It’s been a while since I updated on my on going adventures with The Hoff. Life got very busy. This update is actually from when I took The Hoff to Scotland back in April.
I shot five rolls of film in my time there. Expired Fujifilm Neopan 400, Expired Fujifilm Pro 400H, expired Fujifilm Provia 400X, Fujifilm Velvia 50 and Fujifilm Acros 100.
I started with the Neopan and shot it on a day out Culzean Castle. I knew the film was a bit of a risk as I had no idea of it previous storage. I had the odd frame that came out (see below), but most of the rest the film was pretty damaged from poor storage.
I next went with the Provia 400X and took a walk along Ayr Beach. I had a CPL on the lens so set the meter on my iPhone app to 320 to compensate. Unfortunately something went very wrong. Everything was totally underexposed. (Pic sent by my lab). The big white square exposure is that thing where if you don’t set the shutter speed quite right. The lines are just from the poor compression of the photo.
This is where things really started to go horribly wrong and completely down to my error. I next loaded up the Velvia. These are the results
White square again, where I hadn’t selected the shutter speed accurately. The rest, can you guess what happened? Yep, my meter was still set to 320. Anyway blissfully ignorant I then loaded the Acros 100 with and orange filter on the lens. Do you think at this point I adjusted the meter.
No I had continued my error. The negatives were very underexposed and only a ton of post processing has even managed to get the pretty poor image you see above.
Again blissfully unaware of my errors, I loaded the Pro400H. I know what you are thinking, the meter was right again, even though it was by chance. You are correct, however we now circle back to the beginning and how I started with the Neopan. The film had been badly stored so most of the images were spoilt. The below is my favourite where I asked my daughter to pose, but I purposely added in some camera movement and her moving as a bit of an experiment.
Thus as you can see I terms of photography the visit was a bit of a bust. Most of it user error, rushing and not be patient or detailed on my part. The expired film being ‘bad’ is just one of those things you need to accept if you are going to shoot it.
I haven’t shot with The Hoff since, only because of time not because I am put off. Let’s see if I can remove the user error next time. One thing I have done is purchased a dedicated light meter (Gossen Digisix 2) as it is more user friendly than the phone, now I just have to remember to change the settings when I change the film.
Film Photography London 