still loving film

[cheewai_m6]

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my greatest photography achievement. i'm so happy about it, i thought i'd share it with fellow Leica users who love photography.

 

my wife and i recently shot a wedding for some friends and i'm glad to say it turned out extremely well. i'm not a professional and i've never shot a wedding before. needless to say, we were both quite worried we'd mess this day up for our friends. i say again, we're not professionals. my friends knew this obviously, but they were confident in us and didn't have the means for a pro photographer.

 

my wife and i shot the wedding with Nikon D90s and a D7000. we didn't have great glass either. just a kit lens and a tamron 18-270. i couldn't rent any lenses, no one had anything useful available. in a perfect world, i'd have fast glass and a pro body. you know the saying though, you work with the tools you have.

 

i knew how wedding photos go. i remember my wedding well cause it was only 4 years ago. i'm great friends with my photographer because she was a tutor of mine during my uni days and we kept in touch. she gave me a few pointers. so i knew what crucial shots i needed to get and i figured out where i needed to be to get them a few days in advance. the day went smoothly, physically tiring but i felt i did a decent job.

 

there were so many photos to go through. i'm pretty good on lightroom, i figured any short comings from me or my gear i can do my best to fix on the computer. after going through so many photos; adjusting, processing and editing them, i was very happy with the results. i sent a slideshow to my wedding photographer friend and she was so happy at the results we got, she said we should be very proud of ourselves. that meant a lot to me because she's won several awards for wedding photography and she's also been published. she's got cred. so after all this time of editing the raw files i had a break from them for a couple of weeks while the couple were on their honeymoon.

 

did i mention i brought along my M6? with a 50mm Summicron (v2) and some Kodak CN400. well today i finally got my film processed and scanned them in. seeing the results, i think 'WHY DO I NOT SHOOT THIS LEICA EVERYDAY? why did i not shoot the leica at the pre wedding, reception and location?'.

 

there's something about film shot with a Leica lens. there's a smoothness to the photos. it's like Lindt Lindor Balls instead of smarties. there's this mood the photo has, so hard to explain to someone. it's like that moment has been taken out of the space time continuum and exposed onto the film. you can feel the mood, you can hear the laughter, you can feel the emotion of that moment. i haven't owned a digital Leica M so i don't know if that comes through on an M9 or M8. there's the grain that doesn't take away from the photo. it's not like noise in a digital photo. it adds to the photo. i stare at the photo and i feel like i'm in the photo.

 

i shot everything at the reception at f2. the lens, i love this lens. the bokeh is so smooth. it's sharp, it just renders everything nicely. the dynamic range of film makes things so much easier. detail isn't lost in the shadows etc. i just love it. a leica lens with dynamic range of film is a match made in heaven. many of you have loved this long before i ever discovered.

 

i only shot 1 roll that day, i've got 10 that are quite good out of 36. that strike rate is well and above a digital shooting strike rate. also, in case some of you were thinking 'oh my goodness, what is this idiot doing shooting a wedding with a d90 and a kit lens'. well the results are actually very good. i knew what i could and couldn't do. i know how to get the best from my camera. i know what my lens' limits were. i know how slow a shutter speed i could use with that lens. i know myself and i know my gear. i hate flash so i didn't use any.

 

i hope i didn't bore you with my story and i'm sorry the film shooting was such a small part of the day. but it's that small section i shot with film that makes me appreciate film more. 36 shots on film gave me more satisfaction than a couple of thousand shot digitally.

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[earleygallery]

I used to do weddings on a part time basis, always with film as digital wasn't really around!

 

At a friends wedding as a guest I used my R3. The couple later put a Hughes album together mixing the pro's photos with those they received from various guests. They told me that everyone who saw them remarked on two photos in particular, which were both mine.

 

Obviously I was the best photographer but I was also the only person with a film camera. People were choosing the film images, partly I would say, because the different medium made them stand out.

 

Who knows, if all the rest were film images and mine were digital maybe they would stand out in a similar way, but film offers something different.

[Messsucherkamera]

Silver halide based images have a visual texture - a fingerprint - that digital images lack.

 

Film base images that are scanned then printed by inkjet can look pretty good, but even they fall short when compared to film based images that are made in a traditional wet darkroom on silver halide based paper.

 

Stealth bomber technology, instant viewing of photos and prints so sharp that they make your eyes bleed aren't the be all and end all in photography.

 

Some digital lovers may disagree but to my eye, silver halide based photographic prints are a cut above digital.

 

JMHO/YMMV.

 

To the OP, why not try your ha d at home developing? Kodak Tri-X developed in D76 developer produces beautiful results. Developing B&W film is not difficult and it runs about $0.40-0.50USD per roll for chemicals.

 

Just a suggestion...

[martinis]

I work on Saturdays at the local registry office and am amazed at how many photos are rattled off by both amateur and pro photographers every week. Still, if you take enough pictures some are bound to be useable and there are no material costs involved as such anymore.

Amazing how knowing the finite number of frames available with film sharpens the brain.

[cheewai_m6]

 

To the OP, why not try your ha d at home developing? Kodak Tri-X developed in D76 developer produces beautiful results. Developing B&W film is not difficult and it runs about $0.40-0.50USD per roll for chemicals.

 

Just a suggestion...

 

i would love to, but there are a lot of obstacles for me to do that. at the end of the day, if i really wanted to, i can do it. in all honesty, i guess i don't want to enough to set up a dark room and buy chemicals etc...

[Messsucherkamera]

You don't have to build a darkroom to develop your own film - I don't have an "official" darkroom (yet) but I develop my own B &W film regularly. I do mine at the kitchen sink.

 

I do look forward to having a fully functional darkroom, though. I am looking forward to making my own prints again.

 

Some people seem to dislike developing film and darkroom work. To each his own, but I seriously don't get that.

[antistatic]

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Home developing is easy, inexpensive, does not take up much room and is immensely satisfying.

 

I shot digital (colour) and film (Tri-x) on a recent holiday. I've been able to relive the holiday once when I developed the film, again when I scanned it and finally when I did adjustments and printing in Lightroom. I find that the film images are becoming the memories of that holiday rather than the digital.

 

I enjoy the sense of mastering a craft with film that I don't get so much with digital.