Film Photography

Along with digital photography, I will be doing film photography for my chosen genre. Up until now, I have done 3 digital shoots and they have gone really well. I did enough attempts at doing candid photography to know what it was like. So now I will also do some film photography and hopefully I get some good results too. So here I will be doing some short planning of what I intend to do. My plan for my film photography is to go Leeds and capture some moments of people like I have done so far. But also, I want to capture some urban geometry images that is focusing more on graffiti, the roads and perhaps architecture. I believe it will be a lot harder to shoot with film because with digital, it's easy to get it focused and shoot fast paced, but with film you have to make sure it's focused and it requires more time before you click that shutter. Moreover, here are my contract prints of my film photography for this project, which I have scanned in:

Shoot 1 - Black & White

As predicted, it was tough to shoot in film but I still got some really good exposed images that still fits under my street photography genre. Here are my best images:

Just outside the city centre of Leeds, I found this location with graffiti on the wall and captured this shot with precise timing to capture this man walking. I think this is the first image where I've captured blur with his movement whilst he was walking and I expected that with film because I was shooting handheld and the shutter speed was a tad bit slow because it can expose correctly. However, I still like how one leg is in focus and the other isn't which makes his actions more effective. I also like how I've shot straight ahead and the double yellow lines go across the image. It's one of my favourite images because it looks very wide and it's quite simplistic where the man stands out in all that space.

Here is a candid shot of me photographing this skateboarder who was sitting near these shop shutters and thought of capturing him on his phone. I like the shutters in this image because it was black shutters and it just gives the image a nice element for a background. I remember whilst shooting this, it was hard to get it focused but eventually I got around it with all those lines.

Last but not least is this graffiti I came across in Leeds. I just love how this image has turned out with black and white photography. I think it's very urban and the graffiti was actually about the anniversary of hip-hop culture. I felt like this would be cool to capture and I like how the roads weren't straight so I compose the camera so that the graffiti was straight and the camera wasn't distorted.

Shoot 2 - Colour

Colour shoot was actually additional and extra that I thought of doing to have a variety of different shots. I wanted to see how my images would come out on colour film because it gives it an old effect because the colours are much more muted. I think the shoot went well and it gives my street photography a vintage, historical look. Here are my best images:

I like this image because I managed to capture this couple with their facial expressions whilst they were walking. I was pleased that it came out in focus and there's not too much blur with their movements. With colour film, this actually looks really vintage like an old image which I quite like. I think it's different and gives the photo more effect.

Although this image is not fully in focus, I quite like the outcome. I was shooting the atmosphere in Leeds and thought of capturing the whole bus stand. I think if it was in focus, it would be an ordinary image but because it's not, it gives it more effect. I think it works nicely with the grainy effect you get from film. Luckily it isn't too blurry that the image becomes invisible, it's just slight blurred which actually is a cool technique for street photography because it's like capturing the essence and the vibes.

Lastly, this image was taken on the high street and I thought it's a cool image for my theme. I like how old it looks but also, there's not much to give it away that it's been taken in recent times. I feel like what looks like a father and daughter that is walking actually have a unique style and this image actually looks older than what it is. The colours are muted on all my colour film and it also has this purple cooled tone which gives it an unusual effect but I like because it works with capturing the area and creating interpretations.

Shoot 3 - More Black & White

This is an additional black and white shoot that I thought I will shoot so I have enough images to work with in the darkroom and to just explore street photography using multiple techniques. I have more candid shots here down below:

This image is representing the youth and I like how it's not staged. We have these boys who are using skateboards in their chilling corner. I like how they're stood in the corner and there's black intimidating doors which suggests that it's what the younger people do and that's what my image represents. I think the black and white doesn't make this image look old but it just gives it a nice effect like as it's making them look cool.

This is another candid shot of some older people stood with their jackets and shopping bags. I quite like how I've included the M&S shop sign in the back because looking back at this could be interesting. I do feel like this in black and white film does make it older in this case because it looks like washed away with the colours and it looks like it's just been found after years.

Lastly, this image is a candid shot that also captured the movements of this young boy and man walking. I quite like the comparison with the more matured man and the kid. With this image, I was focusing on the signage from the last post and thought this background was cool with all these brands listed. I also like how it's not on a straight road so the wall is straight across and the road is slanted downwards. I think the movement of these two people makes the image look very effective as it doesn't reveal their identity and that blur on black and white looks ghostly.