Changing ISO Settings with Alex Doran & the Redscale XR 50-200 35 mm Film

1

Dublin-based photographer, YouTuber, and all-round analogue enthusiast Alex Doran loves to experiment with different films and review the outcomes. He has a wealth of experience in shooting with our much-loved Redscale XR 50-200 35 mm film and talked to us about the different results that can be achieved when shooting this film at 200 IS0 and 50 ISO.

Photos by Alex Doran shot at ISO 50

Hello Alex please tell us a bit about yourself?

Hello Lomography! I’m Alex Doran and I live in Dublin, Ireland. I just turned 30 and have been a part-time professional photographer since I was 16 years old. I have a PhD in chemistry and my current job focuses heavily on chemical safety and waste handling/disposal, so this melds very well with film photography and home development. My other main passions are cycling and video games (mostly RPGs).

Photos by Alex Doran shot at ISO 50

Explain your style of photography?

My photography focuses heavily on experimentation. Varying the equipment, techniques, film, and development methods I use helps me to explore the creative space within photography and makes every photoshoot or day trip fresh and exciting in some way. Sometimes, doing something “wrong” can earn you interesting and exciting images, so it’s good to experiment. Although I shoot most genres, I gravitate towards animal portraiture, architectural street photography, and landscapes. I shoot in a variety of formats ranging in size from Lomography 110 films up to 4x5 large format film, plus alternative analogue formats including Instax Wide in the LomoGraflok, and the cyanotype process for large contact prints from negatives. I have a small YouTube channel which I use to document my experiments and host videos on photographic chemical safety.

Photos by Alex Doran shot at ISO 50

What made you decide to try out the Redscale film?

During the first COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland back in 2020, I spent a lot of time researching alternative processes and unusual types of film. One of the areas I came across was Redscale photography, but at the time it wasn’t possible to purchase any Redscale film here, so I followed a guide online to reverse a roll of Kodak ColorPlus. Unfortunately, the base of that film is rather dense, so the negatives are thin, and the final images lack detail and contrast. The colours were also quite flat. It turns out that not every colour film is suitable for redscale! Following this, I looked into commercially available redscale films which I figured would perform much better. Of the options I came across, Lomography Redscale was the film I settled on because the pricing of the three-pack was very appealing, and I enjoyed the results I saw online, particularly when shot at ISO 50.

Photos by Alex Doran shot at ISO 200

What gear and settings did you use for the ISO 200 shots?

My first roll of this film was shot in both my Hasselblad XPan II with the Hasselblad 45 mm f/4 and 90 mm f/4 lenses, and my Canon EOS 1V with the Canon EF 85 mm f/1.4 L IS lens. Both cameras are electronic and allow you to rewind the roll before you finish it, so I shot half the roll in the Hasselblad before shooting the other half in the Canon. When using the XPan II, I mostly shot at f/8-f/16 and used an external light meter. I think my shutter speeds were largely around 1/30th to 1/125th of a second. The Canon EOS 1V has a reliable spot metering mode, so I didn’t use an external meter in that case. Most of the Canon shots were taken wide open at f/1.4, and those shot indoors were lit with a Canon 270EX on-camera flash.

And the ISO 50 shots?

In November as part of the monthly Ireland Analog meetup, I shot a roll of redscale in my friend Marc’s Olympus Pen FT, a half-frame camera, which shoots 72 images on a 36-exposure roll of 35 mm film. As the weather was very nice that day, I was able to rate the film at ISO 50 and still shoot at f/2-f/8 without needing a tripod. The lens I used was the Olympus Zuiko 38 mm f/1.8, which is roughly equivalent to a 58 mm lens on a normal 35 mm camera – great for portraits and detail shots, which is exactly what I shot!

Photos by Alex Doran shot at ISO 200

What were your favorite results and why?

I really like some of the Canon shots where I overexposed the film by +1 stop (basically rating it at ISO 100). Of these, I’m very happy with the photo of the hydrangea as the extra light allows some green to come through in the background, and this contrasts really nicely with the reds and yellows. In general, I prefer the shots I took where I rated the film at ISO 50 because even more color pops through when you expose redscale film for longer. This makes the images more vibrant and interesting, at least to my eye. I like to prepare diptychs/triptychs from my images, so pairing the overexposed, more green-ish images (like those shot directly into the sun) with underexposed, deep red photos, like the deer, is both visually striking and a sign of the versatility of this film, once you learn how it behaves under different lighting situations.

Photos by Alex Doran shot at ISO 50

If you had to pair the Rescale film with a Lomography camera which one would you suggest?

I think that this film would pair well with the Lomo LC-Wide 35 mm Film Camera, especially if you set the camera to ISO 100 and shoot in high contrast lighting like a bright sunny day, at sunset, or indoors with a flash. I really enjoy ultrawide angle photography and the surreal perspectives you can get by shooting from down low, and the range of colors that this film can provide would add nicely to that. Even though I feel Lomochrome Redscale is at its best when rated at a lower ISO, it has enough latitude to work under most conditions in combination with an automatic exposure system like the one in the Lomo LC-Wide.

To see more of Alex's work visit his Instagram and check out this YouTube page as well!

2022-03-29 #news #people #redscale-xr #comparing-iso-settings

Lomography Redscale XR 50-200 35mm

The Lomography Redscale XR 50-200’s extended range allows flexibility and unlimited possibilities.

More Interesting Articles