For the 163rd SWP photo walk in Paya Lebar, I took the same Frugal Film Project setup out for another test run, my trusty Canon EOS 1000QD paired with the slightly fungusy Canon 50mm f/1.4. This time, instead of Kentmere Pan 400, I loaded a roll of Fomapan 200 and pushed it all the way to 800 to see how far I could stretch it.
Surprisingly, I really liked how the images turned out. I developed the roll in Ilford DD-X for 12 minutes and 30 seconds, and the negatives looked promising right out of the tank. But I definitely made a couple of rookie mistakes. I only fixed the film for 3 minutes, which was nowhere near enough, and I skipped the pre soak before pouring in the developer. Both of these came back to haunt me, the final scans didn’t have the contrast I was expecting from a two stop push.
Lesson learned! Next time, I’ll extend the fixer time to a full 6 minutes and add a proper pre soak. I’m hoping these tweaks will bring out that punchy contrast I’m chasing.
