mercer harlan

made a public tumblr again i guess, we'll see for how long lol

everything posted here is my content & not reblogged

my other acct:

Williamsburg Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI

July 2026

Williamsburg Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI

July 2026

Firstly, film has to be developed as its intended chemistry. Color base film is usually either C41, E6, or ECN2 - and it must be developed as such. Black & white films can either be B&W or color positive chemistry. AFTER the film negative is developed, it can go through a scanner, a projector, and / or be made into prints. For scanning, you can do negatives vs. positives and color vs. black & white - those settings on the scanner are entirely up to you and your creative vision.

When I shoot color film, I often ask the film lab to run it through the scanner once as color and once as black & white. The images - to me - are drastically different. The black & white simply shows the values of light and dark, and it also more clearly displays little details like specks, grain, flaws, etc - which are desirable to me. This gives me more flexibility to edit the image to bring out those qualities. I do post both - the set of scans in color, and the same set of scans in B&W (if I have them).

See below for two examples of color negatives that were scanned as color then as B&W. The B&W scans = a new perspective on the same composition that is equally interesting and produces a more dramatic image

coke ovens

Tiger Lily (lilium lancifolium)

Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI

August 2025

Leicaflex SL2

Thistle

Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI

August 2025

Leicaflex SL2