Harman Technology release Harman Red, a redscaled version of Phoenix

This sort of thing never happens to me. Back in January I was contacted by the marketing department of Harman Technology about a new product they were launching. ‘Please don’t share the information in this mail with anyone else as we haven’t shared it yet’, read the email. Well that sounded exciting. It continued, ‘We have a new product launching, probably later this month, which will be called HARMAN RED and is a redscale version of the Phoenix 200 film.’

By coincidence I had recently redscaled some Harman Phoenix film, which came out really well. Harman had seen these images and wondered if I might be interested in trying out Harman Red. Well, of course I would! A few days later a package arrived containing some rolls of Harman Red. Typically, it’s arrival coincided with some of the most miserable weather of the year. Two storms rolled across Portugal, accompanied by wind and heavy rain, so there wasn’t much chance of going out to take some redscale photos.

When the weather briefly cleared, I rolled a twelve exposure length of Harman Red into a Rapid canister and loaded it into the new (to me) Lomo Smena SL, the Rapid film version of the 8M. As usual I used the app Camera Meter to judge the exposures and took the film on a shopping trip and ‘around the block’. Although I rated my redscaled Harman Phoenix at ISO 50, the box speed of Harman Red is ISO 125, so I chose that for the exposures of the Harman redscale film. 

When I took the film to the lab it was machine processed at 55°C and scanned. I don’t have any details of the processing and scanning, aside from the temperature, but I reckon that’s a good test of how this film will be treated in a commercial lab. I was really pleased with how the images came out. As usual with these Rapid films decanted back into 35mm cassettes there were light leaks. I had used a different 35mm cassette to my first decanted Rapid film to try to avoid the leaks, but it looks like these are all cheap and nasty cassettes. That said, I’m embracing these imperfections. You can buy light leaks presets for photo editors, or make your own, but there’s nothing like the real thing.

Harman Red was really nice to use, even decanted into Rapid canisters. I reckon that to get the best out of the emulsion it really needs a lot of light. When the sky was clear we had lovely contrasty orange and black images, but when the conditions were hazy the results were more muted. Mind you, even under these conditions I really like how the skies came out. For me, the high contrast Harman Phoenix is a fabulous emulsion, and Harman Red complements this perfectly.

Now that the film has been officially released there are more details on the Harman Technology website. ‘Depending upon the exposure and colour characteristics of a scene, images can range from strong “apocalyptic” looking bright orange and red tones to more subtle orange and green tones with delicate shadows’, is how Harman Red is described. It, ‘has a usable exposure range of EI 50 – 400. For best results we recommend shooting between EI 100 – 200 depending on scene brightness and contrast.’ Looking at the nice ‘apocalyptic’ example of a sunset, I might well expose my next roll at ISO 200. 

I was delighted with the redscaled images, and Harman Red is a great idea. After the launch, all of the early comments were really positive, and it looks like this is something people were looking for. I would say Harman Red is a great option for anyone who wants to try redscale film but doesn’t have the facilities to do so.

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#AgfaRapid #Experimental #HarmanRed #HarmanTechnology #Phoenix #Redscale #RedscaleFilmHarman #RedscalePhotography

You won’t believe what happened when I redscaled Harman Phoenix film

I know, this is a deliberately click-baity title, but it’s all in good fun. Way back in June I made my first redscale film. Before then I had bought Lomography Redscale but I’d always been slightly disappointed with the result. The film I chose to redscale was Harman Phoenix, described as a high contrast film with strong, visible grain It is also known to give an orange/red cast with strong greens.

https://flic.kr/p/2qzrMYE

https://flic.kr/p/2qzqPcm

Because I exposed through the support of the film I added about an extra two stops to get the proper exposure. Hence for ISO 200 Harman Phoenix I exposed the redscaled film at ISO 50. It took several months, but I finally used the whole film and took it to the lab. I was a little apprehensive about how it would come out, but I needn’t have worried, the results were awesome (even if I say so myself).

https://flic.kr/p/2qzqPpA

https://flic.kr/p/2qzqTAc

Because the film is exposed through the support layer and not directly through the emulsion the ideal redscale images should have a strong orange/red colour about them. Since Phoenix is known for being slightly colour shifted towards the red end of the spectrum I had hoped that redscaled this would have an even more pronounced effect, but I could not have imagined how well it would turn out. Rather than showing the whole roll I have shown just a few examples. If you want to see all of the images they can be found on my Flickr here.

https://flic.kr/p/2qzjZ2Y

https://flic.kr/p/2qzjZ3Q

I should add that the Lomo Smena 8M that I used for this experiment worked flawlessly and the results were outstanding. I remembered to set the focus properly, most of the time, and although there were a couple of double exposures it worked beautifully. The Smena 8M is like Marmite, people either love it or hate it, but at the moment it’s my favourite 35mm camera.

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#Experimental #Phoenix #Redscale #RedscaleFilmHarman #RedscalePhotography #Shittycamerachallenge

One of the things I’ve really wanted to try is making my own redscale film. I’ve used Lomography Redscale film before, which has been fun, but for a long time I’ve always wanted to try making my own redscale film. But what is redscale, you might ask? Put simply, instead of taking photographs with the emulsion side of the film facing the subject, the film is reversed in the camera so that the image is taken through the backing layer.

Colour film is made up of three layers, each light-sensitive to a particular wavelength of colour: red, green and blue. The red layer is usually exposed to light after the blue and green layers, but with redscale film, where the light passes backwards through the film, what this means is that before it reaches the sensitive emulsion layers, light passes through the support layer and the red-sensitive layer first, leading to images with a strong red cast.

Although one can purchase ready made redscale film, I’ve always wanted to try it myself. I bought some ISO 400 Lomography colour negative film ages ago, but the 35mm cassettes I bought were a little too cheap, and all of the light tight felt was peeling off. Then I got into a conversation with Joe (@owlinwolf on Mastodon) about Cinestill Redrum, a limited edition redscale film, who observed, ‘Which makes me wonder if Harman Pheonix might be an interesting one to rescale.’

This got me thinking, and reignited my interest in making my own redscale film, but this time with Harman Phoenix film. ‘Interesting idea regarding rescaling Phoenix’, I replied, ‘I’ve been thinking about doing some Redscale for the #ShittyCameraChallenge and was looking for a contender. I just happen to have a roll of Phoenix knocking around.’ But I was still short of some decent empty 35mm cassettes, so I put in an order for some empty cassettes and a couple of extra rolls of Harman Phoenix film.

Actually preparing the film for redscale exposure is quite simple. All you need is a roll of colour film, an empty 35mm cassette, scissors, and tape. First of all cut off the end of the film to make a smooth edge. You can then either tape the film to a piece of film protruding from a pre-used 35mm cassette or, as in my case, cut a tab in the end of the film to fit it into the spool of the empty 35mm cassette. when the end of the film is slotted into the spool, make sure this is secure so that it doesn’t come out when you are winding on the film. Also, make sure that the orientation on the film is revered to what it normally would be, so that when you wind the film onto the spool the emulsion is facing outwards.

Once the two cassettes are linked together you now need to go into a darkroom or use a dark bag. Then all you do is rewind the film from the full cassette to the empty cassette. Once you have reached the end of the film you can take the cassettes out of the dark bag or bring them back into the light to separate the two cassettes. Now cut a tab in the film so that you can load it into the camera. In my case this funny looking tab is because I will be using it with my Lomo Smena 8M and as this did not come with a take up spool I am using one from another old reusable 35mm cassette.

Now that the homemade redscale film is finished it’s time to load it into the camera and use it. Because I will be exposing through the support of the film the emulsion will receive less light than if it was loaded normally. I have learned that you should add about an extra two stops exposure to get an equivalent exposure for a film rated at it’s box speed. Hence for the ISO 200 Harman Phoenix film I will be exposing the redscaled film at ISO 50. Making my first redscale film was really encouraging and I would like to do it again already, although I should expose this film first. However, next time I’m going to try the EBS technique, Expose Both Sides. That should be fun.

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https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/2024/06/14/making-some-homemade-redscale-film-with-harman-phoenix/

#AltProcess #Experimental #Phoenix #Redscale #RedscaleFilmHarman #RedscalePhotography #Shittycamerachallenge