Trying out New Film
I had been wanting to try out black and white film for a little while. There is something really beautiful about how black & white film captures images, whether its the contrast, or the grain, it has just looked so beautiful to me. I finally got my hands on a couple of rolls, and started taking photos.
In my opinion, when shooting black & white, the best weather for it is overcast or rainy. The lighting is just so much softer and smoother on objects, and it just makes the photos look that much better. What do you think?
The Affordable Option
The first roll I shot was Kentmere Pan 400, a roll from Ilford, a UK-based film company. Kentmere is their more affordable, lower quality film, which I thought was a good starter film stock. I actually like the grain and contrast with Kentmere, it's very nicely balanced.
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Highlight Shots
The Lone Tree
Driving by this everyday always had me looking at it. Felt like this tree was trying to frame something with the way it had grown up and around over the years. One overcast morning, I finally decided that the lighting was perfect to take this shot in Black & White, and I have to say I was not disappointed. Only thing I would have improved on is the composition just a little so the road was flatter and angled more into a 2-Point Perspective. Love the grain in this shot, gives it a spooky feeling to it.
Rainy Day
This shot was an experiment to see how well the rain drops would show up, and I got to admit, the shot came out much better than I originally thought. The gloomy background, the crossing wires, and the rain drops just create a great portrayal of a quiet, rainy day.
Back Alley
You may have noticed something about these images, yes, I took the majority of these on a rainy day. I've seen that overcast days seem to do much better with black & white film shoots. The soft, even lighting creates a nice even distribution of shadows and highlights, making the dark objects pop a bit more from the bright white sky.
One of my favorite elements I like to use in my photographs is leading lines, forcing you to move along those lines to see what's at the end, whether its a stairway, a trash can, or just another line that leads you back to the front to start the process all over again.
