Comedy Works Denver - "Thick Skin" One-Year Anniversary Shot on 35mm Film

Introduction

So, my girlfriend, Brandy Bryant, was invited to tattoo guests live on-stage at the downtown Comedy Works in Denver, CO for the one-year anniversary of Thick Skin, hosted by Mike Stanley, on January 23, 2019.

I try my best to support Brandy, and I usually accompany her to many of her shows and open-mics with one of my many cameras. I wanted to photograph the show on 35mm film, and was given the go-ahead. Being a last-minute sort of thing, I grabbed what film that I could. And I wanted to experiment with a few oddball choices, and so I did just that.

In my arsenal was an all-mechanical Canon F-1n with an FD 35mm ƒ/2 S.S.C. concave lens for my black and white rolls, as well as the Canon New F-1 with an nFD 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens attached for my color rolls. In my bag, I came prepared with a hand-held light meter that I didn’t use much this time, as well as an FD 85mm ƒ/1.2 L lens that I also didn’t use this time, sadly.

The film that I used included Kodak Portra 400, Kodak Portra 800, Ilford HP5 Plus 400, and Ilford Delta 400. I shot them all at ISO 1600, and pushed them during at-home development. Yes, you heard that correctly. The results certainly surprised me. Some were better than others, though next time I may just bring some TMax P3200, or whatnot. As a word of advice… if you’re doing this sort of project, I wouldn’t recommend shooting this many film types; it took a really long time to develop them, as they all required different recipes, and scanning is always a nuisance, of course. I’d recommend sticking to just a couple of film types for any event. ;)

Thick Skin - One-Year Anniversary

Shooting film in either low-light or just plain tricky lighting situations certainly isn’t easy. Not to mention, I’m manually-focusing everything (I’m not a fan of autofocus, personally). There are a few tips that I could give anyone interested. For starters, my cameras of choice have the ability to swap out focusing screens. I have gone out of my way to find the brightest screens possible, and I use focusing aids that help in low light. On my Canon New F-1, I also have the ability to change the metering pattern, and I’d recommend either partial or spot metering for situations where the subject is lit with a dark background. Remember, when shooting film, you either get a properly-exposed image or you don’t; there is no LCD screen on the back to do test photos.

In a perfect world, I’d like to keep the shutter speed at 1/125 sec or faster to prevent motion blur, but in low-light situations, I sometimes have to shoot at 1/60 sec, or gulp, even 1/30 sec. Sacrifices are sometimes made for a better exposure. Just keep in mind, unlike digital, once you start shooting at a particular ISO, you’re locked into that setting for the duration of the roll (36 exposures).

The ever-handsome Mike Stanley. - Portra 400 +2

Kodak Portra 400 (+2)

Kodak Portra 800 (+1)

Ilford Delta 400 (+2)

Brandy Bryant at work - Ilford HP5 Plus 400 (+2)

Conclusion

Thanks for taking the time to check out this photo blog. My aim is only to inspire current and future film photographers, and I hope you could take something away from this. I wanted to keep the photos to a minimum, because I do tend to shoot a lot of film, and I think I included what counts here. I would normally never shoot a 400 speed color film in such lighting conditions, but I took a chance, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Of course, photography is all about capturing light, and the more, the merrier! But either way, I just love the look and textures of film. Is it as clean as digital? Absolutely not. At all. Well, that is… until you get into larger formats, but that’s both impractical for this sort of situation, as well as another topic, altogether! But I prefer it for its character. I hope you enjoyed this photo blog. Cheers. :)

Shooting Expired Roll of Kodak UltraMax 400 w/ Canon AE-1

Introduction

When I got my Canon AE-1, the seller threw in a free roll of expired Kodak UltraMax 400. I already had some fresh rolls of Fujifilm Superia X-Tra 400 laying about, but I don’t want any film to go to waste. So, I loaded up the Kodak into the AE-1, and decided to overexpose it by one stop, just to be on the safe side (so, I shot the film at ISO 200, and had it developed normally by The Darkroom photo lab in San Clemente, CA at box speed). All photos were taken with the Canon FDn 50mm ƒ/1.4. Enjoy. 

Kodak UltraMax 400

With this roll, I was still testing the full capabilities of the Canon AE-1, as well as the FDn 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens. This was only the second roll that I shot with this setup (see the first Canon AE-1 + Fujifilm Superia X-Tra 400 article). I reckon that this photo was taken sometime around 4pm, and I noticed that the moon (however small) was visible in the clear, blue sky. I just found it to be a beautiful sight, and I like how this photo turned out. Never underestimate an expired roll of film. ;)

Here’s another one of the moon. If I had to guess, I’d say that I shot these two photos at either ƒ/5.6 or ƒ/8.

This was taken just outside of my house, looking down the road. I’m fairly certain that I took this at ƒ8. It’s not a perfect photo, by any means, but I was impressed by the various shades of green. Loving the colors here.

For the photo above, as well as the photo below, I was testing the close-focusing abilities of the Canon FDn 50mm ƒ/1.4. It’s closest focusing distance is 0.45m. There were bees all over the place, so it took a few attempts to get this one the way I liked.

I particularly liked the way this photo turned out. Almost exactly the way I remembered it in person, but perhaps even better! Nature is really fascinating to me, and sometimes the most alluring things can be found in the smallest of places. Though, to be fair, after the testing phase of this camera setup is complete, I will more than likely refrain from taking photos of anything floral-related. I think plants, flowers, and alien-pod-like-seeds are beautiful, of course, but I’m not much of a floral photographer. I just happen to find it to be rather boring. My favorite subject, if you haven’t already noticed, is people. I love portraits, and I love street photography. Just my personal preference. :)

Speaking of which, the next three photos are of my lovely fiancée, Jessica. I happened to get a single photo of her on the last roll, but I wanted to take more with this Kodak. And I must say that I was absolutely pleased with the results. I really want to get prints of these made. And, on a side note, I was truly not expecting bokeh like this. Wow. For the record, this first photo was Jessica’s favorite.

Just as I did for the last roll, I wanted to see how this film converted to black and white (which I did in Adobe Lightroom CC). We both really like the way this one turned out, and we joked about it being the cover of her solo album. Sometimes, jokes just may be good actual ideas. lol

The thing with film is… I don’t always remember my settings. I’ll eventually get a nice moleskin notebook to carry around with me to keep track of things a little more, but I can’t imagine that this photo wasn’t taken at ƒ/1.4. Whoa! This photo actually shocked me. Again, I just wasn’t expecting these sort of results from an expired roll of film, but this is, without question, my favorite shot of the 24-exposure roll. It’s just magical to me. I suppose it helps that it’s a photo of the one I love most. :)

Here’s another taken right outside of our house. I just thought this was an interesting shot. This lens just renders so well.

And, finally, here’s another shot of a kitty. Seriously, what’s a roll of film without a photo of a kitty?! I jest… but I liked this one, as well. This silhouetted shot turned out exactly like I thought, and since it was heavily backlit, I decided to make it black and white; there really wasn’t much color information to work with.

Final Thoughts

I was blown away by Kodak UltraMax 400, to be perfectly honest with you. It’s not really that expensive, and gives great results. I will definitely use it again in the future. I must say that digital photography hasn’t once crossed my mind since I’ve started shooting film. They each have their place, and digital is a very convenient way of doing things. However, I haven’t had this much fun in years. There’s something really special about film, and the entire process one has to go through in order to get the results. And I must say that I really love the fact that I have actual, physical negatives to store and keep forever. I should have started shooting film sooner. Thanks for reading.