film Archives - Luigi Barbano Photography

What if Artificial Intelligence…

…is already creating art and most of what we see in the Web and on social media is the digital equivalent of the famous Artist’s Shit by Piero Manzoni? Just kidding, but after I made the video you can check here, where I talk about the new trend of AI creating photography, this idea came to my mind… what if? lol Let me know what you think about the use of AI in the creation of art!

DIY UV Box Tested!

It passed quite a while since I built my UV Box but sometime life gets in the middle of our fun projects! Now finally I tested the UV Box and I can say it works great. . . I made a test with two different negatives: a very soft flower subject lighted with painted light and a very sharp subject lighted with a very contrasted light. I wanted to see how this printing process deals with different subjects. I proceeded with some step test to find the corrected exposure for my negatives. I did 2 seconds steps and as you can see in the video I was a little optimist with my first strip of 2,4,6,8 seconds exposure. At the end the correct exposure resulted of 11 minutes. . You can see the tests I made in the video below. I was expecting shorter exposure times ’cause I seen some other boxes made with the same LED giving short exposure times with other alternative processes. Still I like the slow times when I work with film and so I kinda like to have time to think while I wait for the paper to be exposed. The Arduino timer is working […]

Feb 10

by Barbano Luigi in BlogUpdates, Film photography, FineArt, Gear Talk, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: Carbon, Cianotype, film, filmisalive, fineart, Luigi Barbano, old techniques, palladium, photography, Platinum, printing, UV, UV BOX, Van Dyke

Luigi’s Drunk UV Box!

I was always told: if you have to do something, do it with your own style! So here my Italian style UV box to expose the papers coated with antique photographic processes. At the origin of photography many technologies of printing required the exposure in UV light. At those time sun was the perfect source and the exposure was usually made outdoor. The quantity of UV light from the sun can vary a lot in different seasons or with different weather, plus, baby it’s cold outside now in winter! For this reason I decided to build a UV Box. I was inspired by some similar projects videos on YouTube but I added a personal touch. First of all I used an old wood box for wine bottles instead of a modern plastic box. The wood box was in my cellar, free, and wood looks better and more coherent than plastic with old techniques. Second I decided to add a timer for a precise exposure instead of counting the seconds with an external timer and manually switch the lights on and off. . . Check out the video to know more about the UV Box and see how it works. . […]

Dec 23

Merry Christmas to All…

Dear Friends, I wish you a great Christmas, filled with joy and the right personal choices! . This is a strange Christmas with too many people trying to cancel it, some for cultural reasons as the European Commission, others finding excuses in a virus that seem to spread only in specific situations. It is always difficult to find a proper reaction to evil when it’s in charge of our lives, so I was wondering what to do and the question came natural: “What would John Galt do?”. The answer was very easy and so here’s my traditional Christmas image for the year 2021! This year, more than ever, we are in a war, it’s not a traditional war at the moment but a cultural war. One side is the side expressing all the values that permit to appreciate and enjoy Christmas, the other side is the side that is not able to joy and wants to cancel it. The premise of Christmas is the freedom to chose between good and evil, Santa made a list and only the nice ones receive his gifts. Christmas is the season when joy must be deserved, it is the season that celebrates the birth […]

Nov 16

Black and White Tales, Print #45

To keep the mind awake, specially in lock downs, books are a great tool. This image is inspired by a Buzzati’s novel. Not the right book to read right now, being a little bit too much kafkian, but a book that came to my mind this week and inspired this picture years ago. . . . See you next week… and we will see if the tide brought something useful…

Nov 10

Black and White Tales, Print #44

Sorry guys… there were some glitches in the system when I was printing my image November 3rd… Here all I got… . . See you next week… hoping there will be no more “glitches”!!!

Nov 03

Black and White Tales, Print #43

A lot of things are going on right now. The most important is the vote for the presidential elections in USA.Dear Americans, vote wisely so I can continue to work on my plans and keep my dreams. If not, I will have to switch to survival mode, exactly as my parents and grandparents did in the 1940s. . . . See you next week, I hope with my plans still intact.

Black and White Tales, Print #42

The Covid anxiety is back. Media, here in Italy, push continuous news about the cases count and create panic. The numbers don’t add up, but who cares, all they care about is creating enough panic to justify the socialist government grab of power. In this environment I was thinking at the good old days when the news came from newspapers, just once a day. . . . See you next time! Still 8 weeks to go…

Sep 24

It’s not just that I’m an old dinosaur…

I had been asked many times why I still use film for some of my projects. Sometime the fact that I’m an old dinosaur was implied, but is not just that. The fact is that I really like film photography for many reasons and not just for the better aesthetic for some situations. Here my main ten reasons, you can read just the titles or you can open the video below and hear the complete explanation I give: It’s simple Better learning curve More control Film means reality Visible without tools Variety of formats and cameras Aesthetic Value It’s a slow process It’s analogue! If you want to see a comparison between film and digital, you can read a couple of articles I wrote some time ago: Digital Fuji Acros vs Ilford FP4 Film Fuji Acros Digital vs Fuji Acros Film Until the next time!

Jun 04

by Barbano Luigi in Gear Talk, BlogUpdates, Film photography, News, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: film, Filmcamera, filmisalive, Luigi Barbano, MX

Gear Talk: Pentax MX

There are cameras that remained the preferred, no matter if other cameras were better with more options. For me the Pentax MX is that camera.I used many cameras and some of them gave the possibility to do more things than the MX, but still, when I take the MX in my hands and I hear the click, something gives me the desire to take pictures. . . See you soon with the Pentax LX!