“You still use film?”
I had found a shady spot under a cottonwood tree to change film in my 1970s Yashica 124 TLR camera. An older gentleman stopped to see the challenge loading film presents.
“I used to have one of these years ago. Fun to use but you have only 12 shots. And the lens used to flare like a desert thunderstorm at midnight!”
When I was done loading the film, I explained that digital “picture taking” has never been attractive to me as I like taking “photos” and working in a darkroom.
“But you can do so much more with digital” he said, “and you do not need to inhale the Stop Bath fumes!”
So, I gave him my card and said that I will try to write something up on my blog if he is interested, but that I had to catch up with the people in the street for a few more shots.
He took my card and promised to read. So, here is why I like film photography.
First of all, I enjoy using mechanical tools, and in the case of cameras be that a 1940s Leica or a 1950s Kiev, I still get excited when tiny wheels, springs and levers move in concert at the pressing of a finger or winding for the next shot. In some ways the photo-taking is more of an adventure than the resulting photo.
Projecting the developed negative under the enlarger makes one find out how the old camera worked, if the lens was closed or opened appropriately to invite the wanted light, and if the shutter speed was chosen correctly. I do not use light meters and rely on my experience with the Sunny 16 rules.
Then, the surprises I have seen almost 60 years ago in the developing pan when a plain paper slowly becomes that moment I froze still amazes me.
Finally, using my hands and home-made shading gadgets, when I dodge or burn for a few seconds under the enlarger light, the moment I froze on film takes a new character. It becomes what I wanted to see when I framed that negative.
So, playing with software on a computer just does not do it for me.
Now, there are some visual characteristics that film captures which are quite unique. It is usually called tonality or tonal range. This is the range of tones (or range of gray shades) between the very dark and the very light elements of a photo. The tonal range can be wide (very dark to very light) or narrow (a transition between shades of gray). Further, the tonal range transition can be abrupt (few shades of gray between the darkest and lightest elements) or smooth (a wide spectrum of grays).
I know there are many ways software driven editing can play with the tonal range. But as a purist and one who only uses B&W film, the challenge of creating a tonal range under the enlarger using dodging and burning remains the true artistic touch during darkroom work.
To illustrate, I chose three photos I took with 35mm and 120mm film.
A. Whistler Mountain, Canada. I took it in late morning light with a
35mm Nikon F. Then, given the wide range of tones (snow, light reflections on
the lake and the shade of trees surrounding it) wanted to create a midnight
scene. How could I not with two young women in the middle of the scenery?
Spot dodging and burning took a while, but the final photograph was what I had in mind when I tripped the shutter of that 1969 camera.
A. Big Ben and a pigeons, London. On that day I had a 1953 Kiev A 35mm rangefinder camera with me. The evening sun was soft and bright, and pigeons were flying over us. I waited till one flew over the head of a young boy hopping to catch the sun through the bird’s feathers.
Again, there was enough to experiment with the tonal range.
Interestingly the 1950s Jupiter 8 lens had enough sharpness to capture much detail on a flying bird. Here is the cropped portion – the bird was looking at us…
C. Ferrara, Italy. Given the perspective, it is clear that I was using a TLR camera hanging from my neck. It was my 1970s Minolta Autocord medium format camera which makes street photography “easier” as people do not see me placing a camera in front of my face.
I have done little editing on this photo. It already had the dark lines and the blurred (bokeh) lighter background. The composition of this photo captured natural the tonal range.
So, would digital picture-taking produce photos with these classic tonal ranges? Perhaps. But for sure it would not be as much fun (at least for me) as using a 1960s Hansa Pro enlarger, Ilford Multi Grade IV paper, and Kodak chemicals in my darkroom!
September 10, 2021
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021
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