An Exploration of Film
As a part of the Intro to Photography course that got me seriously interested in photography, we were introduced to a variety of photographic techniques, including black and white film photography. The university had a full service darkroom tucked away under an art studio with a camera rental shop just a short walk away.
When I had the opportunity to check out one of the film cameras I chose the Nikon FG, a 35mm film camera dating to the mid 1980s. It was one of two film cameras I used, the other being a Pentax K1000. I always went for the Nikon because of its more pleasant and intuitive interface (to me at least). The camera came with a Micro-NIKKOR 55mm F2.8 lens, an old neck strap, and an optional screw-in shutter cable.
We had a choice of one or two rolls of Ilford Delta 100 or 400 black and white film. I went with ISO 400 for the added low light performance, which would've been advantageous for the photography I had in mind.
I took a variety of shots of a variety of subjects during different times of the day. I even took some long exposures with the lens pointing straight up at the stars. Due to the fact I only had 36 shots per roll and was limited to one focal length, I had to choose and compose my shots carefully and hope that everything was in focus and properly exposed when I hit the shutter button. By the end of our time learning about film I would end up shooting four rolls of black and white film.
It was pretty unique experience using such an old camera, the oldest I've ever used to date. I think for a beginner interested in photography it’s a good experience to have. The whole dynamic changes when you can zoom as you please, take as many shots as you want, and get immediate results on a screen.
Once in the darkroom, I carefully unwound the negatives from the film canister and wrapped them around a metal spool, and placed them in a sealed metal canister.
Developer, Stop, Water, Fix 1, Fix 2, Water Bath. Developer, Stop, Water, Fix 1, Fix 2, Water Bath.
Once the film was developed, I used a Saunders/LPL Super Dichroic 4500 II enlarger to create around ten prints on 20.3 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in) Ilford Variable Contrast RC paper.
Developer, Stop, Water, Fix 1, Fix 2, Water Bath. Developer, Stop, Water, Fix 1, Fix 2, Water Bath.
The following photo series was taken using a Nikon FG film camera using Ilford Delta 400 Professional black and white film. I then hand developed the best of the shots from one of three rolls of film in a darkroom, enlarged each photo and exposed them onto sheets of photographic paper I hand developed, and later digitized the results. Artifacts such as scratches and watermarks are a result of this imperfect process.
I'm quite pleased with the results and still have the original negatives sitting in a photo archive somewhere. Maybe one day I'll get around to enlarging them all. Or even shoot with film again.
For those who want to know a bit more about the film developing process, I highly recommend Ilford's Making Your First Black & White Darkroom Print video. By complete coincidence, the video was released around the time I took these photos.
