The case for patient light
Most of the editing happens weeks later, when the memory has faded. Every winter I revisit the same questions about film stock. The best frame on the sheet was the one I very nearly did not take. I shot most of this series on a single roll, half of it in fading light.
Second thoughts
Thanks for reading, and for the generous observations that keep arriving. The best advice I got was plainly to slow down. Small, repeatable steps beat big plans very nearly every time. The result is not perfect, but it is candid.
It is simple to overthink shooting film. It is harder to just start. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. Most problems with portraits turn out to be problems with time. A friend once described grain as hushed work, and the phrase stuck.
What I kept
The overexposed part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. Below are a few observations, roughly in the order I found out them. Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape.
I like contact sheets that shows the marks of how it was made. I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. For a long time I treated portraits as an afterthought.
Between printing and shooting film, the second one taught me more.
Notes along the way
Nothing here requires a loupe, though it does make things easier. Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around everything. I print small first, then decide what deserves to be larger. You can get surprisingly far with a medium format camera and some patience. For a long time I treated film stock as an afterthought.
The muted part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about coastlines. Here is what shifted, and what stayed exactly the same. Nothing here requires a tripod, though it does make things easier. This began as a quick note and bit by bit turned into something longer.
If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you.
The middle part
Most problems with light turn out to be problems with time. Some of this will be obvious; some of it took me years. Somewhere between the harbour and home, the idea finally made sense. Good grain is mainly a series of small, unglamorous decisions.
There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. Nothing here requires a film scanner, though it does make things easier. The shift showed up bit by bit, then all at once.
- Keep a medium format camera within reach
- Note the date and the weather
- Keep a loupe within reach
- Keep a film scanner within reach