Mixing Photos with Different Grains in an Exhibition or Booklet

[Masuro]

I have an idea for a project that involves taking photographs of everyday scenes in my house. Some of these pictures can be taken using ISO 100 film but scenes with people in them will probably require up to ISO 1600 film. For exhibition purposes, is it better to shoot all photographs with the same (or near) ISO so that there won't be too much of a difference between clean and grainy pictures? For example, the first photograph is a picture of my wife taking a nap. It is very clean because it can be shot using ISO 100 film. The next photograph is of my wife turning the pages of a book under lamp light. This would be very grainy because high ISO film is needed. Would putting these two photos together be a presentation faux-pas or does it not particularly matter?

 

[thefizz]

I can't really answer this for you except to say that I feel it would look better if all the prints were of a similar grain. I'd love to hear what others think.

Peter

 

[Ed Sukach]

I don't thik so; to me, "grain size' is neither good or bad, but merely another aesthetic element.

I have seen *extremely* "grainy" photographs (Farber's Nudes, using Anscochrome 1000 CT film "pushed" one and two stops) whose character depended heavily on coarse grain. Beautiful images, and I think "fine grain" would NOT have been successful in those photographs.

Would combining fine and coarse be a faux-pas? I would say no - I've seen such "combined" exhibitions and I haven't seen any effect on the quality of the exhibition - nor can I ever remember any critical comment mentioning that combination.

 

[removed account4]

masuro

the only thing that matters is what YOU want ...
i think it would look very nice to have varied grain,
but then again, that is what I like ...

sounds like a great project, i hope we get to see some of it
when it is finished ..

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

This is just one person's considered personal opinion - take it for what an opinion is worth. Personally, my mantra when exhibiting work is "consistency, consistency, consistency". If you can avoid variation in film grain, I would avoid it. If you cannot, then work with it so that it becomes part of the consistency. Don't have just one or two images out of the 20 or so have a visibly different grain structure. If a third or more of the images are of a different grain, then fine. A third is a very rough figure, not to be taken as any kind of specific rule. In the end, I think you'll know the harmony when you see it.

 

[Masuro]

Thank you all for your comments. I will consider this when I start to shoot.

 

[rjas]

I ran out of hp5 while photographing overseas. Couldn't find anything but Tri-x. The thought about two different films crossed my mind for about, 2 seconds, and then I loaded it into my camera and kept shooting. I try not to get obsessive compulsive about these things.