Efke IR 820 Infrared Exposure Suggestions

[rguinter]

Greetings everyone. I just purchased a trial batch of Efke IR 820. It's not the Aura version which I was unable to find. I've nailed down the exposures I like with their Ilford and Rollei competitors by wasting a lot of film via trial and error. But the Ilford is marginal for IR and the Rollei curls up like a window shade on steroids.

Does anyone have suggestions for exposure with the Efke for strong Wood effect? It looks like the Efke has better sensitivity out to 800 nm or so. I currently have Red-25, 0.8ND, 87, and B&W 092 filters. Suggestions would be welcome. Cheers. Bob G.

[vinny]

Bob, I've tried it briefly with the 87 and didn't get an exposure on the film. with the 092 I start at 4 seconds at 22. Reciprocity isn't too good though.

[redrockcoulee]

On 120 Maco which I think is the same thing I get decent exposures at 1 ISO developed in Rodinal 1:50 but have not shoot that much. Negs were very thin at 3 to 6 ISO which was the recommended exposure. That is with using a Hoya R72 filter.

[drew.saunders]

These two relatively recent threads answer a lot of your questions:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=52446&highlight=infrared

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=34836&highlight=infrared

[rguinter]

Bob, I've tried it briefly with the 87 and didn't get an exposure on the film. with the 092 I start at 4 seconds at 22. Reciprocity isn't too good though.

Yes thanks Vinny. I've been able to get beautiful negatives with your Konica using the 87... but nothing with the Ilford of course and very thin with the Rollei although usable. Exposures for all have been in the 30+ second range at f16-22. Bob

[rguinter]

P.S. In spite of the poor IR response with Ilford SFX I've gotten some very nice effects with it using both a Red-25 and 0.8ND filter together. Similar exposures as above

[Ron Marshall]

Here are two I shot yesterday to find my personal EI with Efke 820, using a Hoya 72 filter. I took five shots into the sun and five shots at 90 degrees to the sun.

They were all taken about 16:00 hrs, about 2.75 hrs before sunset.

Using a spotmeter the shadowed tree bark was EV 9, the sky EV 15, the sunlit grass EV 12. I placed zone V on EV 11.

The five exposures for each set-up were at EI 6, 3, 1.5, 0.75, 0.375. The exposures were 1/4, 1/2, 1 sec, 2 sec, 4 sec. I did not make any correction for reciprocity.

The one directly into the sun is at EI 3, the other is at EI 6. Both are usable, but the EI 3 has better tonal separation and shadow detail. The ones exposed at lower EIs were too dense.

I developed in Xtol 1:2 for 15 minutes at 70 degrees. Continuous gentle inversions for the first minute, then two inversions once each minute for the balance.

Overall I am pleased with my first attempt at IR. I am happy with Efke 820 and it seems to be a good match with Xtol, in that the highlights have good separation as I wanted.

[schafphoto]

My Efke ASA has been around 1 (One) with 092 and my best wood effect was with about a 1 stop push processing of the film. I have samples of these side-by-side with Kodak HIE at my flickr site... http://www.flickr.com/photos/schafphoto/sets/72157600359884089/

[Ron Marshall]

My Efke ASA has been around 1 (One) with 092 and my best wood effect was with about a 1 stop push processing of the film. I have samples of these side-by-side with Kodak HIE at my flickr site... http://www.flickr.com/photos/schafphoto/sets/72157600359884089/

What developer did you use?

[Wallace_Billingham]

I have found I get good results with Diafine and Rodinal using the Efke IR film. Using the sunny 16 rule I rate it as a 1 with a 1 second exposure in full sun at f/16. If it is cloudy I go for 15-30 seconds at f/16. In the shade or on a dark cloudy day I will run it out 4-8 minutes or more.

The film seems to handle overexposure a lot better than under so always err on the side of over

[rguinter]

Ron and Wallace: Many thanks for the exposure suggestions. My next trip out to do some photos I will try a roll or two based around your experiences. Cheers. Bob G.