Harman Red

My First Roll

Hello again!

I am still out on the road, but since I got the scan of my first roll of the newish Harman red from the lab, I thought I’d check back in and do a quick post about it.

First off, though. I don’t normally write about photography, technically or philosophically, because I don’t consider myself qualified to do so. I am just a guy who happens to like cameras and taking photos. But I have something I need to get off my chest. It has something to do with the Harman Red, well sort of.

The influencer culture is the thing that bugged the hell out of me surrounding the release of the new film. When I saw YouTube videos about the film I watched a few just to try to learn something about it since I’d never shot redscale before. Most videos started with the on camera talents explaining why Harman Red was not the film the community need. They went on about the need for cheaper alternatives for regular colour negatives because film prices had skyrocketed in the past years blahblahblahblah. I wanted to thank these visionaries for spending half their videos imparting their insights that redscale film isn’t regular C41 films. Because otherwise how would a normie like myself know the difference? Is the social media ecosystem so broken that this counts as content? Go yell at Kodak for raising prices, or at Fuji for killing their films. These people got films for free-and a small amount of money I suppose-and they only want to talk about why this is the wrong film for the market. How about testing the film and telling the mass who have to pay out of pocket what to expect. You might actually help film lovers save some money. The only good video about the new film I saw was a guy who tested the hell out of the 4 rolls he got. He pulled and pushed and cross developed, etc. And I think I actually learnt something. I regretted wasting all the time watching such nonsense, which is so mainstream now that it’s inevitable. It sucks, for all!

Anyway, rant’s over.

I kinda like the film and can totally see myself finding good use for it sometime in the future. It’s got a fine grain, and a lot of red. BTW, this the level of technical stuff I’m comfortable with sharing here. Photos!

My first shot, an old book store. I know this look isn’t for everyone, but I like a little crazy.

Like I said, there’s a lot of red.

This looks apocalyptic.

A tree

Whatever this is.

A room in the neighbourhood castle.

Last one. You can see yours truly in the upper left corner.

If this helps anyone. Harman Red is ISO125, but I rated it as ISO100. I used my light meter for most of these shots, and the scans were not edited in any way.

I think this film can make certain subjects more visually interesting. Interpret that however you wish. I will shoot more of this if I can find suitable subjects. I shot a photo of my son having his lunch, which I am not gonna post here. It makes me think this could be good for portraits, given good lighting. It may also be good for rain and fogs. Storm chasers, take note.

That’s my post for today. I will try to post something else before I go back home. Merci beaucoup!