Natasha @ Paris

Winter is coming, it was time to try a few portrait / nude sessions indoors. I have been playing a lot with back light, and for editing with the Nik Software excellent and pretty cheap package (review soon):

• Silver Efex Pro to edit RAW files into B&W. 
• Color Efex Pro for well...pretty much anything color.

For a change (ran out of film and the shop was closed), this is digital work, with a Nikon D600  + Nikon 50mm f/1.2 lens.

Antonina @ Dublin

Shots 1 & 2 are digital, Nikon D80 + 35mm @ 1/200 F5.6 + Elinchrom strobe 400w @90% max power, no light modifier straight on to model.
Edited with photoshop element 6.

Thanks to Tonya.

This is how I like using digital for B&W. If you compare to the film shots from the previous post, same lens, but on a full frame film SLR, you can clearly the difference in style. Digital won't get you the sharpness (attention, sharpness is not resolution), the lovely blurs, that feeling that envy to touch the  photo like an old piece of wooden furniture. But it allows you post processing contrast, and light (especially in RAW and with good original exposure), in a way that makes it very interesting for those kind of trash-flash fashion effects.

More to come soon...

Maddy @ the beach, 120 film

Marie @ Dublin

Nikon F5, 85mm and Trix X film. Thanks to Marie.

Ema @ Dublin II

Ema @ Dublin

Processing digital B&W differently. MF shots pending development.

Equipment used: elinchrom Dlite 4 thru white umbrella, Nikon D80, Nikkor 35mm F2. Thanks to Ema.

Mamiya RZ67 pro II, Trix, 110mmF2.8

Why do I shoot film ?

Most of the picture I will display here will be film photography. Why? Digital is convenient, forgiving, even sometimes better (Nikon makes cameras that perform amazingly at very high ISO) but there are still reasons to shoot film:

• Tone range : digital photography relies on a certain number of tones between white and black. Film photography relies on the chemical reaction of a product on a plastic sheet: tones are progressive, more subtile.
• Medium format: there is a very simple rule in photography, the larger the film / sensor, the better. A medium format camera will surpass any 35mm the same way any car will alway be quicker than a horse. Same applies to large format compared to medium format. Digital MF does exist but wow, price tag makes it inaccessible to most of us (>$ 15k)
• You pay attention to the way you shoot, because you have from 8 to 36 frames on a roll, and it will cost you. You learn faster, and more like an artist than like a paparazzi. Painter don't paint 500 until they get the right one, they pay attention to what they do, same applies to film photography

Nikon F5 (300 euros second hand), Nikon 85F1.8 and Fuji Acros

• It remains photography, not digital art. I love good digital art, but please let's call a cat a cat. Photography relies of exposure, framing, composition and use of light. If you use textures, massive editing, or else, you are a digital artist.
• Cameras are cheap as hell now that everyone gets digital: a Mamiya RZ67 (a top professional studio camera) cost 800 dollars with a lens on Adorama or B&H, Ebay etc. And will destroy any 5D mkII, Nikon D3X when it comes to pictures. Same applies to Pentax 67's, Fujica's etc. Wanna shoot fancy? Don't waste money in a snob Leica M. Your MF system will outperform it for 1/5th of the price !!!
• In B&W, it just looks better.
• Film grain is awesome !