Tag Archives: #Black&white technique

When Reality Looks Like Fantasy—Kingsbridge Monochrome

Yesterday, I had one frame of film left in my Nikon F3.

I’d been exposing photos of Dublin’s North Side and I wanted to process the film before dinner.

I exposed this view of Heuston Station and the old Kingsbridge (now Sean Heuston Bridge) on frame 37.

The sky was impressive; dark blue with textured clouds rolling across it like a flowing tapestry.

To make the most of the usual light, I did a few tricky things.

I exposed the film for the sky and clouds with the intention of some non-standard chemical processing.

To make the most of the shadows with out roasting the highlights, I presoaked the film in a very dilute bath of Kodak HC110 at 75F for 6 minutes with very little agitation. Then, I drained the presoak solution and processed the film in Ilford ID11 mixed 1-1 with water at 68F for 7 minutes (considerably less than the recommended time).

The results were even better than I expected.

Looking across Dublin’s Croppy’s Park toward Kingsbridge and Heuston Station. Exposed using a 24mm Nikkor lens on an F3 SLR camera loaded with Ilford HP5 black & white film. Processed for maximum dynamic range.

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