Finding new film stocks is always one of the best feelings because you get that experience of shooting a certain film for the first time again and it truly is a feeling like no other. For one you don’t really know what your results will look like, especially when you’re shooting with Psychedelic Blues Film by Dustin Adams – and I mean that in the most exciting and inspirational way.

Let’s take a look at Psych Blues #4 to see some of it’s incredible features, and also some of its drawbacks.

All photos © Moloney Creative Agency.

Psych Blues #4

Reviewing this film stock, I understand that there will be some superstition and there will be some excitement, but my overall consensus after shooting this film is that you need to find its balance – you’ll understand what I mean by this shortly.

To start, I’d like you to see the excerpt that Adams provides in his film shop for the Psych Blues #4 film stock:

DISCLAIMER! PLEASE READ! This is an experimental film. The effects on any pre-exposed film can be unpredictable, but I have put many hours of research and development into the rolls I make, and believe they’re consistent enough to sell. This film can definitely enhance your images, but it can also yield undesirable results depending on your taste and preferences

Psychedelic Blues #4 is entirely exposed to holographic paper resulting in multiple spectrums of color throughout the roll. These colors will come from all directions, and fade in and out between frames.

– Dustin Adams

Now that you have this in mind, you are able to better understand what shooting this film could entail and he also gives us tons of sample images to see how it will look.

So now, what are you going to shoot? Are you going to shoot something important with it so you get new, cool effects? Or are you going to play it safe and shoot some test images with it to see how it will work with your style of shooting?

I chose to test out the film on a recent trip to Montréal, and to be 100% honest, I wish I had tested it out before using it on a trip where I wanted to be able to control all of my image. I found that the rolls were 50/50 – meaning 50% had nice, subtle effects that enhanced the images, and ~50% had a bit too much light leaks and in turn, made me lose some of the important details in the images.

With that being said, I never look at learning from these mistakes as a down side, because I find that I will usually remember certain images more because I messed them up.

Radiant Color Flares

While looking at this film stock and seeing sample photos from it, this was always the main feature that I saw. When I originally looked at the sample photos on Adams’ shop, I saw a lot of cool effects with rainbow-like colors which is what drew me to the film. I even saw one of my favorite (analog) photographers, Brock Fetch, using it too so I needed to get my hands on it. I didn’t even know if he was shooting the #4 stock, but I saw some of his photos with it and I ordered a few rolls of each stock that Adams had right away.

Check out some of my sample photos below to see some of the looks that Psychedelic Blues #4 will provide. And while doing so – imagine yourself shooting with it and how it might effect your photos. This is something I wish I did while looking at samples because sometimes these effects might look nice on other photographers’ photos, but on your own they may not be ideal.

For some reason this is how I feel for my photos, but that could also be because I used them during the wrong scenario, and maybe I would have different feelings if I used them in a better setting. Regardless, here are some samples of the radiant color flares:

Heavy-Light Ratio

The next main feature I noticed is how much light there was. Not only were the colors bright and multicolored, they also covered a good portion of the negative. One drawback to this is that if the light leak or flare is in the portion of film where the detail of your shot is then you may miss out on a good shot.

However, on the contrary, this film is made for special effects and sometimes it creates just that as well. Sometimes the light flare(s) work out perfectly to create something that you couldn’t with just any regular film.

In conclusion, I would definitely shoot Psych Blues Film again in the future; however, I’ll be more strategic with when I use the film. With my first few rolls I just grabbed a roll and shot, but I find with this film especially you’ll need the right lighting and right situation for this.

Let us know what you think of this stock if you’ve shot it before, or what you think about it before shooting – we’d love to start a discussion about this incredible new film!

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