled in the camera! It was definitely not the film's fault. I actually loves how the film performed with indoor lighting, I thought it gave really great vibrant and interesting colours and I'd happily (and have) bought this film again! I also think the grain looks totally fine too :)

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Canon EOS 3 - Portra 400

Okay back to the Kodak Portra but this time in the 400. I've decided that I don't like 400 film, since my cameras all have pretty fast shutters and my lens all let in a lot of light, 100 film speed is for me and if I need to shoot in super low light conditions than I'd reach for 800 - end rant.

STATS

19 keeps 17 fails (36 roll exposure)

Fail Reasons: Not in focus

Things to remember: Portra 400 gave nice predictable shots although I'll admit slightly boring. The fail reason was largely due to doing a lot of backlit shots and using auto focus. I've since learnt to always use manual focus but this was before I had cottoned onto EOS 3's limitations. I don't think I'd be overly eager to purchase this film again. Portra is available in 160/400/800 and I think the 100/800 combo would suit me just fine :)

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Canon EOS 3 - Fuji Superia 200 - Expired Film

I mentioned when I was in Singapore I visited the lomography store and picked up some expired film. I was really excited for this film, I'd read about expired film giving cool colours and unexpected results. Well I definitely got an unexpected result, unfortunately leaning more towards the boring side :P

I also decided then and there (after receiving my roll back) I could see a big difference in the quality of Kodak and even in Lomography films when compared to Fuji. Now that might be a complete and unreasonable call as I've only tried this expired Fuji film.  I've since bought some 800 Fuji film so I should probably reserve judgement until I've tested a few more rolls of non expired film :p

STATS

17 keeps 7 fails (rolls of 24 exposures)

Fail reasons: Focus issues, lens hood corner smudges.

Things to remember: To give the film credit, focus issues and lens hood smudges are really not its fault but I just found there weren't many stand out shots.  I used the roll up pretty quickly and in my mind was relying on crazy colour casts to save the day though perhaps I should of been more concerned with capturing awesome images!   I don't think I'd buy this film again, though I do want to give Fuji films more tries before ruling them out forever :P  I believe Superior is Fuji's consumer (read: cheapo film) but they also have Reala and Fujicolour Pro, lots of slide film (which I'm yet to try!) and some b&w film choices.

I think the main reason there was a lot keepers in this roll was that I had discovered the number one secret of colour film photography...to overexpose!  I personally like overexposed images so maybe this tip isn't valid for everyone's style but I definitely love my photos more since overexposing them :)

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Canon EOS 3 - Lomography 100

So today I'm profiling Lomography 100 colour film using my Canon EOS 3.  100 ASA/ISO film just refers to the speed of the film - commonly known as the ISO on digital cameras.  100 is a super slow film, not very sensitive to light and therefore needs a lot of light, you can get light in a couple of other ways, through the speed of the shutter, the thing that makes the noise on your camera when you take a photo, or through widening your aperture (usually on more expenses lenses). So why use a slow film and not just a super fast one that will work in low light situations? Well 100 will give you super fine grain :) If you're planning on using your camera on a sunny day I'd always go for a low speed film!

Lomography is all about their plastic fantastic cameras but they also produce there own series of film. I'll say straight off the bat that I think for the price their film is very reasonable and I'm currently stocked up on a variety of their films! They're also a Worldwide company so having a website specifically for Australia is a great plus for me as shipping is very reasonable :)

STATS

16 keeps 20 fails (wowsers!)

Fail Reasons: Not in Focus / Bad Cropping (on my behalf) / Boring Shots

Things to remember: Quite similiar to the portra 160 as in I was making the same mistakes; using autofocus on the EOS 3 (it's very hit and miss - use manual focus!) taking boring shots in the hope that the awesome film colours would save them (rookie error) and just general bad cropping. I found that this film is less reliable than portra 160 but that I needed to step up my game and think more about each frame before pressing the shutter button, something that film definitely teaches you to do! 

So my verdict for these slow films is that I'd choose Portra over Lomography if money wasn't an issue but film photography can get quite pricey, especially factoring in developing, so for everyday shots I'm quite happy to stick with my lomography film :)

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Canon EOS 3 - Portra 160

I've been meaning to make a camera film guide for a while but I wasn't too sure how to approach it, so I'm just going to dive in and share what I've learnt so far :)

I'm starting off with my digital equivalent film camera, my Canon EOS 3 - you can read about how it came into my possession, over here! Anyway it's a great camera and lately I've been trying to get myself to use it instead of my digital (a hard process for me - I'm still a huge digital fan). The great thing about the EOS 3 is that it fits all my digital canon lenses (which I'll make sure to profile as well) and is a really simple camera to use, especially if you already use manual mode on your digital :).

The thing that makes this guide tricky is that not only do I like playing with cameras I like playing with film so I've decided to profile the camera with the film to show you the results :) First up is probably the mac daddy of film, the kodak portra 160, designed to deliver those impressive skin quality tones. 

Now I was expecting a lot from the film and it gave me a lot but I was expecting crazy lots. It's quite a jump up on price in comparison to other film which maybe set my expectations way up high. What I guess I must remember when I get back my 4x6 prints is that 160 means very fine grain so essentially a more expensive film with a low ASA like 160 is going to be great for enlargements which I'll admit I haven't tested out yet. I guess for me unless I know I want enlargements from what I'm shooting I wouldn't fork out the extra coin for portra though I'll definitely rock it for future weddings or special occasions just to get that special extra edge :)

STATS

29 keeps 7 fails (from a 36 roll of film)

Fail reasons: Not in focus. Boring Shots

Things to remember: Don't trust autofocus on the Canon EOS 3! This film is super reliable, though won't produce amazingly bright or special colours. The lesson I learnt here was that this film won't save a boring shot that a toy camera might but it is much more predictable than a toy camera. 7 failed shots (I'm pretty picky) might seem like a lot but in my film experience it's been one of my best returns yet :P

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Pandanus Tree - a film photo a day

Ahh the good old Pandanus tree amusing visitors and local alike for years with there thick prop roots sometimes resembling a certain male appendage :p

 Note: Taken with Canon EOS 3 using Ektar 100 film

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Cactus - a film photo a day

The Cacti enjoying some morning sun :)

 Note: Taken with Canon EOS 3 using Ektar 100 film

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Flowers - a film photo a day

Always a sucker for flowers :)

 Note: Taken with Canon EOS 3 using Ektar 100 film

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Pot Plants - a film photos day

Ben's Mum really loves plants :)

 Note: Taken with Canon EOS 3 using Ektar 100 film

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Lace Curtains - a film photo a day

I did cheat and convert my colour film to b&w but that's allowed right :p

  Note: Taken with Canon EOS 3 using Ektar 100 film

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Roses - a film photo a day

Might have seen these guys before but this time in film form :)

  Note: Taken with Canon EOS 3 using Ektar 100

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Surfer - a film photo a day

I tried surfing once and failed miserably, probably should perfect my swimming first :p

  Note: Taken with Canon EOS 3 using Ektar 100

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