Film Photography

Redscale 120 film at the seaside

So – back to the photography!

I decided to take my most intimidating camera and film that I’d never used before for my Saturday afternoon at the seaside last week. It was a gloriously sunny day and it had felt like forever since I’d taken any photos so what better than a little challenge.

The camera was my Lubitel 2, the film was Lomography Redscale 120, and the location – Hengistbury Head – Mudeford (and back again).

I thought this would be a good film to use as the Lubitel 2 has no light meter and involves me squinting into the sunshine and guessing – this film has an extended exposure range so it should result in photos being a little orange or very orange (redscale film is wound backwards onto the spool so you’re shooting through the backing material, which is an orangey colour, hence the tones).

Turns out they weren’t that orange at all but I don’t know it that’s because of the film or my exposure settings (or possibly the photo lab attempting to correct the colours when thy scanned them to CD). They definitely have a different look to ‘normal’ film though (as you can see from these previous beach shots)…

Blue beach huts - Lubitel 2 (redscale)

Clouds - Lubitel 2 (redscale)

Hut - Lubitel 2 (redscale)

Dizzy - Lubitel 2 (redscale) What happened here? I have no idea!

Reeds - Lubitel 2 (redscale)

More huts - Lubitel 2 (redscale)

Beach - Lubitel 2 (redscale)

All photos taken with Lubitel 2 and Lomography Redscale XR 50200 120 film

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10 Comments

  • Reply
    Rosie Grey
    2 June 2013 at 07:25

    Wonderful – I love the tint the photos have!

  • Reply
    Sherry Smyth
    2 June 2013 at 15:16

    I like them all but I really like the one with the swirling…whatever happened with that one was a lovely accident — it brought “life” and movement and a kind of weird, I think I’ve one too many G&Ts effect!

  • Reply
    Cass
    3 June 2013 at 09:15

    Clearly in that 4th one down, you accidentally happened upon a vortex into another world. If you had stepped forward instead of stopping to take a picture at that exact moment, you would have dissapeared without trace into a parallel universe where the Daily Mail prints nothing but articles about how lovely everything is.

  • Reply
    Rhianne
    6 June 2013 at 14:50

    Ohhh Angie, I’ve just packed my Lubitel and the exact film for my holiday – I can not wait to use them now. I wish they still did that film in the 35mm though, I really love it.

  • Reply
    Joann
    21 July 2013 at 08:19

    Hi, I was just looking at these lovely images over on flickr. Beautiful work! I just shot my first roll of this film recently but haven’t had it processed yet. I’ve done 35mm redscale before and my guess is your lab was trying to correct the colors. But I love the faded look you got on these scans. Do you remember what ISO you shot it at?

    • Reply
      Angie
      21 July 2013 at 13:12

      Hi Joann, thanks very much 😀
      I think you’re right about the lab trying to correct the colours – one day i’ll get myself a fancy scanner and see what they really should have looked like!
      The Lubitel 2 camera I used to shoot these has nothing so advanced as an ISO setting, which is what made me think it would be a good candidate for shooting redscale film – a bit of leeway to work with.

      • Reply
        Joann
        22 July 2013 at 17:30

        Thanks Angie. Did you overexpose it any in your exposure settings? I assumed this film was really ISO 400 so I set my camera at ISO 25 (four stops over). I’d be very pleased if it comes out anything like yours. :)

        • Reply
          Angie
          28 July 2013 at 21:58

          I was aiming for correct exposure but as it’s done without a light meter (and it was a very bright day) they could well have been a bit overdone. Good luck with yours – can’t wait to see them!

  • Reply
    George
    9 June 2015 at 10:04

    Even if it’s too late: your 4th image looks so strange due to the fact that you somehow shaked right after pressing the shutter button or you touched the shutter cocking lever while this lever was “in action”…
    Your first photos are better due to the fact that the film was better(new)and perhaps the processing was better. The other photos are having a sort of “dominant color” which means that either the film was almost expired or the processing wasn’t correct(the temperature of the processing solution was too low or close to expiry).
    Lubitel is a good camera, but the Russians didn’t select the right name for it: What a shame to name “Amateur” a camera wich is, in fact a very good copy of the Voigtlander Brillant. Well, if you will ever use it again, try to read the ISO film speed of the film that you use(for ex. 100 ISO) and set Lubitel shutter speed to 100 or 125.If it’s sunny , just use “Sunny 16 rule” : set f:16 on the diafragm scale(The light is different where I am and I usually set f:11). On the distance scale just set to “infinity” symbol.

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