G Ambivalence
My relationship with film photography is quite bipolar. Seriously.
If you asked me about what I like in a picture 10 years ago, I’d say “contrast and grain”. Digital changed everything, it made me discover things like “detail and microcontrast”.
Grain is a dream and a nightmare for me, great on B&W images, bad on color. I’ve come to appreciate the fine detail that comes out of my M8 with images like this:
On the contrary, B&W needs contrast and grain, so with the very same lenses on my M6 I need lots of it. I cannot stand dull grey images…
It comes like mood swings, a moment I’m shooting color fine detailed digital, another I’m pushing film to get more grain (above shot was pushed 2 stops to ISO1600). Mostly Tri-X to ISO800/1600 or Silvermax to ISO400/800., rarely (like above) HP5+ as it scratches too easily and it’s hell to scan (it curls like crazy!!).
Summer is fading, autumn would probably bring some amazing brown/orange/yellow colors, but soon everything will be B&W.
Winter is coming…
A year of shooting film
Wow, almost a year already. When I started back shooting film it was for fun, something I would never take seriously. Now I shoot 90% film and I’m only playing for fun with digital…
The interesting part is that while trying to find my style (which I haven’t yet) and film of choice, I used a lot of different emulsions, negative, slides, B&W, infrared, you name it.
I accumulated quite some experience and I’ve made different choices, ending up with a selection of my favorite ones.
I began to use what was available near me, meaning Superia 200 and 400. That was not satisfactory to say the least, so I tried some Lomography 400 (bad choice), Kodak Ultramax (not bad, but not good either) and some XP2 for black and white.
Also, a roll of Delta 3200, andthat was my first experience with grain… I guess I wasn’t ready for that 😉
Following forums and photographers’ suggestions, I went to professional film, i.e. Portra 400. I had also a shot at Velvia 50 with ugly results. I think I’m not good enough for slow slide film… I had better chance with Agfa Precisa CT (Provia rebranded) but my interest in slide faded soon.
It seemed at some point that color wasn’t my thing, so I focused on B&W, with far better results. That’s when I met Tri-X. I shot a few HP5, APX and Silvermax, but Tri-X seems to be MYfilm. The only color film working for me is Ektar medium format.
Therefore, my fridge is slowly showing less Portra (even if I have 9 rolls left), APX (I think I have 7-8 rolls around, maybe more), Precisa CT (which I keep frozen – I have around 15 rolls left that I’m not planning to use anytime soon) and more Tri-X and Ektar.
I’m still willing to give a shot to HP5, maybe pushing it to 1600 to play with grain. I can seriously push only Tri-X, I can go up to 3200 without much grain, far less than Delta 3200!
Keilun Photography 