I have been struggling with getting an Impossible picture to turn out. Admit it, all instant photographers have been there... For the longest stretch this Spring every picture was turning out and it almost became too easy. Then I hit a rut... Over the last two-three weeks, every picture has been terrible. Either the camera messed it up, I messed it up or the exposure was totally WRONG. It has been enough to make me not want to take pictures...
Tyler and I were talking tonight and he had an idea that he wanted to try. Thanks Tyler for letting me experiment with your crazy idea!
We took an empty Type 100 cartridge and taped an unexposed PX70 shot to the front side of it. We then put this cartridge into a 100 Land Camera. Just in case you were wondering, all of this was done under the cover of darkness in a closet. I then set the exposure to "dull day" and the lighten/darken wheel to neutral (it was getting close to sunset). I added the Portrait lens to the 100 Land Camera so that I could frame closer. After taking the picture, I went back into the closet to remove the film pack and placed the PX70 picture into an empty PX70 film pack. I then put the film pack into an SX-70 camera and closed the door. Out comes the picture...
Ok, you might say that this was alot of work for one picture or you might also say that this one is messed up too. I would disagree with you on both points. It is this "work" that I feel will get me out of this rut. I will say it again... That is what makes Impossible film so amazing! You have to work at it to get a great picture. You can't just snap pictures and expect them to always turn out without using your imagination or experimenting with different techniques. What a crazy idea to use film in a camera for which it was never intended! Amazingly enough, we found out that it WORKS! The focus and exposure were spot on, the placement/framing of the photo was somewhat unpredictable and the image on the film is actually a mirror image of what I was really looking at. So what about the light leak... Well, the only thing that I can tell you is that this unexposed image was in and out of my SX-70 several times because I was having so much trouble with the camera & film pack. It was also "exposed" two more times in transferring it from the SX-70 to the 100 Land Camera and back to the SX-70. After all of this, I was relieved to see that the light leak didn't affect more of the image.
What's next?
This was so much fun that I plan on taking some PX100 Silver Shade studio portraits with my modified 250 Land Camera (with a 127mm Rodenstock lens) and studio lights. I will keep you posted...
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