My story with film photography is a bit recent. I’ve started shooting 35mm film last year around May, which was actually just three months after buy my first DSLR camera. Before that, I just took pictures with my cellphone, but nothing really serious.
At the time I decided to dive in the world of photography, I was facing some problems and taking pictures was a way of stress out some thoughts: it was the way that I found to express myself. It turned out that photography has become a kind of therapy for me, a therapy I try to do when I have a time off of the university.
These pictures were taken on a Nikon F3 (which was my first and still being my only film camera) with a Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8D. They are from the fifth roll I’ve shoot since I’ve started (unfortunately, here in Brazil film photography is somewhat expensive).
The film that I used was the Kodak Tri-X 400. As long as it was the first time that I used black and white film, I didn’t know what exactly expect. Moreover, I was a bit concerned about the exposures because of the lighting conditions: it was a sunny day and there were many shadows. So, since I don’t have a lot of experience, I was a bit afraid of make extremely contrasty expositions, however I ended up satisfied with the results.
The exposures where made in the City Park of São José dos Campos, a nearby city of São Paulo. They were self-scanned with a Pacific Image PrimeFillm 7200 and post-processed on Adobe Lightroom.
Some more of my work can be found on my instagram here
Eduardo, these are excellent negatives. Maybe bring out a little more detail in the dark areas, but otherwise, they have that Tri-X look. Very nice. I used the F3 for over a decade, but sold it 10 years ago when I was reducing my photographic equipment. Probably I should have kept it, but you know how that goes as the years pass….
Thanks! In general I’ve underexposed a little bit most of the negatives, so I ended up losing most of the detatils on the dark areas. My relation with the Nikon F3 was love at the first sight, it’s a beautiful camera.
A nice write-up, Eduardo, and nice photos. I too bought my F3 last May, although I have had an FM2 for 20 years. For your fifth roll of film, you’re doing very well indeed.
The F3 is my go-to film camera. Big enough to get ahold of, but not huge or heavy. Reliable meter but otherwise dead simple to use. Absolutely bullet proof.
Just a suggestion: if you’re shooting Tri-X and conditions are bright and contrasty, set the meter on 200 and develop roughly 10% less, or tell the lab to “pull one stop.” Actually that’s the way I shoot Tri-X (and HP-5) most of the time anyway. It’s easy to add contrast in post, hard to reduce it.
Thanks for the tips, Scott!
Nice work Eduardo. I would say.. try to lighten the deep shadows so we can see more details. I know how São Paulo can be “dark”… but maybe something in the expo and scan can compensate.
The F3 has a spot meter.. read the shadows at 320asa and expose for them by closing your aperture by one stop. Let the high lights roll. Then you develop “normal”. It will bring the iso down. Trix is wonderfull and elastic.
Nice lens. the 1.8 is better than 1.4 at controlling distortion.