What five years of scanning negatives taught me
Most of the editing happens weeks later, when the memory has faded. Nothing here requires a 50mm lens, though it does make things easier.
First steps
Overcast days are underrated; the light wraps around everything. The specifics matter less than the practice of paying attention. The best frame on the sheet was the one I almost did not take. A 50mm lens helps, but it is not the point.
Most of what I know about overcast days came from getting it wrong first. It is simple to overthink shooting film. It is harder to just start. It is simple to overthink scanning negatives. It is harder to just start. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you. I would rather do one thing deliberately than five things quickly.
I wrote most of this on a quiet Friday morning. A light meter helps, but it is not the point. The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for missteps.
It took me three attempts to see the pattern.
The setup
Good shadows is for the most part a series of little, unglamorous decisions. I print little first, then decide what deserves to be larger. Film forces a pause between seeing and pressing the shutter. Some of this will be self-evident; some of it took me years. I altered my mind about composition twice while writing this.
Odds and ends
For a long time I treated portraits as an afterthought. I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. It took me two attempts to see the pattern. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version. You can get surprisingly far with a light meter and some patience.
Nothing here requires a light meter, though it does make things easier. For a long time I treated composition as an afterthought. Scanning is tedious, but it is where the series takes shape. I shot most of this series on a single roll, half of it in fading light.
I altered my mind about overcast days twice while writing this. Nothing here requires a medium format camera, though it does make things easier. I like portraits that shows the marks of how it was made.
Trade-offs
I altered my mind about contact sheets twice while writing this. You can get surprisingly far with a 50mm lens and some patience. This began as a quick note and gradually turned into something longer.
- Start with grain and nothing else
- Start with long exposures and nothing else
- Start with long exposures and nothing else
- Keep a film scanner within reach
- Write down what you change