Glowing Reno

Yesterday there was a break in the storms and it was a surprisingly nice day, very March like weather for March. I thought that if I was going to get out and shoot a few frames soon, my window was pretty much today or shoot snowscapes.

Other than the few frames of this post from the other day, I hadn't shot my 27mm Lumenbox lens much at all recently. I used to struggle with finding films slow enough to shoot with the Lumenbox lens, as it has a fixed aperture of f/2.8. Since I normally use it with my old Leica Ic that tops out at 1/500th, that pretty much limited me to shooting in low light.

Recently though, I fitted the lens with a 52mm filter ring, so now I have my choice of various contrast or ND filters to use with it. On this day I decided to try a No. 21 Orange (2 stop) filter to increase the contrast of the already contrasty Adox CMS 20 II that I was shooting at ISO 25.

Despite the filter, a few of these came out fairly overexposed. I'm guessing that's because at ISO 25, while it's contrastier, that CMS actually has less of a contrast range than when shot at ISO 12, my normal speed for this film. On the overexposed frames, I wound up just clipping the black during scanning. I think this can sometimes give an interesting look.

I can't remember if I've complained about this before, but these frames came out fairly schmutzy. I think I'll write myself a note to filter the Adotech IV next time I use it. I've been pretty happy with my 120 and 127 development these days, as I've figured out a way of finger squeegeeing, that dries the films nicely and seems to scrape them clean without damaging the emulsion. The sprocket holes in 35mm film though pretty much defeat this technique.

Anyhow, here they are. My usually mundane subject matter but with the glow and blur the the 27mm Lumenbox lens brings to the table. Not everyone's cup of tea I know. I'll try to present some more normal shots in the next posts, but this is The Daily Lumenbox after all.

Oh as buried above, these were shot on Adox CMS 20 II at ISO 25 with my Leica Ic and a No. 21 Orange Lens and developed for 11 minutes in Adotech IV at 79° F.