I have been photographing with film for many years, and also doing macro photography with digital cameras. Decades ago, when I was a teenager, I tried to take macro shots with my humble Praktica MTL5 and close-up lenses with slightly disappointing results. Later I did it again with digital cameras and the learning curve was very fast.

Now, when all my photos of personal projects are made on film, or at least it is my will to do it, I have returned to make macro photos on film, with the advantage of having learned a lot and having a percentage of correct photos in less shots, something that at first was basically impossible.

These are photos taken during the day with the Canon EOS-5, the incredible Canon MP-E65mm and ILFORD HP5 PLUS, which provides a macro ratio of 1:1 to 5:1 without any accessories, and forcing the film to EI 1600 to avoid having to use tripods or flashes, only natural light, looking for a more spontaneous and simple result.

I love the grain mixed with the textures of the invertebrates. The result is tremendously different from digital, the light is distributed in another way, it is aesthetically very nice for me. Maybe the macro photos that I like most in recent years. Next spring I hope to spend many film rolls on this topic.

The film was developed in R09 at a dilution of 1+50 for 24 minutes. In general, I am quite satisfied with that processing. I thought that the grain would increase much more, something that did not worry me too much, but that’s fine, I like it.

~ Juan

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4 responses to “5 Frames… Of insect macros with ILFORD HP5 PLUS (EI 1600 / 35mm format / Canon EOS-5)”

  1. All too well. Really like you.

  2. Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

  3. I really like these shoots, specially the one of the flower (I guess is a flower)

  4. These shots are so cool!

 

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