As a personal project I’ve wanted to incorporate more film into my personal work. When I began to shoot film again I found it to be a bit overwhelming. So I decided to take a film workshop to help ease me back into the world of film.
A few amazing film photography peers recommended I take the Embrace the Grain Workshop hosted by Joyce Kang. My first attempt to enroll – fail. It sold out in minutes. The next time it came around – I didn’t miss out! And I’m glad I didn’t.
I thought I’d share a bit about my experience. The pros, cons and everything in between. The workshop was five weeks long with four active weeks and a break week. Let’s start with week one.
Week 1 : Black and White Film
In this week the focus was on the zone system and metering for bw film. I shot with a Canon Elan 7 and my Canon 50mm and Sigma 35mm lenses and chose to shoot with Ilford HP5 Plus 400.
This first week was the most difficult for me. Hands down! Why?! Well, I didn’t have my gray card or handheld light meter yet and it was highly needed for this first week. I made due, using my internal camera meter and the iPhone Light Meter but they weren’t the best solution.
What I learned:
- Zone System: The zone system is hard. I mean it is but it isn’t. Ha. I’m a hands on learner so reading the information was more of a challenge but when I combined that with actual shooting it made a big difference. So if you’re like me, be prepared to read it a few times to get it.
- Grain! This film has a lot more grain and you either love it or you don’t. I like it so I didn’t mind the grain but I learned really quick how important it was to nail my exposure .
- It’s Okay: I prefer color film over bw. While I like the look of bw images it definitely not my go-to film. I LOVE color and want to spend my time experimenting with color film for now. I still have a few rolls of bw so I’m sure I’ll shoot some here and there but you can bet you’ll mainly see color film scans here on the blog. 😉
Here are my favorite images from my first roll of bw film.
love & pixels,
ashley nicole
These are truly great! Especially loving the ones of your dog!
This looks like it would be a lot of fun to do! are you really enjoying it? These look beautiful =]
Great photos! Love film and black and white. I’m trying to learn film also, so I loved reading about you shooting it also. Gonna have to look that workshop up!
These are great! I love the look of film and would love to learn how to shoot in film one day! 🙂
Definitely give it a try! It’s an investment but if you’re willing to work at it then go for it!