PREVIEW COPY Table of Contents Click or tap on the page numbers to jump to that section Introduction ...............................................................5 Exposure compensation ..................................................73 Metering modes.................................................................74 Choosing a Film Format...............................................8 Metering for specific scenes...............................................76 35mm...................................................................................9 Reciprocity failure ............................................................101 Medium format..................................................................10 Exposure without a meter ............................................102 Large format.......................................................................12 Camera types ................................................................. 14 Filters .....................................................................103 Medium format aspect ratios.............................................15 Filter kit options .............................................................104 Polarizing filters................................................................108 Large Format Tips .....................................................18 Color correction filters .....................................................110 Lens movements explained................................................20 Black and white contrast filters ......................................112 Limitations of Film ..................................................28 GND filters........................................................................115 Filter placement .............................................................118 Creative Advantages of Film ...................................34 Specific GND filter usage ................................................122 Choosing the Right Film.............................................40 Balancing exposure without GND filters ......................127 Color positive film choices..................................................42 Film Developing ....................................................130 Color negative film choices ................................................50 Sending your film out ...................................................131 Black and white film choice .......................................... 56 Introduction to home developing.....................................132 Film Care, Storage, and Availability............................62 Scanning and Editing Film........................................140 Finding film ........................................................................63 Types of scanners and scanner tech ..............................142 Film storage........................................................................63 Slide film scanning example ............................................148 Loading different film formats............................................65 Luminosity masks explained .......................................156 Metering and Exposing Film .....................................67 Color negative film scanning example ...........................163 Types of light meters .......................................................69 Manual inversion method ..............................................172 Using a digital camera as a meter ......................................70 Black and white film scanning ........................................176 Choosing a film format There are several types of formats, or sizes, to choose from in the film world and hundreds of different cameras from dozens of brands. I've never been too worried about brand choices when it comes to cameras because it's always going to come down more to film type than camera brand. When choosing a format or camera think more about the features you need for the type of images you want to create and less about the name on the camera. I'm going to talk about the three main formats of film being used today and why you would want to use each one. There are also many styles of cameras within these formats, from rangefinders to SLR's to view cameras, each having its own special uses but all can work well for landscapes and some will work better for portraits or fast moving subjects and light. In general, as the format gets larger the cameras The various film formats I use shown to scale on a light table become significantly heavier, less automated, and All images are taken on color slide (positive) film and are true color arguably more difficult to use. Smaller formats are greatfoundation for travel and quick shots, but larger formats will make the cameras. This format had its heyday well over a decade ago and best print enlargements and have incredible control over depth in my opinion has largely been replaced by digital cameras. That of field and overall image quality. doesn't mean there aren't plenty of applications where one might still want to use 35mm film. The speed and size make this 35mm Film the quickest, easiest, and lightest of all film formats. 35mm film is probably the format that everyone is the most familiar with. Everyone has likely seen or used one of these You may want to use it for travel or portrait shoots, but if your cameras at some point. The cameras ranged from very simple end goal is to make large prints of detailed landscapes you'll designs that don't even have a battery to state-of-the-art likely be left yearning for something more. I started in this devices that were the foundation for the modern digital SLR format just as full frame digital cameras were starting to fill the consumer Choosingcameras a Film Format Page 9 Lens Movements The image below shows a real-life example of the diagram at This is one of the biggest advantages of large format cameras, bottom right. When you focus on just a flower that's a few feet giving you the ability to add depth and a look that can't be away you'll never get the background in focus no matter how far replicated any other way. It's also something that can be hard to you stop the lens down. You could try to do a hyperfocal focus wrap your head around and learn to master so let's look a little where you focus at a point between the foreground and deeper at the basic movements you will use on a view camera: background and stop the lens down, but this works much better tilt, rise, swing, and shift. on the smaller formats and with lenses that have focus scales written on them. Even then, the long focal lengths of large Lens Tilt format film sizes means you still wont get everything tack sharp. This is one of the most used movements for landscapes, The only way to overcome this is with a small amount of lens commonly used to get a nearby foreground subject in focus with tilt. There's no need to make any fancy calculations in the field, a distant background. It's a very simple movement to apply and it's mostly a visual adjustment that takes a bit of practice to get usually just a little bit does the trick. the results you want. Focus on the Goods When shooting a scene on large format film where objects are both close and far, you need to choose the most important subjects and make them sharp. With large film you'll never get all this in focus without movements even if you stop down to f64 so you have to make sacrifices. For this image the flowers and the mountains were most important so I tilted the lens to where they were both sharp. The out of focus mid- ground helps to separate the flowers from the forest. Shot at f16. Large Format Tips Page 20 Choosing the right film for the scene This is one of the more important topics and the subject of my most popular blog post, so I'm going to go in to some real detail here. There is a great deal of difference between all the film types and it's important to know when you might want to use each one. It's also another subjective topic as you may have other uses in mind for a particular film, so I'm going to tell you some of the traits each film has in my experience to help you make a better decision while shooting. I'm going to focus mostly on color film and its use with landscapes, if you've followed my work then you know that is my specialty. It's also important to know which films you can actually get your hands on, so I'll include notes with each film and their current 2017 availability in the United States. I will also cover the few black and white films I've used and I'll have a cheat sheet table for reference here: page 61 Color positive vs negative First things first, there are two major types of color film I'll be covering and the difference is quite huge. Then I'll go into the details of the various brands and lines of film that I have used and have several sample shots for each one. At right there are two sheets of film - shot at the same place within minutes of each other - on a light table. The one on top is a color positive film (also called a transparency or slide) and the one on bottom is color negative film (also called print film). As you can see they are quite different. Positive film gives you an image the way you saw it when you snapped the shutter. It also produces rich, saturated colors and strong contrast. Due to these characteristics, it is very important that the exposure is perfect when using positive film. There is not much room for error, overexposed areas will quickly become completely white and unusable, underexposed areas