A few weekends ago I got the privilege of shooting some incredibly talented musicians at a bar + bistro in downtown Truckee called Moody’s. I also get the privilege of calling them friends. Which is a major win in my books. Having incredible musician friends who let you shoot them in a dark bar just to burn the rest of a roll of film is my version of heaven.
The only not so incredible issue with the easy-on-the-eyes-easier-on-the-ears friends that are incredible jazz musicians has nothing to do with them, but more to do with the fact that the roll of film I had already loaded and shot with was not prepared to shoot in a dark bar. I had already shot 2 frames metered at an ISO of 200. Which means I got me some major exposure/development issues to solve if I wanna get a whole roll of images. Such is the blessing and curse of shooting film.
That being said, the rest of this blog is for the nerdy-tech type who like to hear all the ins and outs of film and gear and cameras and settings etc. If that isn’t you, you can hopefully just enjoy the pictures.
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The Camera.
Rolleiflex 3.5B. This is a post-war camera released in the mid-1950’s. It is a twin lens reflex (TLR) that is held at the waist and peered into through a pop-up square viewfinder that shows the horizontal opposite of the scene. It is pure magic to look through and pure magic to shoot with and the lens is, by far, my favorite lens to work with. The vintage vibe gives extra brownie points, too. This camera shoots in a 6 x 6 square format, leaving you with 12 images per roll of film.
The Film.
Cinestill bwXX. This is movie film that is reformatted for still shooting. Comes in color and b+w and light balanced for daylight and tungsten. Being that this was originally formatted for moving pictures it has a halation in the highlights and renders a warm and cinematic feel. Their b+w rolls are a variable ISO, best shot between 200 and 1600 ISO. I have LOVED shooting with this film and am always shocked by how versatile it is.
The Tech Specs.
The scene was dark. Super dark. With the only true beam of light on one musician, Lucas. Black and white film records light. That’s all it does. So, if you don’t have light, you really don’t have a lot to work with. Black and white film also really hates to be underexposed. Which meant I also really didn’t have a lot to work with. Here’s where this gets good…
3200 ISO (variable roll of film means I can choose what rating I want to give it and expose as such)
f 3.5 (because I’m shooting with a Rollei 3.5…the aperture can’t get any more open than that)
1/30 (they are musicians, they are jamming, they move…shooting at an 8th would give me the proper exposure, but absolutely nothing in focus)
+4 push in development left me with an astronomically long dev time of 27 min, but quite possibly the only way to get any contrast in what was most definitely an underexposed roll of black and white film.
And there you have it. I probably pushed this roll of film to its maximum capability and we were still able to get something out of it. These images are dark and grainy and overly hot in the whites and ever so slightly blurry even in the ‘sharp’ parts. BUT, they have a feel. And the challenges or mental puzzle to get them to this place are outweighed by the sheer beauty of the process and the tangible nature of working with film.
