AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY + DIGITAL JULY 2015 AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 45
work which was taken overseas. Another point to consider is the cost
of having to develop each shot. On another level, it also frees you
up. With film you don’t have to constantly look at a screen, or look
at the image. You take it, it’s gone, and then you can focus on the
next moment without reference to the previous image. He ref lects
that the journey as well as the destination is different.
Students, Peken has found, have no real understanding of
the relationship of speed, aperture and ISO, because when
photography is done digitally, they don’t need to worry about
understanding it. Once he gives them an understanding, he
finds that it informs their digital work as well. He says that an
essential item in your kit is a light meter until you can read the
light from experience. Peken says it’s essential that you trust your
lab to develop and print your work, and he adds that for him
the printing becomes a collaboration. He has input into the sort
of look he wants to achieve, views the test print, and suggests
changes, but he always trusts the advice he receives from the
master printer he deals with.
The film gear Peken uses is up to 70 years old, and he says
it has a better lens on it than most of his digital gear. “These
cameras were hand-made. They require no batteries. The digital
camera has a computer to tell it to shoot at 1/1000th of a second.
This camera does it because of some cogs and some machinery
that someone hand crafted, and there’s something very tactile
about the feel of pushing the button, feeling the shutter go,
winding the film on. You are more connected to the process.
It’s a more meditative process to use film than digital.”
Reid still does everything by hand in his lab. While there are
a few others around Australia, they will do colour, and digital
as well, he says. “Most of them have combined all the different
aspects of it, but commercially, I’m pretty sure I’m probably the
only one with a dedicated black and white darkroom”. He also
runs classes and hires out the darkroom. For the enthusiast,
OPPOSITE PAGE
New York street
scene, 2011, by
Chris Peken.
Mamiya 6, 75mm,
Tri-X 400 at plus 1.ABOVE
New Zealand, 1986.
Image by Dale Neill.
Pentax 67, Takuma
105mm f/2.4 lens
on Fujicolor Pro,
ISO 400.Matthew Sutton’s kit & tips
Matthew Sutton outlines his film camera kit:- Camera bodies: Film SLRs and rangefinders
- Lenses: Fixed prime lenses, favourite lengths are 21mm,
35mm, 50mm - Filters: “Usually a yellow or green to bring out the clouds
against the sky.” - Light meters: “Try to learn to read light by guessing first, then
checking your in-built light meter in the camera if there is one,
or a small hand-held meter.” - Tripods, mono-pods: “Unless you’re doing long time exposure
photos at night, don’t bother!” - Chemistry: “Try to stick to one film and developer so you
can begin to understand the dynamics and ranges of the
combinations of film and developer. Obviously cost is
paramount. I use Fomapan film, or Kodak Tri-X. They range from
$6.00, bought here or overseas. I use D76 and make up a four
litre bottle. After each use of the D76, I add D76R replenisher,
which keeps the developer alive for further uses. If you keep
your bottles, beakers, funnels clean you can keep using D76
time after time. I have made an $8 satchel that makes four litres
last for 50 rolls of film over a six-month period.” - Favourite: “My small rangefinder camera is my favourite.
It’s small, unobtrusive, and not ‘in your face’ to people you
might be photographing! Compared to a large bulky SLR it is
very unassuming. It’s easy to carry around every day.” - Tips: ISO 400 allows for shooting in a large range of light
situations, even at night using artificial street lighting. Shutter:
“Find out how slow a shutter speed you can hand-hold a
camera, meaning that is the slowest speed you can handle.”
White balance: “Film handles this well.”