We take a walk through central Frankfurt on a cold December night and see strong contrast on pushed black and white film, along with the usual colour explosion from Kodak Portra 800.
Back in December and over the Christmas period I shot a ton of film, mainly medium format on my Hasselblad 501 camera setup. I also had a few rolls of Kodak Pro Image 100 that I shot on my small Olympus XA2 camera. I’ve had the scans back for a while but only got around to posting this now - I have three other posts coming after this. Sometimes it is good to let the shots “mature” a bit though and come back to them after a few weeks.
I decided it was easier to blend all these shots into one post, especially as I took them all on the same evening back in the middle of December. For my long month away (Frankfurt and up north), I decided to re-focus my attention on medium format film, which I had not shot in a while. I decided the extra investment in a few rolls of Kodak Portra 800 was worth it to capture some of the bright Christmas markets in downtown Frankfurt.
I also decided to push some black and white film (I used a roll of Ilford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X if I remember correctly) in search of some high contrast shots. I am really happy with the results overall, and I particularly like my diligence in capturing the “through the viewfinder” shots to show some interesting before and after shots.
Join me for a walk around Frankfurt!
I decided to rest the camera on a little ledge this time - I really like how sharp the result came out.
It was raining a bit so I kept on having to clean the viewfinder. I think this final shot would have come out better if it were darker as there would be more contrast with the lights and a black sky - the final result is a bit flat for my liking.
I can’t decide if I prefer the viewfinder shot of the final image! This might have been a better shot on Portra 800 actually, the exposure isn’t quite right in black and white. I like the composition though.
Some Christmas market shots on Portra 800 - I have really missed this film, it really comes into its own with colourful lighting and strong contrasts. All shot handheld so excuse me for a little blur here and there.
I have taken this shot so many times, but I couldn’t resist doing it again. I really like the final result and hence chose it as the cover for this post.
I like the movement in the final image, although pity about the bright car lighting on the bottom right of the image. I think this was a relatively long exposure too.
Some more Portra 800 colour shots along with some Tri-X. I really like all of these shots, but I think the colour ones really shine.
Messing around with long exposures. The last shot is actually a cropped version of the second one - I must keep this negative to hand I would definitely like to try to print this shot in my home darkroom.
More Christmas cheer.
Entrance to the underground U-Bahn station.
I really like the contrast in this shot, I am also surprised but how sharp it came out given I shot it handheld.
Overall observations
After having lived in Frankfurt for a few years, I really enjoyed a trip down memory lane and scouting out some new locations to shoot. I am a big fan of city and architectural shots and in this regards, Frankfurt has a ton to offer. Whilst I did find it a bit of a challenge to look for unique shots of the Christmas markets, it was still fun to use Kodak Portra 800 again.
I hope you enjoyed these shots as much as I did taking them. Keep an eye out as I have three other posts coming in fast succession, which finalise my 2021 photo journey.
Cheers,
Neil
