Cool & Helpful Links

I finally took a few minutes last week and figured out how to add some links to the blog. I added a couple more over the weekend. Take a look over on the right side and you will see them there. I will add more as I find them - anything cool or helpful to budding or budded film photographers.

In the interest of maintaining photography as the basis of the blog here is another recent shot I like a lot. It was taken on the same foggy morning as the previous shot using Fujifilm 200 and processed by The Dark Room.

There’s something really cool about shooting up into a tree, especially with the upper branches partially obscured by fog and overexposure. I also like the sharpness of my new 28mm lens and the depth of field even when shooting almost wide open at f4 (it’s an f2.8 lens so at f4 it does have a little more left).

More Holga B&W

Here’s another shot made with the same Holga 400 B&W film noted in the previous post. This one actually did come out the way I expected it to.

It was shot with the Holga 120N in my yard one foggy morning after the sun was well up but before the fog burned off. For those unfamiliar with the Holga that almost always means f8 @ 1/100, approximately! 

Unlike the previous example some gray tones are clearly in evidence here. The soft dreamy look so typical of the Holga lens is accentuated by the diffused lighting of the fog.

 

Holga B&W Film

I shot a roll of Holga 400 film and was somewhat disappointed with the results. It was very “contrasty” and in my opinion it doesn’t seem to be as light sensitive as an ISO 400 film should be. Here’s is one of the better shots of my son Ian and his girlfriend Sarah.

 

This was shot in the shade but it was early afternoon on a very bright sunny day (note the sunglasses). I would expect this kind of result from a much slower film, not and ISO 400 film. I have another roll that I will shoot in brighter conditions to see if I can get any more gray tones to emerge. If not I will probably move on to a different film for B&W shots with the Holga. 

Still, I really like this shot even though it was not at all what I was expecting and that is kind of what Holga is all about.

Film Tricks & Techniques

A photography blog without photographs is just silly so here is a recent favorite for your viewing pleasure.

For the sake of those who have never done film photography or others like me, who have been away from it for a while, there are a couple tricks & techniques that I should share. I can only share these tips because I am slowly remembering them as I continue to shoot more film. Thirty years ago when I was shooting film on a regular basis with equipment I had been using for years these things were second nature.

I can remember walking through the French Market in New Orleans (or any other venue for that matter) and almost automatically adjusting the shutter speed on my 35mm SLR in response to the changing light conditions or situation as I moved from one “scene” to another. In those days, like now I had a fully manual 35mm SLR and tended to shoot “shutter priority” with it.

Shutter priority with a manual camera is not the same thing as it is with an automatic camera. In this case it simply meant that I would select the shutter speed first based on the situation and the desired results.

For instance, the need to “stop action” when shooting a fast moving subject, or the need to avoid blurry pictures resulting from shooting with a shutter speed that was too slow. I would adjust the shutter speed to keep the exposure settings in the acceptable range for the picture I thought I might want to take.

I would also routinely reset the aperture along with the shutter speed without consulting the camera’s onboard light meter but just using a “best guess” method that seemed to work very well at the time and kept my camera within a stop or two of the correct exposure setting most of the time. This was important because often when a “picture moment” presented itself there was only a fleeting opportunity to get the camera to my eye, compose the shot, focus, adjust the exposure setting and take the picture.

This takes more than a little skill to accomplish on a regular basis and is why fully automatic (or programmable) auto-focus cameras have pretty much taken over the market.

… and I admit that automatic cameras available today, even the inexpensive ones, generally do a creditable job for the average snapshot type picture that most people take most of the time.

In fact, in the “old days” when I was shooting film exclusively (along with everyone else) I also “packed” a Canon Shure Shot 35mm point & shoot with auto-everything for those average snap shot type pictures

So there is the first tip. If you are using a manual camera train yourself to “preselect” shutter and aperture settings so you are always ready – or nearly so. This is not as difficult as it may seem and after a while, if you do it often enough it will become second nature and you will get better and better at it.

The second tip is that every film is different. I have discovered that the two films I have been shooting the most have opposite characteristics. Kodak Portra 400 works best if I overexpose it slightly. Kodak BW400 works best if it is slightly underexposed.

This is a familiar enough principle for me to believe that it is perhaps universally true. That is to say generally, color negative films should be slightly overexposed and black & white films should be slightly underexposed for best results.

In any case, I would highly recommend that whatever film you choose to use, use enough of it and pay close attention to the results for you learn its individual characteristics.