This month adventurous photographer Ryan Flatters takes Captureel Fringe (2254) out for a test run.

Read his results below. Note all images credit Ryan Flatters

A hint of surreal with Fringe (2254)

Last week I had the chance to explore some of my favorite local photo locations with this cool toned, low iso film from the Captureel lineup available at The Camera Trading Company.  Captureel curates a collection of respooled cinema stocks including this choice - Kodak Vision3* Color Print Motion Picture ‘Intermediate’ film stock (2254) rolled into 36 exposure still film canisters. The film is intended to be exposed with laser, CRT or LED in a digital cinema workflow. When exposed with classic still camera equipment and processed with the ECN-2 process, photographers can harness an effect that is close to real, but with a nice off putting ‘fringe’ color cast. The grass in the image above reminds me of 1980’s AstroTurf or perhaps the green carpet in the ‘inner’ office world of the Apple TV series - ‘Severance’.

Like several of the Captureel offerings, the speed of this film is quite low. For this stock it is recommended to shoot at 1.6 iso. To meter using standard metering equipment one needs to do some mental math. There are a few methods, but an easy way to do this in the field is to meter at iso 50 then open 5 stops. If your metering equipment allows a lower iso you can close the gap somewhat (e.g. meter at iso 12 and open up 3 stops). Once in the flow, this becomes second nature and hardly a reason to avoid trying this stock. Grab a tripod and go for it!

The low iso can be used to capture motion blur in broad daylight without needing a neutral density filter.

Set up your tripod by some water and let the long exposures create smooth, dreamlike textures. Try setting up your tripod on a street corner and let long exposures ‘erase’ cars and pedestrians that pass briefly through the frame.

When shooting this film, look for scenes that will quietly brew in the cool cast, sharpness and fine grain. There is a definite mood to the film. The palette can be tweaked as needed by using an 85B or similar colour warming filter. 

 

Captureel recommends processing with ECN-2. Others suggest C-41 (standard colour negative processing). Both processes can be done at home with kits available from The Camera Trading Company. Read the instructions, pay attention to processing temperature and enjoy the satisfaction of processing color stocks at home.

 

When processing at home you can skip any remjet removal instructions that come with your kit, but you still may want to pre-soak for a minute or two to get rid of the purple dye. I’m sure it is harmless, but many, like me, are fussy and like to avoid carrying dyes into processing chemicals.

 

The canister is marked ‘Process: ECN-2’ which may deter some film labs. Many cinema stocks contain a black remjet coating which can foul C-41 chemicals and processing equipment at commercial labs. Fringe (2254) does not have remjet, but your local lab may not be familiar with this and still reject it.

If sending the film away for processing, ensure the lab supports ECN-2 processing. Labs will reject the film if they do not support ECN-2.