Tag: Ilford SFX

Hybrid Happenstance

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I continue to work a lot with Ilford SFX Infrared film, as I love what it does with people’s skin. I used it last Wednesday for a shoot with a lovely young model. Although this film’s nominal speed is ISO 200, I normally shoot it at ISO 25, because of the red filter (25R) I use to accentuate the effect. This time out though, I had a senior’s moment and shot it at 100, 2 stops underexposed. After thoroughly cursing my own carelessness, I looked online for the best way to process the film to salvage something, and ended up developing it in HC-110 developer for 19 minutes, to give a two stop push. The results are amazing! The glow and grain really work well together! I’ll have to try to screw up more often!

For the the image below I took a hybrid approach, using Nik Silver Efex Pro on the negative scan to accentuate the graininess and texture.

Infrared portrait

Essentials

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Black and White photography by definition is a reductive exercise, just by stripping away colour, to focus on light, shadow, tonality and texture. In this portrait, we go even further; only the eyes and hands are unobscured, but even so  the model packs a lot of expression into her eyes and hands. On of my favourite portraits of 2011!

infrared and scarf

Picture taken with Mamiya M645, 80mm f2.8 lens with 25A red filter, Ilford SFX Infrared film. One shoot through umbrella to model’s right.