Artistic Development: Film Stocks

An important phase in my artistic development was experimentation with film stocks. I still experiment with film stocks whenever I happen across a new type I haven't tried (and seems to have some artistic integrity).
This page is under development! Check back for a lot more information.

Negatives

I only shot negatives for the first five years of my development as a photographer. Since my first two years were as a Yearbook Photographer at my high school, I tended to only use the films provided by the school, which included Kodak T-Max and Kodak Royal Gold.

When I have more time on my hands, I'll be writing more on this subject and linking to examples of every negative film stock used on this site (and I'll upload hi-res comparisons as well).

The only negative films I use now are members of the Kodak Portra line.

Positives (Chromes)

Lately I've only been shooting chromes. My favorite film by far is Fujichrome's Velvia 50. Check back later for examples of different chromes in the Collections. For now, you can view some Velvia photos in the Across America Collection.

Large Format

Now that I've added a 4x5 camera to my arsenal, I've started using large format films. The sheets are four inches by five inches in size (4x5), and are loaded into cartridges like the one you see to the left. These cartridges hold two sheets (one per side), and block your view through the camera. This means that you need to compose and focus your shot first, then load your film, and finally work with your talent while keeping an eye on their frame, distance (to maintain focus), etc.

Why Large Format? The most notable difference of course is the size of the film. By having such a large surface area, you are able to capture an extremely significant amount of detail. The optimal blow-up size of a print is roughly ten times. Thus you start encountering rapid loss of clarity once you enlarge a 35mm negative past an 8x10 print. Of course, as an art form, it is subjective; sometimes the effect is desirable. Generally though, it's best not to exceed the 10 times rule. Accordingly, a 4"x5" print could safely be enlarged to 40"x50", or roughly the size of a movie poster, and still be quite crisp. If you're comfortable enlarging a 35mm image to poster size, then you'd be comfortable blowing up the 4x5 image to cover an entire wall.

Most professional grade 35mm film stocks are also available in larger sizes, such as 120, 220, 4x5, 6x7, etc. So far I've only shot Kodak T-Max 100 and Fujichrome Velvia 50 with my large format camera.