Using the Red Filter with my Hasselblad 500 C/M

I had been keen to try out the Hasselblad Red Filter that I purchased for my Camera as I wanted to make more contrast in some of my black and white photography.

My first attempt at using the Red Filter the other month was a complete disaster. I had looked at the filter guideline, which I understood as altering the exposure on the light meter by 2.5 stops.

The results ended up with some very under exposed shots that were pointless scanning.

I spoke about my results to the London Camera Museum (where I originally purchased my Hasselblad from) and they said to just expose as normal and ignore the 2.5 stop alteration.

I therefore exposed as per the light meter reading without any adjustments, using the Rollei RPX 100 film and I decided to take some photos of the fishing boats at Brighton Marina and here are the results:

These photos came out just as I’d hoped so I’m really happy. They have the contrast and gritty feel that I was hoping to capture of the fishing area at Brighton Marina.

On the same day, I also took photos of some white fluffy clouds in the sky using the red filter:

Here is a photo I took of the clouds with the cliffs underneath:

I particularly like this photo I took of Roedean School on the Cliffs with the clouds:

I used the 80mm lens for all the photos and will definitely be using the Red Filter again when I want some dramatic contrast in my black and white photography.

In Le Havre with my Olympus Trip 35

Back in June I visited Le Havre for a holiday where my husband and I travelled across on our boat from Brighton. The journey took us approximately 4 and a half hours which was fairly quick and the sea was lovely and calm during our travel.

Whilst walking around Le Havre, I decided the Olympus Trip would be a perfect, compact film camera to take around with me.

I also decided to try out the Hillvale Holiday 35mm film which has an ISO of 200 and came all the way from Australia:

I had received this film in the Emulsive Secret Santa that I took part in last December and I had been waiting to use it whilst away on holiday somewhere sunny this year.

I initially took some photos around the harbour where we were staying:

We had travelled here for a music festival which happened at the weekend although we decided to spend a whole week in Le Havre.

One of our friends wanted to come to the music festival too but due to work commitments, could only make the weekend part so she travelled over from Brighton on a ferry then stayed on our boat with us for a few days whilst the festival was on. Here is a photo I took of her enjoying the sunshine:

I didn’t take many photos of the architecture since most of the original buildings were unfortunately destroyed during the bombings in early September 1944. This meant Le Havre had a lot of buildings re-built in the 1950s/60s so the whole place had a post modern feel.

I also had time to visit one of the beautiful gardens in Le Havre where I took some photos:

Using this type of film camera for a holiday, really brought back memories of the feel of my holiday photos that were taken back in the 80s/90s.

Using the Cinestill 50D 120mm film with my Hasselblad 500 C/M camera

This was the only colour film I ended up using in my Hasselblad camera whilst I was away on holiday.

I had previously used this film in the 35mm format on my Olympus Pen FT Camera at a car show which I blogged about last year and was impressed with the results so was interested to try out the 120mm format in my Hasselblad.

It was one of the last films I used during my visit to Dalyan in Turkey so half of the film is of that. I used it during a visit to a hotel which had a beautiful enchanted garden where I ate a yummy local turkish breakfast and here are the photos I took:

Although I used a lens shade, there is unfortunately a slight red flare (from the sun) in a couple of the photos which I think makes it look like I’m using one of those experimental colour films. Also I’m not sure if there was a fault with this particular film? as there is a black line going through some of the photos on the left hand side.

Anyway faults aside, I really hope I managed to capture the magical feel of this place. I could easily have spent all day there but I was on an excursion for the day so this was only the first stop (to have our traditional turkish breakfast).

The second part of the film was used during a trip to Le Havre in France. I literally got back from Turkey, was home for one day before my husband and I set sail to Le Havre for my second holiday of the year.

It was thankfully a pleasant sail as the sea was nice and calm and it was also our first trip to France on our boat which was quite exciting.

I took some photos in the harbour that we moored at in Le Havre:

Overall, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the photos as I had previously been with the car show ones and I question whether I would have had better results if I’d used this film again at another car show.

However, I’m pleased I tried it out with a different subject matter but know in future if taking similar photos, I would most likely use a cheaper colour 120mm film which I think would have just as good (if not better) results.

My Olympus Pen FT Camera and Lomochrome Purple 35mm film

I’m a big lover of the Lomography Lomochrome Purple film (since purple is my favourite colour!) and have really liked the results in other cameras I’ve used it in.

I therefore wanted to try it out in my Olympus Pen FT camera. I already knew from trying out the film previously that it worked well with landscapes.

I therefore visited Seven Sisters Country Park in Eastbourne to take some landscape photos and here are some of the results:

I was really happy with the results of the film with the landscape and I managed to achieve the cool purple effect I was after. I wasn’t sure how the pictures of the sheep would turn out but I was pleased with those photos too.

Since the half frame camera has twice as many photos to shoot, I didn’t manage to use up the film whilst at Seven Sisters.

I therefore headed to Brighton Marina and took some more pictures using my 25mm Zuiko lens and also my 150mm Zuiko telephoto lens and here are some of the results:

You’ll see that the film wasn’t nearly as effective as it had been on the landscape shots. I did feel the photos taken at the marina had a vintage feel to them and there is clearly a hint of purple and a lot of the blues on the boats have turned into a green colour.

I also took a couple of photos of the cliffs nearby:

Again, the purple was only really effective on the green parts of the landscape but I did like the effect the film had on the blues of the sky and sea.

I still had a couple more shots of film left to use up (72 exposures goes a long way!), so I decided to head to my local cemetery in Hove and here are some of the results:

I was really pleased with the results of these photos too. I got the purple effect I was after along with a nice contrast of turquoise sky in some of them.

I know I’ll definitely be using this film again when taking landscape shots as I absolutely love the colours it produces.