I mentioned this in the last entry that I was taking advantage of the reliable film quality and processing here in Thailand. I miss film sometimes, and decided to get my film fix. After shooting up two very old slide rolls I had in my bag (old because I do not have anywhere to process them in China, so never shot them), I went out and bought a roll of Kodak TMAX black & white film.
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed shooting the film, but when I processed it, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the print quality. It had that look of a color negative printed with black & white processing: dull, no contrast…ugly. So, with prints I found completely boring, I suddenly got an idea: “post processing”.
I picked up a few pens sitting around and went to town on the two photos I had printed. If nothing else, this little experiment was fun!
Sorry for those of you who initially viewed this page when the photo was not showing. Since this was scanned and I rarely scan, a little “kink” in came up I was not expecting. I have it fixed now, obviously, so we can all view the photo.
Hey! I haven’t posted in a while because I was down near Vietnam translating for a basketball team! Anyways, this is really quite interesting! Like you said, I can see how it is similar to a color negative, but I like it!
Well, I did not exactly say it looked like a color negative. What I meant, though may not have said it too clearly, was that when I used to do black & white printing in a darkroom, every once in a while I would be handed a color negative from which to make a black & white print. Sure, you could get a print, but it always lacked contrast. It looked very dull.
The prints above (the ones I drew on) reminded me of that look. I speculated the processor/printer might have used color paper and/or color chemicals. That would be the reverse of what I used to do, but I have a feeling would produce a similar result.
The most logical assumption here is that my photos were just taken poorly. The film was brand new, though, and lacked the contrast of some four year old slide film I shot in the same camera in some of the same situations only a week before!
The developed black & white film looks fine to me, though looking at negatives can play tricks with your eyes. I would like to print more out from the same film at a different printer and see what it looks like.
Well, now I see my mistake in reading what you said, but now that I made that mistake, the photo does actually look similar to a color negative! Especially the grassy part!
That was really just a green pen that did not like writing on a glossy photo. That was all I had.