When I started thinking about what film to take for our trip, I immediately thought about my standard B&W film – Kodak Tri-X 400. I knew exactly what it would look like at night and I wanted those strong, ink-black images. Maybe I was looking at too much Brassai or something.
The weird thing is that I shot mostly color on this trip. We were blessed with perfect weather all four days and Paris really seemed better in color. I used Portra 160 NC or Portra 400 depending on the brightness and time of day. On two nights though, I loaded B&W film into the Nikon FM2n and took several pictures. Then I’d wake up the next morning with a bright sky and a yearning to shoot color. And of course there was still B&W Tri-X 400 rated at 1600 ISO in my camera. I probably should have taken a second Nikon body, but I didn’t want to drag around three cameras. What I ended up doing was quickly firing off some random shots on the way to our destination to use up the rest of the B&W and then popped in a color roll. I don’t normally do this, but we only had a long weekend.
That’s one of the limitations of film, you’re stuck with shooting what you have in your camera at the time. Digital does makes it so much easier, but then again digital will never look like this.
A Dark Corner, Paris
Series of Arched Doorways, Paris
A Waiter Smoking on Place Saint-Germain-des-Pres
I was really more interested in the corner of the building in the light than the waiter, but he wouldn’t leave.
Saint-Germain-des-Pres Metro Sign at Night, Paris
The Seine River at Night, Paris
Paris Street at Dusk
Busy Sidewalk and Paris Metro Sign at Night
I took a lot of pictures of Metro signs. I mean a lot. What the hell was I thinking?
All images were developed at home in Kodak Xtol Developer for 9.5 minutes.
7 Comments
GORGEOUS. I want to favorite all of them.
Your photos from Paris is really amazing!
Really nice work, Shawn! You inspire me!
I just picked up some Tri-X 400. I haven’t shot it yet mostly because I haven’t figured out if I can have it processed at the lab or if I need to do that at home (which would require cleaning up the darkroom and mixing chemistry).
Anyway! Thanks for posting these. The street at dusk is my very favorite – wonderful tonal range and composition just highlights that (was that a pun?).
Take care!
Jussara, Ola, and Amy – thank you! Tri-X 400 at night is pretty magical, especially in Paris!
Amy, I hope you break out your B&W chemistry. Would love to see you get back into film!
Okay I have got to mix up some Xtol and try this!
Your images look stellar Shawn. I would be all over those Metro signs as well. lol
I’m curious to know what are you scanning with?
Thanks, Matt!
I’m pretty much in love with the crispness of Xtol over D76. The negatives don’t need anything really in scanning and I just scan on a flatbed Epson V500. I do add about 15 seconds of developing time to the MassDev chart time though for a bit more contrast.
Thanks for the info.
Is your agitation the same as Kodaks recommendation?
I also have a V500, so its nice to know that I have the possibility to achieve the same results.
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[...] negs need too much work to get them looking good. Might be good for pushing TX to 1250/1600 but the images that Shawn Hoke is posting of TX at 1600 in Xtol look so good I would be hard pressed to try anything other for [...]