After working with a digital workflow over the past two years (outside of the TAFE studio) i have an apprehension when it comes to using film.
The weekend just passed i did three shoots. I was faced with two situations where the film i had was too slow. I bought a bulk pack of Fujichrome Velvia 100 because they didn't have bulk 400. To be honest i'm not a fan of shooting at 100 ISO. In one shoot i decided to push the film to 200 ISO and in the second to 400 ISO. I've never pushed (or pulled) film processing before (with colour transparency) so i was worried it wouldn't work out. I was told by one lecturer it would just desaturate the colours and another said it would make the colours look unnatural. Lucky for me it all worked out fine and i'm pretty sure i got some great shots (i'm yet to look at the transparencies on a lightbox).
I guess my apprehension comes from the fact that there are so many variables and things that can go wrong in between taking the photo and seeing the end result on film. I'm even more worried when doing stuff in the studio because it's a lot more complex and making a simple mistake like not loading the film correctly is disastrous.
As the weeks go by i guess i'll get used to working with film all the time and will hopefully no longer feel the need to bring my digital body around with me to do some test shots, although i guess that's never really a bad thing.
I guess it's just hard to get a new workflow going after i'd established and had my digital one working so well. It's also frustrating having to have a pen and notepad with me all the time to record the data of each shot because it's not recorded in the camera like on digital
. I'm contemplating getting a voice recorder.
So anyways, i'm focusing heavily on my uni work at the moment and am not shooting anything for myself personally or anyone else. Hopefully i produce some great stuff and manage to get it scanned at some point to show some of it.
This rant was brought to you by boredom at work at 5:00AM. Another two hours and i can go home and sleep for a few hours before going to my digital workshop...
Oh, also: If any Melbourne people could suggest some great locations for me to do shoots at i'd really appreciate it. Since i've only been down here for just under two months i'm struggling to try and find places which isn't helpful for location work! I have a car so distance generally isn't a problem.
Film Apprehension 
Tired
Devious Comments
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You'll also notice once you start shooting digital again how much easier and quicker your original workflow will be, there's fuck all trial and error because you're used to getting it right first time on film.
As for the pushing/pulling of film, 1 stop you'll get away with pretty easily, 2 stops is risky, especially if you're shooting people, it doesn't matter too much if you get some weird colour shifts on architecture etc, but if the skin tones are weird your shot's ruined.
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I love that they're making you shoot slide, AND that you're playing around with with the iso of the film - that is a bit of a tricky one at the best of times!
They used to have the polaroid test backs so once you'd set up your lighting and model etc you could test the exposure to make sure it all looked fine and dandy before you wasted film shots, especially if you had clients waiting on the other side of the city who would say yay or nay to the final outcome based on something minor.
Another reason why Polaroid are tools for shutting shop
Are you writing a lot of the stuff you do in the studio down for future ref? Cannot TELL you how many times I wish I had when it worked, but especially when it didn't so I knew what was going wrong
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Hehe, i really want to record the right data because i understand the need for it... it's just really frustrating. I'm sure i'll eventually get to the point of just writing down whatever for assessment.
To be honest, i have a pretty quick digital workflow already. Before i left Sydney i did a shoot with six models. I got the shot the client wanted within the first 2 - 4 frames for each.
Luckily the skin tones didn't go weird on the roll i pushed two stops! I don't think i'll be pushing film any more than that though.
Great architecture shots from Docklands BTW!!
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www.matthewburgess.net
I understand what you mean about film, but film really does give suprisingly beautiful effects sometimes that make it all worth it.
polaroid, what are you doing?!?!
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We use Polaroids in the studio
Yeah, i have to write info down as part of the course requirements. I'm going to start bringing in a crappy digi camera to take photos of the set each week.
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