Agfa Pan 25 Lightroom preset
I’m making it a daily habit to visit Chris Klug’s blog. I like it. I’m also intrigued as to why he still uses film. So much so that I asked him to write a post about it. I’ll keep checking back. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with shooting film, to be sure. I’m just kind of an instant gratification guy these days and have been spoiled by digital.
However, I think that when I look back at an image scanned from film it seems to look ‘different’. I’m not sure of different in what way. Digital black and white is, I think, precise. Film seems to have a character all of its own. Though it’s been quite a while, I remember that I used to shoot about 3 different types of film, but only used one type of developer. I didn’t get crazy about my combinations. I just used what worked for me.
My favorite film was the venerable and slow Agfa Pan 25. Man! You almost needed a tripod in bright sunlight! However, this stuff was buttery smooth and you could enlarge it to your heart’s desire and see not a whisper of grain. And talk about tonality. Sweet! It was, if I remember correctly, fairly low to modest on contrast. This, though, was taken care of quite easily by using Kodak’s Polycontrast paper and the right color filter. My color equivalent was Kodachrome 25! I rarely shot color negative. I liked slow film, small grain!
Next up, for general duty and shooting in all types was, as far as I was concerned, the reigning champion of the time, Tri-X. ASA (back then) 400. I could use this film anywhere. I could push it a stop or two and still get some decent pictures. For you younger guys/gals, pushing film meant to shoot at a higher ISO than it was rated. So, pushing one stop was to shoot at 800, 2 stops, 1600. Pushing meant that development time and or temperature had to be increased to give the underexposed shadow detail to develop. If I shot one roll pushed, I’d have to save until I had another to develop so that I could do two rolls at a time.
It certainly was fun, back then and still there is nothing to match the anticipation of waiting for the film to be ready to view, or in seeing your photos develop right in front of your eyes. Nor has the feeling been matched of seeing a favorite photo printed on ‘real’ fiber paper, not resin coated Polycontrast paper. I guess that maybe I can understand the attraction, but now I just prefer less hassle. 
While thinking about this post, I just downloaded some free Lightroom presets that mimic certain types of film. The above photo, taken with my D2x at White Sands was done using the Agfa Pan 25 preset.
Addendum: Chris made his post already!
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