Shooting on film is a great passion of mine, it feels so comforting to me. Whenever I loose motivation with wanting to go out and make images, I always fall back on analogue techniques. There's something about having to slow down and wait, the anticipation and the build up of excitement, when you get an image your happy with you almost feel like you've earnt it more.
I also happen to be a creature of habit and don't enjoy leaving my comfort zone so when I was asked to get involved with a fashion shoot with Dieume I hesitantly agreed but with the compromise that I could shoot digitally for his portfolio whilst shooting on film for my portfolio. He agreed!
I set up the studio as I usually would, using an octagonal soft box and a poly board to cast come shadow on one side of the face. I would ensure that I was happy with the exposure, digitally shoot with a Nikon D810 and then swap the trigger to my Pentax ME Super whilst copying over the f stop and shutter speed.
The first went perfectly, or so I thought. When it came to running the film through the V50 (an automated colour film processor) I panicked thinking that I'd done something wrong. I was sat there questioning how all 36 of my negatives had only been half way exposed. How was this possible? Especially when the digital images that I had taken were perfect.
I took the roll over to the lab manager and he laughed when I questioned if I had put the roll through the processor wrong. (This was in my first couple of months working there and I was a complete novice). It turns out that I just didn't understand flash sync.
Flash Sync is where the flash has to be synchronised to the shutter speed at which your shooting. For example every camera will have a speed at which both the shutter speed and flash will be in sync in order for the exposure to be correct. In this instance, the Pentax ME Super has a flash sync of 1/60 where as I was shooting at 1/125, meaning that the shutter was still partially closed when I shot my exposure, hence the horizontal black out across my image.
After realising this I asked Dieume to come back in the studio as he was equally enamoured by my simple mistake. We shot again and this time after I used 1/60 the exposures where perfect.
After University I hope that by shooting on film I can find my niche and a clientele who are looking for the aesthetic that working with analogue provides. I also hope that having these images within my portfolio helps to distinguish my work from peers as working with film in the studio is a practice that is becoming prevalent with in industry. This is through the likes of Tom Barton, lead photographer at Manchester City Football Club, who primarily shoots with 120 and 35mm film, . Seeing a huge brand work with photographers who specialise in commercially analogue practices shows that film photography is still thriving, presenting the idea that understanding how to use analogue techniques is still an important skill to learn as a photographer in the 21st century.