The following shots were taken over the last month or so using Fomapan 400 shot at 250 iso. The film is much cheaper than Ilford and works out at about £4 per roll. This has some downfalls, the film definitely has less latitude and a more contrasty look. But, overall I am very happy with the quality, the only shots that seem to be unusable were back lit and were possibly bad due to an error on my part when using a light meter. Even without a red filter on the lens, the images have a great depth to the shadows and this may be due to shooting it at 250 as appose to box speed. The grain structure is much more prominent than Ilford which is a nice change from the super clean look I am use to. I will still develop the rest of the 8 rolls I have left before deciding wether to stick with Fomapan, but first impressions are good.
After challenging myself to upload an instagram post everyday, I have found I am much more engaged and keen to shoot when going about my daily life. Having the camera with me more often and not being careful about wasting frames has given me better results than I imagined. A lot of film photographers talk about slowing down and being more considerate but looking back at how small my output has been over the last few years, I would say I need to be less precious and speed up. The feedback has been positive as well and not distracting. Especially as some of my doubts in images have been squashed by unexpected praise. I am warming to the feedback and followers growing but have reminded myself that praise and acknowledgement is not the important aspect. The whole process has pushed me to make more images and also get a more consistent quality than I expected and so I’ll stick it out at least until these 10 rolls get used.
A J Carlton 