B&W Film Portraits

After we finished last week's team portrait shoot, I remembered that I had a roll of black and white Kodak Tri-X 35mm film in my old Pentax SLR.  So before we cleaned up the studio, I dragged everyone back in and took 3 frames of each person.  

The old film SLR presents some challenges that are easy to forget:

  • No changing the ISO, without changing film.

  • Manual focus. Get used to the split-prism and ground glass.

  • No spray-and-pray. Every shot counts; 24 frames and then rewind and reload.

  • No LCD to check exposure and focus. You have to engage the brain and think about what you're doing.

Below are my favorites of each member of our staff, plus a couple of friends from the office next door.

Are you interested in shooting / developing / printing your own black and white film?  Stay tuned for classes starting in the spring, at our darkroom at the Maitland Art Center.  Or you can contact us for more details, or to sign up for notifications about class dates and rates.

Tech Specs:  

  • One 40" x 32" Paul Buff softbox, about four feet from the subject.

  • Pentax SuperProgram SLR with a 50mm f/2 lens.

  • ISO 400 Kodak Tri-X film.

  • 1/125th at f/4.

  • Processed and scanned by Colonial Photo and Hobby.

  • Imported into Adobe Lightroom.

  • Only cropped, no other post-production.

Please leave a comment below or on our Facebook page, and let us know what you think.

Jim Hobart3 Comments