The first of several posts on film photography,
My interest in film photography came long after becoming embroiled in its pixelated sibling.
For me, the finiality of film photography allows me to enjoy the picture making process fully in the moment.
With digital, the satisfaction comes after fully editing a photo, adjusting levels and sharpening and cropping. With film photography, I find the finality of exposing the film and locking away the photo a liberation. For shoots in tricky circumstances, ie. gig photography, i’ll stick with my DSLR. But for photography for my own enjoyment i’m really enjoying using film.
Other factors strongly pushing me to enjoy film photography are the cameras as mechanical objects. I’ve had one run in with my DSLR, culminating in soldering a new circuit board into it, but this isn’t something i’d like to repeat. The older classic cameras, have a tactility and function which makes them a pleasure to use.
Price, is also an advantage. I’ve picked up three very nice cameras all for the price of canons cheapest production lens (£60)
Finally, the developing and printing (B&W) is a joy. Chemicals, darkened rooms and bits of film; whats not to like?
Actually, spending the odd hour or so in the dark with eyes open does wonders for eyes which spend most of their days clamped on the halide glow of a monitor.
So, first post.
A birthday present from the lovely tasha, which has seen less use than it should. Someting I hope to remedy now i’ve got access to a darkroom. Using 120mm film over twice the size of 35mm standard film most of us are used to using, these films are capable of resolving more detail than 35mm film (and less than large format film). The Lubitel series were very cheap medium format cameras, almost deemed toy cameras (see holga). Still, they’re a great way to have a go at medium format photography.
Taken from Westbury white horse, in Wiltshire. I used ISO 3200 B&W ilford film. Completly the wrong film for the circumstances. Which led to completly overexposing the sky and much of the foreground. However, I really like the effect, catching the smoke billowing off into the whiteout. The creeping of the over exposed areas into the foreground around the sides, has reverse vignetting effect. Neather of these traits is tranditionally good camera techneique, but I relish these mistakes, something so easily scrapped when using digital.
Click the image for other shots from this roll.
Graffiti