{"id":17648,"date":"2017-01-11T05:15:48","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T10:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=17648"},"modified":"2017-01-09T12:25:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T17:25:08","slug":"retropan-320-my-first-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/retropan-320-my-first-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Retropan 320\u2014My First Experiment."},"content":{"rendered":"

Czech film manufacturer Foma introduced a new black & white film in 2015 called Retropan Soft (ISO 320).<\/p>\n

This is advertised as a panchromatic, special negative film with \u2018fine grain, good resolution and contour sharpness\u2019. Among its features are a \u2018wide range of half tones and a wide exposure latitude.<\/p>\n

I tried my first roll in early December 2016. I have to admit that I was curious, but skeptical. Could this new b&w film change the way I approach film photography? Might it offer something decidedly different than Kodak Tri-X or Ilford HP5?<\/p>\n

Working with an old Nikon F3 and 50mm lens \u00a0I wandered around Philadelphia with my brother and exposed a variety of gritty urban images that I thought might benefit from the look advertised by \u2018Retropan\u2019.<\/p>\n

Foma recommended using their specially formulated Retro Special Developer, so I ordered some from Freestyle Photographic Supplies<\/a> .<\/p>\n

I exposed my film at ISO 320, and processed it more or less as recommended using Retro Special Developer, with two small changes:<\/p>\n

I shortened the processing time (as I generally find that manufacturer recommended times are too long and lead to excessively dense negatives); plus I pre-soaked the film in a water bath with a drop of HC110 (as described in previous posts).<\/p>\n

The negatives scanned \u00a0well, and I was impressed with the tonality of the photographs. I\u2019ve included a selection below.<\/p>\n

Please note, that although I scaled the files and inserted a watermark, I have not cropped them or manipulated contrast, exposure or sharpness. These photos are essentially un-interpreted.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Philadelphia exposed on Foma Retropan Soft and processed in Foma Retro Special Developer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Parkside Avenue, Philadelphia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
42nd Street, Philadelphia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Philadelphia City Hall. Philadelphia exposed on Foma Retropan Soft and processed in Foma Retro Special Developer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Evening view from the same street corner as the daylight photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Low angle view of an alley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Buying SEPTA transit tokens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stay tuned for my next Retropan test!<\/p>\n

Brian Solomon presents something new on Tracking the Light every day.<\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Czech film manufacturer Foma introduced a new black & white film in 2015 called Retropan Soft (ISO 320). This is advertised as a panchromatic, special negative film with \u2018fine grain, good resolution and contour sharpness\u2019. Among its features are a \u2018wide range of half tones and a wide exposure latitude. I tried my first roll … Continue reading Retropan 320\u2014My First Experiment.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[48],"tags":[3814,4008,4009,2606,7535,183],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/42nd_St_\u00a9Brian_Solomon_53600646.jpg?fit=1137%2C1758","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-4AE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17648"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17649,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17648\/revisions\/17649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}