With no particular theme in mind I decided to go shoot along the river near sunset and try out Fomapan 400, known for its deep black and contrasting images.
Fomapan 400 comes from a Czech company called Foma, who have been making film since as far back as 1921. It is a decent priced film and I was looking forward to trying out a black and white film from a company other than Kodak, Fuji or Rollei.
So back to the photos. With no theme in mind I figured I would go for medium format film with the Hasselblad as it only has 12 shots, so it wouldn't take that long to shoot. Sometimes the Leica (35mm camera) with 36 frames in each roll can take a bit of time to finish (given I am shooting on a weekly basis). Plus, the Hasselblad is so big it really makes you stop and spend more time composing the image, which I have really started to enjoy. Below are the photos, as always clickable for full screen view.
A bridge over troubled water. My first attempt at a long exposure with black & white, this shot would've worked really nicely at night with a very black sky and the light of the train. The sky a bit washed out here and takes a bit away from the effect. Otherwise, quite a decent shot - look how clear the railings on the bridge are, impressive.
Transport barge coming up to the lock at Griesheim. The "Staustufe Griesheim" was built between 1929 and 1932, and consists of a defense system, two locks and a running water power station. An average of 62 ships pass through it per day (also messing up that pristene water I row on!). Mainova AG acquires electricity from the run-of-river power station on the Griesheim Staustufe. The power plant generates an average of 35 million kWh of electrical energy per year. About the photo: look how clear the foreground is (i.e. the boat's name). A very grainy sky, which I like and this film is known for.
Entrance on the western side of the lock. There is about a 4.5m difference in water height between the locks. Slight light leakage on this photo, I think it was the first shot of the roll. Overall an OK image, although it comes out quite dark and the vegetation is completely black. This shot would probably work better cropped as a portrait.
I really like this image due to its overall clarity and nice balance between the dark and bright areas. It is the same boat as above but taken with a longer lens. Look how clear the water reflections are - I am becoming more and more impressed with this film.
Coming out of the lock and following another ship to ruin my flat rowing water. Actually, these boats do not create as much wash as you would think and are relatively slow as they move through the city.
Flat water heaven. This is where I turn around and head back up towards the city when I row. Very clear reflections on the water, but the sky is a bit washed out. You can see Frankfurt's skyline in the background.
I thought I would show the same scene in colour. This was taken with Kodak Ektar 100 and is really nice, even picking out the slight colour details in the sky. The colour image is better for this scene in my opinion.
This is where the film starts to really shine, during night time and showing a clear difference between darkness and the brighter street / ambient lights. The shot below is the entrance to the underground part of the main train station. I really like how black this film has made part of the image, it really accentuates the subjects.
My electric rental car I used for this photo shoot. Again, look at how black this film renders parts of the scene that are dark (i.e. the sky): absolute jet black.
Part of Frankfurt's skyline, including the Commerzbank Tower. I really like how well the light reflects off the water in black & white. Taken quite a bit after sunset with a clear night sky.
Taken just after sunset, the perfect time to have some visible light in the sky combined with offices turning their lights on. Nice water reflections also with added grain in the sky (easily visible on a laptop or desktop computer, less so on a mobile version of this website).
Overall impressions
I didn't really have any expectations for this film, as I knew very little about it and had not seen any extensive photo galleries with examples. I had read some decent reviews and figured it was worth a try. Given its price range (it's very good value), it is a quite a good black & white film to have lying around in the abscence of the professional Kodak Tri-X or Ilford HP5+. That being said, I think it has great potential and have already noted down using it again for nighttime shots with lots of darker areas mixed in with some street lighting. I will try that as a mini project with this film in its 35mm version.
It also creates very strong dark areas, which I quite like. For daytime shots it really brings out the grain, so if you are looking for that effect, then this film is definitely a winner. It is also probably worth trying the ISO 100 and 200 versions of this film too, I will add those to my list!
So there you have it, I am nearing the half way point of this project, and given the weather is finally brighter I am looking forward to shooting some more lower ISO films. The next few weeks are already planned (and some shot and in development), we have more speciality films to look forward to and a guest photographer too!
As always, all feedback is welcome. Now with all that good weather out there, you have no excuse, get out there and take some photographs!
See you in week 23!
Cheers,
Neil
