What’s going on guys, it’s Hai and I recently took the Nikon N2020 back out because I wanted to shoot some film. For this, I decided to pair it with a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400.
This film stock is intended to be more budget-friendly and I guess you can say more low-end. I view this film as something intended for people to pop into a camera and more so just catalog daily life, for people to take photos of their kids and just ordinary things like that. It’s not a specialized film and not saying that it can’t, but I don’t think it was really meant for professional applications.
Now, a little disclaimer. For this roll of film, I decided to have it developed and scanned by a local business. I don’t know the chemicals that were used to develop the film, I don’t know the scanner used to scan the film, or the type of post-processing done. This was my first time not doing all these things for myself so it’s definitely different from what I’ve previously showcased on this channel. Having someone else do everything just makes my life easier and will hopefully mean that I’ll be able to do more analog photography videos.
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s journey through this roll of Kodak Ultramax 400.
For these first few photos, we are heading to Olympic National Park, specifically Hurricane Ridge. This is my first time at this location and I’m going to be honest, I think it’s way overhyped. Don’t get me wrong it’s a nice place to be and has some nice views but you’re essentially just looking at distant ridgelines. It reminds me of Paradise at Mt. Rainier National Park but with a lot less to do. This is a place that I would suggest visiting if you’re already hitting other places in Olympic National Park, not a place that I’d spend the currently $30 entrance fee to solely go to. The highlight of my Hurricane Ridge trip was actually leaving because right as I pulled out of the parking lot, a couple of reindeers showed up and were grazing right beside the road. They were the only thing that I photographed here. I was trying really hard to get the center deer doing something graceful but all I could get was a couple of half-open-mouthed chews. As far as Ultramax 400, something I noticed right away was the amount of grain in this film. This is kind of expected being that it’s 400 speed but even so, I would say this is on the grainier side of the spectrum. Something also pretty apparent is the shift towards the yellows. Everything looks a bit warmer than reality.
Moving on, we are continuing our journey along the Olympic peninsula and stopping at a place called Ruby Beach. This was our last destination for the night and we arrived just as the sun was setting. This picture was taken pretty much at the parking lot and just as you begin the trek down to the beach. I actually really like this view and do plan to come back here at a future time.
Next, we are down on the beach, essentially looking at the large rocks from the previous photo. Here, the sun is just on the horizon, on the left edge of the photo, just out of frame. For this, I wanted to expose for the sky and just get a silhouette of the rocks. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I got what I wanted on film, but here’s another picture that I took of the same location but different composition. I think this composition was stronger than trying to get all the rocks in frame.
For the next few photos, we head to The Needle Lounge, a local tattoo shop in Lakewood, WA. I did this to change it up and get some indoor environmental portraitures. This kind of shows what the film can do indoors with just the artificial lighting of the room. Again, I would say that there’s some pretty noticeable grain. Also, with pictures like these where we have more definable subjects, I would say that it shows that the film stock is a bit soft and there isn’t a lot of fine details. Everything just has a softness to it, even the in-focused bits.
Next up, we have a couple more sunset photos from one of my drives near home. Again, exposed for the sky with silhouette foreground. Something that I’ve been doing a lot. With this photo, I actually like the colors of the sky a lot. The camera did a good job with exposure and we can see colors throughout the entire sky. Nothing’s blown out.
Now, we are going to head to Mt. Rainier National Park. This was on one of my more spontaneous trips here, heading out and arriving just before sunset. In my opinion, Mt. Rainier is one of those subjects that’s easy to take a picture of, but really hard to get something mind-blowing, especially if you’re trying to get it at sunrise or sunset. A lot of the more accessible locations are just not aligned right with the sun’s path. This was one of the nights where things were really close and the sky was lighting up, but just slightly to the side of where I wanted it to be.
I should note that with my Nikon film cameras I almost always shoot with a 50mm lens. I have wider lenses but just completely forgot them for this occasion and this is me paying the price. Things are just too close for my taste here. Again this is at 50mm and here’s the digital picture I took at 28mm. As you can see, a big difference in terms of what is actually in the frame. This is a reminder to always come prepared. Better to have a not use than to need and not have.
Here’s a look at the sky, just to the side of the mountain. Parts of it actually looked pretty good, just not where I want it to be.
Here’s another example of the 50mm focal length on film versus 30mm on digital.
For the next few photos, we are heading to Chambers Bay, a local park and pretty well-known golf course. Again, at sunset. I just realized as I’m making this post that almost the entirety of this roll was taking around sunset. For the first photo, I’m just shooting through the three lonely freestanding trees. I didn’t think that this would be anything, and realistically it’s a snapshot but it doesn’t look too bad. The colors in the sky are soft and have a nice gradient. We can see the sun setting directly in the middle which the camera exposed for and we, again, get the silhouetted foreground.
Another similar shot but with a different subject.
This one, I did the same thing but looking back, I should’ve exposed with more emphasis on the foreground because upon review of these images, even I’m like what is that? In the foreground is actually a passing train. I think in the case exposing somewhere in the middle would’ve been the best route but then the sky wouldn’t look all the great and the train wouldn’t look all that great. So are the limitations of this type of film photography. You just got to live with it and know what you’re getting into.
This next one isn’t really anything special in terms of subject but I wanted to show it because I actually like the colors. The warm, yellow tint of this film really plays well with the setting sun behind me.
Here’s another example of that. The subject is just some giant manmade rock structures but the colors don’t look too bad at sunset.
Finally, with the last few photos, we head to Alki Beach in West Seattle for another sunset. Here’s a look at the skyline. This is typically a snapshot like something you’d see in a family photo album.
Next, I don’t even know what this is. I remember it being a lot better of a composition in person but actually seeing it on screen is something else.
This one is a bit better. It’s me, shooting through the branches of that last tree to get another angle of the Seattle skyline. This would’ve looked better with the Space Needle in the center but then the right portion of the skyline would’ve been cut out more and there really isn’t anything to the left.
Here’s one of a pier along the boardwalk.
Connected to that pier is this little stairway leading to the beach. As you can see, it was high tide and I wanted to take a piccture of this scene but I didn’t know how I wanted to do it. I actually just freehand this close to the ground without even looking in the viewfinder because I wasn’t going to lay in the sand for something I knew I was likely not going to care for. And because I did that, the horizon is lopsided.
Then with this final picture, I was actually setting the camera up on a tripod, getting ready to use the self-timer for the first time. But not fully knowing how to do that, the camera actually took a picture when I didn’t want it to and I didn’t even get a chance to go in. Oh well, lesson learned.
And that’s it guys. A look at Kodak Ultramax 400 with some views around Washington state. Overall, this is a pretty grainy film. It’s not that sharp and the colors lean towards the yellows. Those things are pretty apparent. But considering that this film stock was developed to be budget friendly and for everyday cataloging, I’m not mad about it. I think if you understand the characteristics of this film, you can definitely use it towards your advantage, particularly to get some pretty nice colors.
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