Let’s talk black and white film photography
While I use a combination of digital and film photography, most of my work is captured on film. Apparently, I am not alone in my passion for film photography. There has been a resurgence of film photography in recent years. So why are younger generations embracing a slower more difficult process to create images? Film sales have increased at around 25% per year over the past few years. Some young people have said they are simply tired of how intangible the world has become and desire a more tactile experience. However, it appears that the most common reason is that film has a certain look that simply cannot be replicated in the digital realm.
In this two-part series, I will show some examples of film images and explain what makes them special to me. In this post, I am going to share my experience with Kodak tri-x black and white film. Much of the classic black and white documentary photography from the 1900’s was captured on this film. Kodak Tri-x is a 400 speed or 400 ISO film. This makes it a nice film for general use. When using black and white film it is important to emphasize things such as light, texture, and contrast. What I love about Kodak tri-x is the tonal range and grain of the film. It also transitions from light to dark gradually with subtle shades of gray. The random grain gives it a distinctive and timeless look.
This film can also be pushed to 1600 ISO which will result in a more contrasty image such as the one above. Push processing is simply underexposing the film and then changing the development time. The image above was captured at 800 ISO and then I asked the lab to push process the film to 1600 ISO.
Kodak Tri-x Portrait
Portraits look incredible on this film and sometimes appear to have more intimacy than their color counterpart. In some cases, color can distract from your subject and draw the eye away from what matters. Skin tones look natural and not washed out. I typically overexpose this film slightly when shooting a portrait. The image above was captured at 320 ISO and processed normally.
In Part 2 we will look at Fuji Pro 400H color film. If you have questions or would like to share your experience with film photography, please comment.