City of Shadows
– B&W Film Photography

City of Shadows
– B&W Film Photography

This image is the result of shooting and processing 35mm B&W film in the darkroom.

I found this experience pretty humbling. There is so much to remember and so many chances for things to go wrong.

While shooting, I had trouble remembering to expose to the left for shadow details instead of the right, as I was double checking my metering with a digital camera. I seem to have overcome this by bracketing my shots, though this felt a lot like luck rather than skill.

I found that I was quite nervous during the film developing stage and second guessed myself at almost every step which wasn’t fun! But it was more than made up for by the darkroom printing process.

There is something very special about seeing negative images roll off the spiral and pictures appear from nothing like magic in the darkroom. I can see why people become addicted (beyond simple hipster nostalgia) to shooting film.

Process

  • Step 1

    Negative test strips — Initial

  • Step 2

    Negative test strips — Refined

  • Step 3

    Selected image test strips — Initial

  • Step 4

    Selected image — Print 01

Final Print

  • Final Print

    I find it interesting how much higher the contrast is in the printed image, compared to the scanned negative.

  • Scanned Negative

    While the contrast in the negative is lower than the print, there is more detail visible in the shadow areas.

  • Digital Metering Test

    This test shot lacks the beautiful grain of the film image, but has the best of both worlds in terms of contrast and detail in shadow areas.

Alternate negatives

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Balance / Scale / Texture