Film Critic

Well, I’ve had my hands on the film camera for around two weeks now, after borrowing a Nikon FM2 from the Wolves Uni media stores and I’ve put two 36 exposure films through it.

The first film I put through it was a struggle to shoot, I didn’t want to waste any of the 36 frames that lay at my disposal and as a result it took me ages to fill it with images.

Whilst ambling along with the Kodak Portra 400 loaded camera, thinking about my themes from my brainstorm I was trying to find something that fit the bill perfectly. With the Colour workshop on the following Monday I knew I had to get a film developed so that I’d have some negatives to play with so the latter end of the roll has some images that were interesting but may not have fit the themes entirely.

Walking around with the old analogue Nikon camera was a different experience to shooting with my Canon digital camera, I was frightened that I would make a mistake and ruin a frame whereas with my digital I’d shoot four or five of a subject to get the changing expressions and then if none of them were interesting I might X them and remove from Lightroom. I did not take my Canon 5D with me but thought I’d take my Canon G7XII compact digital camera to capture refence shots so I could compare digital to analogue at a later date.

My theme of “replacements” was spinning around in my mind, along with “aging street furniture” and “changing location” as I prowled the streets of my home town looking for an image.

The Nikon with the 400 ISO film on board was tricky to use to say the least, I know there’s far fewer settings and knobs on it than the digital I usually use but it seemed to baffle me a couple of times, I guess it’s just practice that will help me develop a better method of using it.

As I walked into Shrewsbury town centre I strolled past some skaters performing ollies and kick flips off a kerb so I stopped to snap aa few with my little digital compact camera and see what angle worked the best before raising the Nikon to my face. The Shutter Speed vs Aperture was a tricky trade off and with the 400 ISO it was very difficult to get an exposure on the camera’s meter without slowing down the shutter speed too much. I had a 1/250 sec shutter on f/2.8 and it didn’t come out too bad at all for an early attempt at using the film camera.

Another issue to deal with was the manual focus of the lens for the image, I missed a couple of images and was left with a blurred photo due to not getting the focus accurate either because the subject was moving or it was tricky to see the correct focus in the viewfinder. It was at this moment I knew I was missing the autofocus and tracking options from my usual weapon of choice.

On the way to the Bear Steps Art Gallery and a coffee in the nearby café I was able to enter St Alkmund’s church, which I’d never been in before and wanted to use the Nikon to grab an image of the large stained glass window but looking at the prints in the previous posts I can see that the focus isn’t spot on.

Once the coffee was done I carried on and noticed plenty of other subjects that kind of fitted with the ideas on my ideas pages of my sketchbook. I had a couple of images of an old red Telephone Box that has been repurposed as a defibrillator box in case of a nearby cardiac arrest. What a great replacement! The old phone wasn’t being used, the glass is all smashed in, revellers generally used it as a latrine and it wouldn’t have been long before it was picked up by an antique phone box dealer. This way the box gets to stay in service and has the ability to make a difference to someone in life threatening circumstances.

Walking slowly past the bingo hall I noticed a few fence panels had been swapped out and wondered whether these had been changed due to vandalism or the effects of the elements. Whilst in the area, I had my nosey head on and looked in a nearby alley which housed the emergency exit for the bingo hall and found a couple of bright yellow “Keep Clear” signs but near to them was a sprayed sign that said “Keep”, the bottom of the sign must have been on a poster that was since removed so it looks like the doors have been saved from the scrap bin.

In line with the travel theme and changing location I visited the station platform and saw a train come in to drop off and pick up some new passengers before getting on it’s way. There was some interesting colours in the image and some people also carrying out their tasks. I think that I struggled on here and even triggered the camera shutter with my peaked cap once, it was down to the light being quite low level and I struggled to hold it steady, worrying about the focus all of the time.

After a couple of early shots I figure out that unlike a digital photo that has it’s meta data telling me all about the settings and conditions that the image was made with, this camera had no such luxury, so I started to make notes on the settings for each photo, where I remembered before changing the aperture or shutter speed. I wrote them in a small notebook and got some funny look sfrom people like I was an obsessive note taker or bus spotter, but when I got home I transferred it to the MS OneNote Technical journal so it looks a little more readable..

Going to find colourful subjects was the mission so I headed off further into the outskirts of the centre, ending up in Frankwell and found some old buildings, more skaters and then a couple of really old sandstone walls.

The sandstone wall I was squatting down to photograph and had the camera set to 2.8 at 1/125sec but looking at the print from Jessops it’s clear that the picture wasn’t in focus or was blurred due to my movement at time of pressing the shutter release.

Another hobby I have is Target Air Rifle shooting in pubs and social clubs around the town, in a a league resembling a darts or domino style competition. Part of the job of shooting a 4.5mm pellet through a 9mm hole is releasing the trigger smoothly without jerking the action and I think I need to consider this style of movement when releasing the shutter. It’s not a quick press, it’s more likely to be a successful shot if it’s squeezed off gently.

The same is true when some of my relatives take a photo using their smart phones, in a panic to press the button they often move the phone completely ending up with a really blurry image, even despite constant coaching.

Time to rewind the film using the film release button and the winder before dropping it into Jessops for a 1 hour turnaround with a set of 6×4 prints, also with a student discount!!

In summary then, using a film camera is fraught with danger, you have to remember to focus carefully, check the exposure meter in the viewfinder, set the aperture and shutter speed accordingly and then ensure the film is wound on and cocked ready to fire. All of this will undoubtedly get easier as I progress through the course and I’m looking forward to seeing what results from this film, Film #2 and Film#3 in the darkroom.