Richard Vanek - Black and White Photography

There are times when I like to try something different. Idea for art expression or simple new film or developer. If I find it useful for others as well, I post black and white images with some tips and informations here.
As time goes on I find myself experimenting more with new art approaches than with new films or developers. Hopefully you will be able to see more of those in coming period. I certainly planning to include here also my experiments with digital printing which I am exclusively using for producing of my images from the year 2001.

DepressionDepression
Updated: 3 Nov 2008
Depression of individum or Individual depression as Jeremias Kazinski, with his own geniality, noticed...
Color to black and whiteColor to black and white
Updated: 17 Mar 2008
The color to black and white conversion is a part which troubles me the most. I need to resolve it to my satisfaction before I enter digital world. You may find a lot of pages where different techniques for this conversion are explained. What I have found in most of them was that images used are always chosen to be easy to convert. I try few techniques on images I randomly selected and it all went quite ok. Than I remembered I had converted in 2004 two images myself. And I remember that it was not that easy and I was not that satisfied. So let's take a look on that image and let us try some different ways.
Neopan 1600 in Aculux 2Neopan 1600 in Aculux 2
Updated: 22 Sep 2006
Little test of shadows details in different over/under exposures. Exposed Fuji Neopan 1600@800 in dull day light and developed in Aculux 2 1:9 @20C time: 10:00 Agitation 8x60 3x inversions in 10 sec; last two min no inversion.
Fomapan 200 at 100Fomapan 200 at 100
Updated: 15 Jun 2006
Each of the following shot is exposed at Fomapan 200 Creative but rated as 100 ASA film. The are developed in different developers or with different approach. These are real time examples so no scientific conclusions, please. There is always overall shot which is direct scan no adjustment except scanner film curve, auto exposure and little sharpening. Than two picture one containing the most highlight part and one in deepest shadows. Those pictures are not sharpened.
Night MoodNight Mood
Updated: 23 Jan 2006
For a while I am trying to make photos which would underline little bit of magic feelings night could have when you child. Little scary and little secret. You do not know what each shadow is, but your imagination works full speed. I am trying to do this but I am just begining and here is only few shots. I guess they will be change often.
Blurry TryoutBlurry Tryout
Updated: 21 Nov 2005
I scanned in high resolution Fuji Neopan 1600 which I exposed last week at my work. I must say that Ilford DD-X in combination with Neopan 1600 giving very low grain, but also low contrast. I have made quite a few prints, and because they were rather boring I have start playing with mask, darkening and blurring. As the prints goes I was getting stranger and quite more interesting results.
Nikon D70 Exposure TestNikon D70 Exposure Test
Updated: 22 Oct 2004
Here you can now find few images I have took with my four hours try out of Nikon D70 digital camera. Each image carry its own text and describe particular feature I was trying to test. Please understand that thsese images are only for showing some things I noticed while working with D70.