Valley

Another of the types of photographic film I’ve dabbled with is Ilford SFX 200, a black-&-white film with ‘extended red sensitivity’ edging into the near infra-red. Used in conjunction with the right kind of deep red or near-black filter one can get, in theory, a proper infra-red photograph. The image above is from one of the few rolls of SFX 200 I ever bought in 120 format. It’s a shot of the Cynon Valley in South Wales taken from a hillside above Abercynon.

I was shooting that day with a Mamiya C330S medium-format camera. The only suitable filter I had (a B+W 092) was intended for use with 35mm Nikon lenses, so I’d had to obtain a speficic adaptor for mounting the ⌀ 52mm filter on the smaller Mamiya lens. I developed the film at home using Tanol, which may well have been the only time I attempted that particular combination. I was pleased with the way this high-contrast shot came out, even if it fell a little way short of the dramatic effect I’d hoped for.