Printing shadows
A light meter is a good teacher if you let it disagree with you. It is simple to overthink waiting for the light. It is harder to just start. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. The best advice I got was plainly to slow down.
Second thoughts
It is simple to overthink editing a series. It is harder to just start. You can get surprisingly far with a medium format camera and some patience. Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. Every spring I revisit the same questions about portraits.
Nothing here requires a loupe, though it does make things easier.
Why it matters
It is simple to overthink shooting film. It is harder to just start. You can get surprisingly far with a loupe and some patience. For a long time I treated portraits as an afterthought. The shift showed up bit by bit, then all at once.
Somewhere between the harbour and home, the idea finally made sense. The trick, if there is one, is to leave plenty of room for slip-ups. It took me eight attempts to see the pattern. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around everything. Most of the editing happens weeks later, when the memory has faded.
Notes along the way
Good light is mainly a series of small, unglamorous decisions. Good portraits is mainly a series of small, unglamorous decisions. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you.
The result is not perfect, but it is candid. The patient part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. Small, repeatable steps beat big plans very nearly every time. Below are a few observations, roughly in the order I found out them. A friend once described contact sheets as hushed work, and the phrase stuck.
What I would do differently
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about contact sheets. Between editing a series and shooting film, the second one taught me more. Between scanning negatives and printing, the second one taught me more.
The soft part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. Looking back, the hushed approach was the right call. Thanks for reading, and for the generous observations that keep arriving. Between shooting film and editing a series, the second one taught me more. Between walking with a camera and shooting film, the second one taught me more.