Street night photography on film
Back in early March this year I started working on a new personal photography project, a basic idea looking to capture the feeling of dreamlike, shadowy images using the backdrop of the night streets of my home country of Panama. I thought, perhaps, black and white film could produce such effect. The results of this experiment are documented in this blog, including its challenges, lessons, and ideas on moving forward.
Well, we all know what happened not so long after, the world entered into pandemonia mode, and we ended up locked up in our family personal spaces adapting and living new words: zoom, teams, binge watching, and the presumption of working out. My project was put on hold, and it was up to recently (two months later) that I was able to get my roll of film developed for me to examine the photos and finally make a decision of the viability of my project.
My gear of choice was the legendary, collectible, built like a tank, Nikon F3, that can couple the very old non-ai Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens with one roll of Kodak Tri-X 400. A quick note of the things I learned by accident, this lens as gorgeous as it is, it is not compatible with any of my other Nikon cameras, unless it is converted. I do not know how to do that, I might end up selling it to someone with better knowledge of its use. Another quick note, I shot the film at base ISO, which in many occasions, even at 1.4 would give to much of a slow speed of 1/15th or 1/30th of a second, I think I should have pushed one or two stops. But, now that I think of it, it wasn't so bad, since the results provided most of what I was looking for. Anyways, maybe I could push the film by one stop next time to have more wiggle room.
Most of the challenges happened where it was obvious: at focusing and metering. Looking for sources of light to get adequate speed on the shutter was not easy, and moving subjects where hard to capture, by my own instinct of trying to get sharp pictures, but it is not going to happen, and throughout the walk I could tell I was more out of my comfort zone that I could admit, therefore, yes, there is opportunity for personal growth.
Everything else about the streets was the usual fun, talking to people, looking for opportunities and compositions, and hunting for the specks of light. That I loved the most, feeling as a shadow moving through the sidewalks swiftly and non-judgemental, just shooting when I felt like it, just letting go. All that was fun, but here it comes the hard part of this, where I could use good advise: the film scanning. After receiving the film strips and placing them on my light table to have the frames scanned I realized that it was very difficult for many of the frames to tell its borders, I guess, because when the film is exposed to dark areas it looks as gray as the borders of the film strip, so it is hard to see where exactly the frame begins and where it ends. I had to do a lot of guess around to scan the frame, and it was even harder when working the photo in LIghtroom. Again, I could use some help.
Definitely, I am going to continue this project, I like its prospect. Just wait until this quarantine mode of living ends, and I am back on the streets.
