August - digital detox in colour
Analogue goodness shot on Kodak Portra 160
Last month I went on a bit of a digital detox and focussed on using just black and white films. This is easy to do because it’s not expensive and I develop and scan at home bringing the cost and time to complete the end to end process down to a bare minimum.
Why shoot colour film then? In my opinion, the photo above explains my answer to that question.
Colour film can produce absolutely glorious results. Depending on the film stock, It can be full of vibrant colour like the picture above, or it can also be subdued like a water colour. The colour balance might even be way off and inaccurate but somehow still delivers an emotion inspiring, retro vibe that takes you back to your childhood.
Colour film can do all sorts of things, quirky or otherwise, but most importantly of all, it has real soul to it which is painterly like a piece of actual art. Digital colour by comparison is often rather clinically sharp and accurate, which has a place too.
Colour film is however relatively expensive to buy and because I don’t develop at home, I have to send the films off to the lab and pay for the cost of processing.
Granted it only takes 24hrs, or an hour if I can wait around before I get my negs back, but I do tend to wait until I’ve got at least two films before going to the lab meaning there’s always a delay before seeing my images.
Maybe I need to start thinking about developing colour film at home now. A project for another time maybe.
I do scan my colour negatives and use Negative Lab Pro to bring them to life on my computer. A tool like NLP is absolutely essential as turning a negative into a colour image and capturing the character of the film is otherwise, more or less impossible. I tried doing this once and it took me about 6 weeks to get a result that was even close to the prints I ordered from the lab.
Around Bristol with Kodak Porta 160
More photos on Portra 160 from around home and down on the beach.
Last year I made another trip to the UK camera fair, looking around for some bargains but completely forgot that most of the vendors will only take cash. Armed with only cards and Apple-Pay, my choices were seriously limited.
I did however manage to pick up this mint, Olympus 35 SP for a very reasonable £160.00. It was flawless, boxed with manual and even a leather carry case. Inside the box was a recent receipt for a full service and CLA (Clean, lube & Adjust). Knowing nothing about this camera, other than it having a 40mm lens which is one of my favourite focal lengths, I took a chance.
It’s a range-finder camera, just like my Leica MP and has a built-in light meter. Small, light and really east to carry about, I dropped a roll of Kodak Gold in, and took it on a day-trip to Brighton for some shots on the beach. Brighton of course is famous for ‘Pride’ and has lots of brightly coloured and rainbow flagged areas which is ideal to be shooting colour film.
Olympus 35 SP picked up for a bargain price at UK camera fair
Pictures from Brighton Beach - Kodak Gold 200
Finishing off the roll of Kodak Gold, I threw the Olympus into my ruck back-pack one evening when I went mountain biking with some friends. The leather case provides really good protection, making this camera ideal for things like this.
Fields of Gold - Kodak Gold 200
