Film as a Photographic Trend

Film photography has made a comeback in the last five or six years. Film companies such as kodak are re-manufacturing and selling old film types. Film didn't go away for that long however seeing as how digital cameras became the professional standard in the early 2000's. There are major differences in the visual components of film and digital photography that I'll be covering in this post.

As you can see in the above unedited image, there is detail in the highlights and shadows when shooting into direct sunlight. This is because film has a higher dynamic range which means there is more room for the highlight and shadow levels to register on the film as compared to a digital sensor. Film also has a larger color gamut which allows for a wider range of colors to appear in an image. This is because film is an organic process. The range of light levels and color tones when shooting into direct sunlight would be impossible with a digital camera unless you take multiple identical shots with a tri-pod then merge them into an HDR photo using Lightroom or Photoshop. Film also appears blurry around the edges of objects. These characteristics together make film appear much closer to what we see naturally with our eyes.

These colors on an unedited image would be impossible to obtain with a digital camera. Film has some drawbacks however, it is harder to get a well-exposed, sharp photo with film. The film process also takes much longer than the digital process because loading and developing film and then making prints of the negatives with an enlarger and finally developing the print is a very lengthy procedure. Developing film and prints also requires multiple kinds of chemicals as well as a dark room. In both the following images, I scanned the film negatives into a computer so the 35mm film borders could be a part of the image.

The image below was shot with large format 4x5 inch film. You can see the high dynamic range and the sharpness that comes from film's organic process.

I love film but don't shoot it as much as I want to or as much as I used to. This is because of a lack of time and no access to a dark room, enlarger, or developing chemicals. I hope in the future I can shoot more with film again.

Rear Curtain Sync with an off-Camera Speedlight Flash

Ivo Perez, the frontman of the surfer-punk band "Tyrannosaurus Sex"

Most people see the image above and believe that these effects are produced with Adobe Photoshop or a similar application. Effects like these are easy to get however by switching your camera's flash mode to rear curtain sync and using a speedlight or strobe. I also used wireless transmitters with my speedlight while shooting this concert but the effect can still be obtained with an on-camera flash as well. All of these images were shot over the weekend at a house show hosted in a log cabin in my hometown, Vernon, New Jersey. The above image was shot using an 0.8 second shutter speed so the light trails are pretty long but my wide f-stop of 4.2 still allows the flash to come through. For the image below I wanted to weaken the strength of the flash by closing my aperture to f/11 and decrease the length of the light trails by shortening by shutter speed to one fourth of a second. I raised my ISO to 400 to compensate for the light lost by changing my shutter speed and f-stop.

Hoag & The Weasel is an experimental folk rock duo that features a very talented violinist and a guitar player that also plays drums with his feet.

The result allowed for a more ambient lighting rather than a strong flash look to the photo. The next photo goes back to my camera's setting for the first photo in this post. Both of these photos have a 0.8 second shutter speed, 4.2 f-stop, ISO 100, and 62mm zoom.

The bassist of "Tyrannosaurus Sex"

This setting seemed to give good consistent results during the concert. For the sake of experimentation, I decided to switch to a two second shutter speed and see what kind of crazy results I could get. Notice how the lighting seems almost completely ambient and not from the flash because of the long shutter speed allowing the ambient light to overpower the flash.

James Carolan, the drummer of "Bobolink" a jam band that mixes funk, blues, and jazz.

Long Island-based folk punk act "Ankle Grease"

This last set of photos below all have a one second exposure. I especially love the rainbow face next to the guitarist's actual face in the first image in the group below. The three images after it all have more ambient light to them because I closed down my f-stop to 7.1

The frontman of "Bobolink"

Shawn Werman is the drummer of ska-punk band "Fat Chance"

The frontman of "Fat Chance" and one of my favorite songwriters

An Introduction...

Luke Talmadge is a working professional photographer based out of the Philadelphia and New Jersey areas. He has done work for multiple clothing companies and worked with many models to get them images for their modeling portfolio. Luke's favorite part of his job is taking people's words on what kind of photos they want and translating them into beautiful images they can use to push their business forward. During the summer of 2016, Luke took a road trip from New Jersey to Idaho and took photos across the country. This is what really solidified his passion for photography and drove him to finally pursue photography as a profession. He has been taking photos for as long as he can remember however. He specifically remembers using disposable film cameras as a child. Nowadays, Luke enjoys portraiture and product photography the most but he believes his favorite genres of photography are always changing over the years. Below are some of his photos from his trip out west. You can email him at luketalmadge98@gmail.com or call him at (973) 534-2787 to discuss how professional images can help you grow your brand or modeling portfolio.