2/20/11

I love you, PX70 Colorshade Push!

I've finally gathered enough shots to do a post on the Impossible Project's newest color film, PX70 Colorshade Push!  It's no secret that I'm in love-I've been Tweeting madly about it since my first shot.  I want more.  The only caveat is having to peel and/or transfer the emulsion to paper to avoid colorshifting.  I ruined a few nice shots peeling it.  Some of the emulsion lifted and cracked in the process even though I was very careful.  At least I have the scans, but I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to be peeling the fragile emulsion anymore.  I might let them just shift into blues.  I have not yet attempted an emulsion lift, but I will, because I hate the way the shots look peeled.  They need a ground-and they just look too messy peeled, in my humble opinion.  I'm going to do some close-ups with this film next-I'm noticing I haven't tried any yet...maybe some liquid-in-a-glass shots and food shots!  Yeah!

First decent shot-but I forgot to hold down my homemade shade-also I made it out of cardboard that was too thick-so it obstructed the slot the film ejects through.  Hence the distortion on the bottom...it was a super-bright sunny day-a little on the cold side, so I put the upside down film next to the heater once I got back into the car with Bee.  She's a cute model-ha-my girl. :)

This would have been good but that thick cardboard shade again...also not sure why I had the camera so crooked.  I must have been distracted by the film not wanting to come out due to my dumb too-thick cardboard shade.  I thought my newly acquired SX-70 was not working properly-I was pretty sad that day-until I figured things out.

This is the only shot that I liked where good things happened from my thick cardboard shade mishap.

I love this shot-it's the first of my "most favorites" PX70Push! shots.  Bee looks very grown-up though-it kind-of freaks me out, but also makes me proud of her.

A very good background I found in the ghetto-this was painted on the side of a daycare.  Bee was agreeable that day, too.  It's because I bribed her with a new jean jacket, which can also be seen below.

I made these bubbles happen by overheating the emulsion with my blow drier.  I was trying  an experiment.  The colors did get more saturated, but I went too far, the heat was too much and the bubbles did not go away.

In this shot I was trying to gauge how much difference I could get by turning the exposure dial more towards lighten.  I turned it all the way to lighten here.  No bad I guess, but probably would have liked it more if I had left it in the middle.  This house is actually aqua.  I've shot it before-you might recognize it if you've seen my other photos in the last few months.  I HAD to go back and shoot it with this film. 

More overexposure on purpose-but if I had known it was too much by looking at what was happening to the previous shot, I would have moved the dial back to the center.  It was super-bright in this wall, direct sunlight.

Another crooked shot-not sure why, I thought I had the camera level-it would have been good if it was level!  Damn.  Lavender is nice, though.  Worth sharing just for the color.

This has got to be my most favorite shot so far with this film in terms of color.  The sun was starting to set, it's up at the top left beyond the frame.  I thought the storefront would be too dark because of the strong sun-and with me shooting towards it...but was very happy to see I was wrong.  This feels true-to-life although these colors are like cotton candy.

I wasn't sure if I should share this right now, because I think if I scan it tomorrow the colors and contrast will improve some, but what the hell-it's charming even as-is.  This is Bee and a random little boy sledding down the hills at the park this afternoon on cardboard sleds (there's no snow-this is the desert, we don't need snow to go sledding haha!)-made me wish for a little boy of my own.  He was just the cutest, sledding next to Bee on a pizza box.

My first PX70 Colorshade self-portrait.

5 comments :

  1. Some great photos here Mia. I love the way this film works, and the way you have learned to use it so effectively. A couple of favourites, for me, are the one of Bee and the boy on the hill - looks so much from another time, my parent's time. Also of bee with her bag (looking so grown up!). And the one of her looking like a homeless person on the street crouched down under the turtle painting on the wall. But all the others are great too!

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  2. Very informative! I love reading about the different techniques people use in order to achieve their shots. My favorite is the last polaroid - did the color shift any since posting?

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  3. Thanks, Larry!

    Whitney, thank you-the color has shifted a little-everything is more saturated. Not too much, though-maybe one more day and the contrast will improve.

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  4. I am glad I am not the only one to do this. I took 2 in a row and couldn't figure out why half my exposure was blank. You are getting to be quite the expert. I love learning from you!

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  5. They look pretty cool!

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