Dubblefilm Moonstruck has since been rebranded as Dubblefilm Apollo, and is available in rolls of 36exp as opposed to the previous 24. As with my supply of Dubblefilm Bubblegum, I’d purchased this film stock as part of the Dubblefilm 35mm Family Pack from Analogue Wonderland back in December 2018. For more information about the Dubblefilm brand, please check my previous review of Dubblefilm Bubblegum. The 2.0 versions of all Dubblefilm are now made in partnership with Revolog, but this original version that I shot was the Dubblefilm x KONO! collaboration.

I decided to test out this roll using the Canon AT-1 + Canon FD 35-70mm 1: 3.5 – 4.5 zoom lens on a Sunday afternoon in April at Brick Lane.

SAMPLE IMAGES (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

PRE-SHOOT THOUGHTS

I went out with the intention of being a lot more mindful about the necessity of slowing down and composing correctly in-camera when shooting film in comparison to digital. As far as my expectations about this film stock went, I decided not to rely on the sample images that I’d seen as any kind of accurate guide to the tones my images would yield, as my results with Dubblefilm Bubblegum had been so vastly different to what I’d anticipated. The write-up had suggested either dominant yellow or blue tones depending on the shooting conditions, so these photographs would probably come out bright pink for all I could tell.

WHY I CHOSE THIS FILM

The weather forecast had predicted a relatively bright day, so it seemed sensible to choose a film rated at ISO200 or slower. I quite liked the unpredictability of the colour grading that this film would produce – that mystery is one of the appeals of film photography for me. Waiting for the negatives to come back from the developers with a nervous anticipation is part of the fun.

MY SHOOTING EXPERIENCE

Brick Lane is one of my regular haunts when I’m shooting digital street photography with the Fujifilm X100F, so I know the area pretty well and have experience with composing scenes that incorporate elements of the street art and architecture alongside the Sunday market crowds, so I felt a little more confident here than I had done in Camden shooting the roll of Street Candy ATM400. I still hadn’t had the Street Candy developed yet, so I had no idea whether the match needle light meter was in any way helping me to achieve correct exposures, so I tried to be aware of the Sunny 16 rule as much as possible and implement it closely with the camera’s recommendations. See? I’m learning haha.

THOUGHTS ON MY PROCESSED PHOTOGRAPHS

I opened up the download link from Photo Hippo… and had a bit of a giggle to myself. The emulsion looked pretty much exactly like the preset I used constantly when I first discovered Adobe Lightroom at the beginning of 2018. I often joke that I have no idea why I was so obsessed with making all my early street shots yellow. I think it’s really fitting that my second ever street shoot with 35mm film should also have that “signature” tone. Even if I’m now baffled as to why on earth I would’ve wanted that kind of signature in the first place 😉

That said, I do actually like these photographs. It’s really noticeable that I consciously took more time over composition with this roll. And I don’t actually hate the yellow. It’s quirky, and quirky is rarely a bad thing. I’m super curious to try out the updated Apollo version of the film and reserve it for a more overcast day to see if I can trigger that possible dominant blue toning,

DO ANY OF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE SHOOTING DUBBLEFILM MOONSTRUCK/APOLLO? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE FILM IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.