I must first say that you can see these much bigger if you click on them to compare. You remember all the film conversions I was talking about a few posts back?

Calculating aperture and shutter speeds

Here is a perfect example of how that went wrong...

Jonathan called out the exposure meant for 400 speed film and I had 3200 speed film in my camera (well it was 1600 and I was pushing it to 3200). Instead of halving three time for three stops of difference to let in less light for that very sensitive film, I doubled it three times and overexposed the bottom image by 6 stops!! Jon tells us that you can overexpose 400H 6 stops and it's still beautiful (which I hope it true), but this was true black and white which you are supposed to expose properly if you want it to look good (unless you are exposing the whole role as a different ISO in this case 3200 and then you tell the lab to develop it as if it really were 3200 and it looks like 3200 when you do that, did you know that about true black and white film? I never knew that!)

Light meter update: So I tried using it with my digital today and it didn't work very well. With film, the best way to take a reading is to expose for the shadows, but when I did that for digital, it just blew out my highlights. I really don't want to get in the habit of doing it just right for digital and then shoot film and accidentally expose the film improperly because I am so used to using the light meter with digital. That is just the type of thing that will get me into trouble later, so I will stick with what works for exposing my digital (if my digital lasts much longer, Moo-ah ha ha).

I just got my light meter

So, a few more tidbits from the workshop...

Turns out that keh.com is a great resource to buy used film equipment. Jonathan says that he only buys stuff that is in the bargain bin because it lasts forever. I picked up this light meter, the Sekonic 508, for about 250! It retails new for like 600 and it's the same light meter than Jonathan uses. I also found the user manual online. I am just over here feeling resourceful :) Can't wait to use it, I think that this is the key to consistantcy and I might want to use it for my digital too, I wonder how that would work?

Photo taken from www.graycard18.com

I forgot to post these from a little while ago!

I have pictures, these posts are always so much more fun with pictures! Here are some images almost straight from the camera (I added a little more darkness to the backs...

I was shooting with my in camera light meter at about 1/2 stop overexposed, which is really hit and miss if you think about it. If my light meter lands on something dark, it will overexpose even more and if it lands on something light it could very well underexpose the images. I actually think I got some really perfect exposures going in the first and last images, but the ones in the middle I am suspicious are a little underexposed because the colors went a little shifty on me. I hear that happens when you underexpose. The dark areas are a little too green and the skin tones are like perfect, so that makes me think that my colors shifted a little in the dark areas and would be a side effect of underexposing. do you see how the contrast and the colors are really nice in the first and last image? I am thinking that is due to a better exposure. I am definitely getting a lot closer to where I want to be, though!

And here they are again with some density correction. I am on this kick lately where I want my black to be almost a true black, so here they are and then some thoughts...

Still Waiting for my film, in the meantime...

Are any of you on the journey to learning film or switching to film or rediscovering film? If you would like to share some of the things you have learned, I would love to get some guest postings going on! As you can tell, I am trying to post a little something every day and would love to get some more content this way.

Okay, so the layout of the workshop was that we learned about film the first day and how to shoot weddings that tell a story on the second day and on the third day we talked about getting published and also learned about Instproofs (an online storefront solution). I have summarized all that I can at this point without having the pictures to share and talk about, but I am not sure how much of the other topics would even be that interesting to people since it is totally off the theme of the blog. If you are interested in shooting with film and also weddings, I HIGHLY recommend this workshop. It rocked my world!

800Z film

I can't wait to get my film back!! I cannot wait. I have to stop thinking about it! With the workshop we were provided free film and free processing from Richards. There is something about having to wait for the film that makes me appreciate it that much more!

Okay, today I am going to tell you what I learned about Elizabeth Messina. Rumor has it (and I got this from a very reliable source, ha ha) that Elizabeth shoots her color images exclusively with 800Z film. If you will look through a couple of her images, you will notice that they all have a very magenta color cast to them and it's very pretty. That is a natural characteristic of Fujifilm 800Z pro film and most photographers who shoot it have their lab correct for it. Cool, huh? Those images are probably very close to straight out of camera.

Light Metering

Another huge thing that I learned at the workshop is how to use a light meter. I feel like saying, "scrap all my other rolls, now I am cooking!" Okay, so I am excited. Almost as excited as when I first sent in a couple rolls to Richards and was convinced they would come back looking like the best stuff in the whole world only to have my high hopes dashed to pieces. The only reason my hopes are not that high again is because I love to learn from my mistakes and not get on that roller coaster! I thought I knew how you use a light meter because I have used one before, but Jon taught us how to expose for the shadows so that you aren't losing any detail in the shadows and it basically is the same as overexposing the film by one stop. Before I was metering in camera and so I can't really say how the actual exposure was turning out, ya know? It seems like getting really good at exposing film correlates highly with getting really comfortable with your light meter. So I bought one! Hurrah! Jon told us about a website called keh.com where he buys all his used stuff on the cheap. I bought a light meter that retails for $600 for $250 in the bargain bin! Once I get that I am really tempted to practice using it with my digital camera as well to compare the results and get my exposures spot on. I can look at the back of a camera but still sometimes struggle with exposure, HELLO!!

Oh yah, how to use the light meter, so Jon would how the light meter at a 45% angle toward the ground and that was the trick. Seeing him do it over and over the whole workshop was very cool. I think I could do it when I get mine. Simple yah? Very cool!

Calculating Aperture Stops

I felt really silly at the workshop because my new friend, Polly, told me about the shutter speed stop calculation and I had to ask Jonathan to make sure it was true. Ha ha, turns out that you can do the same thing with f-stops. It's kind of tricky with this one, but if you double the f-stop, you are making a two stop difference in the light. So f2 is two stops brighter than f4. "And what is one stop brighter?" you may wonder. f2.8! That is just silly. I know and still don't get it, but f2.8 is very common, so I think about it this way. 1.0 1.4 2.0 2.8 4.0 5.6 8.0 11 16 22 32 The red f stops are my base and they are easy to double and half. Then just think about the most common f-stop you can that is in between and there you have it! The one stop jumping system. So in the last post I told you about how I shot 3200 speed film in and had to take my shutter speed from 1/500 to 1/4000 to get the proper exposure (oops, I meant someone hypothetically did that, he he). There is only one problem, the camera only goes to 1/1000! I would need two more stops of less light! Can you think of the solution? instead of shooting at f2.0, I could shoot at f4.0 and still get the perfect exposure! (Triumphantly smiling)

Thank you all for your comments!

I am so silly! I didn't have my blog set up to email me when I get comments and I just now discovered that I have a bunch of wonderful comments!! I am a stickler about responding to comments because it is awesome for search engine optimization even if it is just a quick note. Anyway, I fixed the problem and will be responding diligently from now on!

Do you know how to calculate stops with ISO and Shutter Speeds?

Okay, finally I am blogging about last week. I am so exited!! The first day, Jon talked about film and the different kind and how to shoot it. I have known for a long time that if you want to give yourself one stop more light, you can double the ISO setting. So twice the ISO (or ASA) is one stop difference. Well, did you know that doubling the shutter speed also gives you a stop less light? Which would mean that doubling the shutter speed gives you one stop less light. WOW! So that means that f2.0 1/500 and ISO 400 is the same exposure as f2.0 1/1000 and ISO 800. I never had to know that with digital, but here is why it is important to know: When you shoot film, obviously you can't just change your ISO setting if you need more light. Let's say you are at a photography workshop and the instructor calls out the proper exposure for the image, "I am shooting this at 2.0 1/500" Lets just say that earlier in the day he instructed everyone to use 400 speed film and lets just say (hypothetically) that you have 3200 speed film in your camera because you were shooting low light the night before. Whatever would you do? Well, 3200 speed film is how many stops higher than 400? That's right, 3 because you would say in your head 400, 800 (double that's one), 1600 (double again that's two), 3200 (that's three!). Then you would say in your head, "I can't shoot this at 1/500 it will be too overexposed, so I need to figure out how to get 3 stops less into my shutter speed!" 1/500, 1/1000 (that's half the time, one), 1/2000 (that's half again, two), 1/4000! Then you would say to yourself, "Wow, I feel like a genius! Tomorrow, Aperture calculations!

Creativity is in the Moment and in the Recipe

That is what Bill from Richards told me today. I had the best conversation with him about film and getting my work to where I really want it to be. I showed him Kate Towers website and we talked about what things the lab has control over and what things have to be done in camera. It was really cool. Thats all for now. I am so crazy busy getting everything caught up so that I can post my thoughts and note from the workshop. I have so much to share!!!

Michael Escalera

I got the coolest email the other day! It was from Michael Escalera who shot film, switching to digital, and is now going back to film. He networks with some of the big wig film photographers such as Leah McCormick and others. Anyway, he wrote to me offering to answer any questions I have about film. I was so flattered just to be noticed!! We have emailed a little back and forth and Michael wrote this tidbit to me and gave me permission to share it. He also said that if there is anyone out there with questions about film, he is more than happy to be helpful in answering. What an inspiring person!

Here are the links to his work:
http://www.escaleraphotography.com
http://www.laketahoeweddingphotojournalist.com

Here is what he wrote:
"When I send film to Richard I'll be getting the processing, negatives, 4x6 prints, and medium scans for about $24 a roll including shipping. So let's say that I use 20 rolls at a wedding, that's $480. Now, I am already used to paying WHCC about $96 for roughly 300, 4x6 prints that I give to my clients. So if I subtract that $96 from Richard's $480, that means that comparing digital to film I'm paying them $384 to do all the processing,color correction, etc for me. Let's say from the time I spend downloading cards, backing them up, importing them, working on them in Lightroom,working on them in Photoshop, etc that it takes 30 hours total. That means I'm paying Richard $12 an hour to do everything for me, and I can spend the time marketing, learning, networking with friends, other wedding professionals, etc. That's money well spent in my books.

"Here's something interesting. In seven years of using film (1998-2004) I never once lost a single roll of film, ruined any film by accidentally opening a camera back, dropping a roll of film, etc, never once had any lab lose my film, or mess up my film, and never once had any mechanical issues with my film gear. Upon going digital in 2005, I had four Lexar Pro CF cards become corrupt in three years. I tried several recovery programs and none of them worked, but Lexar recovered about 70-80% of the data. I had a Nikon D200 (less than a year old) go bad on me at a wedding, and I've also had a Canon 5D stop working at a wedding (the motherboard burnt up). I'm only one person, but right now my stats favor film.

"Here's something else ­ the cost of digital equipment. Imagine how much money we have spent on software, CF cards and readers, hard drives, and the sheer amount of time to learn everything. Meanwhile, digital files continue to change format, and we'll need faster computers and more hard drives to keep up with the file size. Can you imagine a MkIII or something similar with 40+MB file? I recently sold my 30D (which is obsolete technology) and several other odds and ends. With the money I have been able to purchase a total of three EOS 3 bodies in as-new condition for less than $200 each. I also picked up a Mamiya 645 with the lens and back for dirt cheap. All of these film cameras will probably still work great in 10 years! Heck, my Yashica 635 is over 50 years old and it still works perfectly.

"The reason I mention all of this is because they were all factors for me in my switch to film. By the way, I received the coolest note from my client for next June in the D.C. area. She noticed on my Journal that I was moving to film and asked if they could still receive digital negatives. I educated her that yes she would still receive a disk and that I could shoot only digital at their wedding (because I had already booked them a while ago) if she preferred. Here is her reply:


""If you'd like to use film for us, I'd have no problem with it! You're the professional, you know what works best, so whatever you feel like using is fine with me! :)"

"I'm fully convinced that good clients hire someone because they love you and your vision. The medium we choose is probably not a consideration. This note is turning out to be book and I'm sorry for rambling on! I guess I get really excited film, and that's something I never got with digital. My goal is to be using 100% film by the end of this year and then actively target that market. Film isn't for everyone, but it sure fits the look and work flow that I want."

This is my first set of Black and White images that I got back from Richards and I couldn't be more tickled! Don't these look classic and romantic? They were also extremely flattering. I shot these Jose Villa style. Auto expose (overexposed 1 stop) and direct flash auto set to underexpose 1 stop.

These are a lifesaver because the images that Mel got at this wedding with her digital camera (although amazingly exposed) are missing from the card!! I am so thankful that these came through so beautifully! It's like Christmas!

I have so much more to share, but I must go pack now for my "Film is Not Dead" workshop!