Intro to Film

This little assignment was my first experience with taking a roll of film and developing it, as well as learning how to make contact sheets and prints. My artist statement is at the bottom. Below is my contact sheet, and underneath that, my final print of one of the images on the roll of film/contact sheet.

This project was my introduction to some major parts of traditional photography! For this assignment I used my film camera to take a total of 26 images on my full roll of film. During this process, I walked around the school with the rest of my group until my roll of film couldn't fit any more images. While taking pictures I tried to keep in mind my rules of composition I kept in mind for digital photography so my photos would still be interesting and engaging. I also kept in mind that the black and white film I was using made it so I had to pay attention to light and dark, which means I had to make sure while taking the photo that in the future when put in black and white there would be enough contrast for it to be clear. I took photos everywhere from a playground to the edge of the trees, experimenting with whatever I could find, maybe taking a few photos of the same general thing from a different angle or somehow in a different way. The next class, after rewinding the film inside the camera, it was time to develop it—a new process that I was extremely unfamiliar with. It took a while for me to work up the courage to put everything in the bag where I would have to wind the film onto a reel without seeing it (we do it inside the bag so that no light can reach the film. When film is exposed to general light before it is developed, the images are ruined). However, I managed to learn the process. I then started the developing process using developer, stop, and fix, all solutions that aid in revealing the images on the film. After hanging it up to dry I learned how to make a contact sheet from the negatives, and later, a print. Things like contact sheets and prints had some failure at first: we made test strips before anything else to see what time they would have to be exposed for, and there could be multiple attempts before a decent contact sheet or print is produced. This was certainly true for me, as there was some trial and error. But, in the end, the result was a set of negatives (film), a contact sheet, and a larger print of a single image. I'm proud of them, and the process was truly a learning experience. Despite some mistakes along the way with test strips and such, the final products are visible and overall decently done. I hope to improve throughout the rest of my experience with traditional photography.