Those of you who now shoot b/w film only ...

rayonline_nz

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
658
Location
Wellington,
Format
Multi Format
Over the new year I had this thought. I got into b/w which I love, I can do the processing myself not yet the printint but hopefully in the future when I get my own space (house). I still shoot slides and I have some rolls in my freezer. Due to the cost here in New Zealand ie $37 a roll of 35mm format and processing unmounted is $18US or maybe $8US additional for mounting. I have to import my film and export them to the US for processing in batches, I also don't do enought o self process nor do I trust myself.

I might continue to use slide film in medium format which I have yet to get but I do have some film in 120 format already when they discontinued E100G. I have already gave up color neg film. But I think even medium format for color slides might be dated - for easy subjects I might use it but when the light is changing fast or if I am travelling and I don't want it toast it digital provides a safe net right? Then continue to use b/w? I understand that some film photographers not necessarily just on this forum who now only shoot b/w film.
 

jernejk

Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
213
Format
35mm
Use whatever you want!

Agfa Precisa is still relatively cheap, at least here in Europe. Digital is pretty cool! We are not neanderthal living in caves, most of us just enjoy traditional process for one reason or the other. We are not a secret sect with written rules and you don't need to be afraid of being expelled! Just don't forget what you love and enjoy, that's all!
 

Christopher Walrath

Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
7,175
Location
Milton, DE USA
Format
Analog
I once viewed the book Ansel Adams In Color. After having viewed his photographs in b&w for years, I found at the moment just how much I do prefer black and white imagery over color. And I can tell which part of my brain is working when viewing a subject. If I am attracted to color and vibrancy of hue, that's the color talking. If I am drawn to line and shape and tonal separation then that's the old shades-of-gray matter at work. And nine times out of ten that is what I find myself drawn to. I am content to view the color photographs of others. I rock analog black and white. And also Jujubeans. Yeah. Rock them too.
 

jp498

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2009
Messages
1,525
Location
Owls Head ME
Format
Multi Format
Ansel did his B&W f64 stuff well. His color didn't inspire me either. Eliot Porter inspired me so much with color, it made me homesick and I don't get homesick.

I mostly shoot B&W and develop it myself. I do color digital as well, and a little bit of color hybrid (with Portra 160 or Ektar)

Developing color film isn't terrible. I used to do E6 myself and if you can be consistent it's pretty straightforward. I currently pay a local lab $5/roll to develop c41 (not print) and if it weren't for that, I'd consider developing them myself.
 

ambaker

Member
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
661
Location
Missouri, US
Format
Multi Format
I've heard it said that you aren't good, until you are good in B&W; that color can be used to "cheat" by distracting the eye.

I don't know if I would go quite that far. But I do love good B&W, because it allows me to focus on lighting and shapes/composition.

I like good color photography, as well. I just prefer to work in B&W. Perhaps it is because the addition of color adds more complexity than I can handle successfully. Who knows?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 

brian steinberger

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
3,009
Location
Pennsylvania
Format
Med. Format RF
10 years ago I only shot color. 35mm slides through a Nikon F4. I loved it at the time. People asked me if I ever shot black and white and I said no way. I just loved color, loved looking for that big "calendar shot." I loved looking at the slides on the light table. Then a friend suggested black and white again about 7 years ago. "You can do the entire process yourself easily" she said. So I bought a few darkroom items to develop film and gave it a shot. It was a break-through for me and I've never looked back. I kept shooting my color slides for maybe a few more years then gave it up. Last year I brought a Nikon D800 to pick up my color shooting and take candids of family and such and never use it. Digital does absolutely nothing for me. The only thing I find it useful for is the family shots and pics for eBay. I think color now is totally different than color photography of 10-15 years ago. I'm so tired of seeing HDR shots and over edited landscapes. I think seeing what's going on with color phtography now is what fuels my passion for traditional black and white even more. But yea I'm afraid color film is dying a slow death right now. I found it hard to go shoot both black and white and color at the same time. I find it easier to go out and only shoot black and white. I prefer that way of seeing.

I should add though that while I mostly see shots in black and white every once in a blue moon I may be driving and see light so beautiful I believe only color would do it justice.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Messages
19,974
Location
Honolulu, HI
Format
Large Format
I go back and forth, but I feel I'm in a BW phase right now, and I plan to stay there for a while, at least for my personal work.
 

Hatchetman

Member
Joined
May 27, 2011
Messages
1,553
Location
Chicago, IL
Format
Multi Format
I've been almost exclusively B&W for the past year or so. Maybe like 1% of the time do I feel a photo would be better in color. But slide film looks so cool sometimes, I do intend to shoot some just to drool at the purty colors.
 

Fixcinater

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Messages
2,500
Location
San Diego, CA
Format
Medium Format
I brought a Pentax 67 + 105/2.4 and 30 rolls of slide/10 rolls of b&w to France this summer and loved every minute of it. No color correction filters, no light meter beyond my phone, no problem. 35mm slides just aren't the same. Yes it added to the cost of the trip but I'm not complaining.

Looking at the transparencies with a good eyepiece, I'm instantly back on the Champs.
 

snapguy

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
1,287
Location
California d
Format
35mm
Huh

Who is not a Neanderthal? Are you insulting my heritage? I adore b&w and only use that Gidgetal-ditital stuff when I absolutely must. Today I am leaving my cave with a swell-looking Yashica J rangefinder loaded for Sabre-tooth tiger, not bear, and ASA 50 b&w film. If I run into any of those humanoids I will hide. They are mean and look funny.
 

Thomas Bertilsson

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
15,708
Location
Switzerland
Format
Multi Format
Do what you love and can practically afford. Enjoy photography in whatever way, shape or form you choose.
The rest doesn't matter.

I shoot black and white only with film just because I suck at color.
 

analoguey

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Messages
1,103
Location
Bangalore, I
Format
Multi Format
So far,

Colour - for expressing vibrancy, joy, happiness.
BW - mostly for moods that are the opposite, or for expressing moods very starkly.

Sent from Tap-a-talk
 

jernejk

Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
213
Format
35mm
We should know that the word in reality is probably monochrome, not colorful at all!

There is only light - correction - there is only EM radiation of different wavelengths. It just happens that our eyes interpret certain wavelengths as certain colors, namely Red, Blue and Green. The interpretation of different combinations - hues - happen entirely in brain and is fictional!
 

Pioneer

Member
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
3,880
Location
Elko, Nevada
Format
Multi Format
Most of the images that I prefer have been shot in color but I am trying like h**l to get some I like in black and white as well. I am learning, but it is slow.
 

gone

Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2009
Messages
5,504
Location
gone
Format
Medium Format
A secret handshake would be nice, actually. The Shriners will be having their convention the next 2 years here in Daytona Beach, so I'll have my people contact their people.
 

jgcull

Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Messages
920
Location
nc
I've done only b&w for a good number of years. I just do really like it. My grandchildren have started to occasionally ask me if it will come out in color, so for them I've accumulated several rolls of exposed color film which I finally took in for processing and had them all put on discs. There are a few frames that I really love, but I think the bottom line for me is that I like being totally in control of the final image, and I'm not with color. I just love a good b&w film print. Sometimes I get one.

I'd say, do what you like, and there's no reason to hold stubbornly to any one way. Experiment. You'll come up with something wonderful like you've never seen before. I have, and I'm not all that great, overall.
 

David Brown

Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2004
Messages
4,055
Location
Earth
Format
Multi Format
I determined a few years back that I likely would never expose another frame of color film. It was just a personal choice. Black and White, as well as film, are choices made subjectively (for me) and not based on what is "better".

I can't find the quote or the reference right now, but a little while back the photographer Carl Weese was quoted as saying something to the effect that black and white was perfected with film, but color was now coming of age in digital. So, I know I'm not the only one.
 

Mark_S

Subscriber
Joined
Oct 20, 2004
Messages
563
Location
Portland, OR
Format
4x5 Format
Most of what I shoot is B&W (over 95%), but I do expose some colour transparancy film. I process everything myself, and for B&W I print traditionally, for colour I scan and print digitally. The colour workflow is probably more friendly to apartment living since you could easily set up a Jobo Processor to process the film, and scan and print without much requirement for dedicated space.
Personally I find the time in the darkroom to be very relaxing and theraputic, while I am never relaxed when working on the computer, so I have a huge preference to the feeling of doing the traditional darkroom work.
 

Kyle M.

Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Messages
558
Location
The Firelands
Format
Large Format
B&W only here, if I have to shoot something in color it's digital. Though I haven't touched my digital camera since June of last year, other than for equipment shots I've uploaded to flickr.
 

Christopher Walrath

Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
7,175
Location
Milton, DE USA
Format
Analog

David, I am in the same boat. I have not wound on color film since 2004. I do not see that changing in the future either. I have come to love and appreciate black and white so much that I think any color photography I did would be lackluster at best. I'd be shooting color film while trying to photograph black and white subject matter.
 

MattKing

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Apr 24, 2005
Messages
53,194
Location
Delta, BC Canada
Format
Medium Format
My reputation in my local photo club is as a black and white photographer, because that is what I develop, print and mainly show there.

I actually had a club member exclaim in surprise "you take colour photographs too" when I displayed a colour 12x16 lab printed from a scanned colour transparency.

And I do enjoy projecting those transparencies.
 

pbromaghin

Subscriber
Joined
Sep 30, 2010
Messages
3,812
Location
Castle Rock, CO
Format
Multi Format
WOW!!! Reading about everybody else's difficulty is very reassuring. Like a lot of you, I thought I was the only one struggling with this. For 3-4 years I shot only Velvia. Then for 3-4 years I shot almost exclusively B&W. Now, thankfully, I have C-41 capability so I can mix color with B&W. My local lab is a mile from where I work, but they are SO SLOPPY - dust on the scans, prints out of focus, it's just shit. I put a roll of Velvia 120 thru my 65 year old Ikonta and the slides were gloriously beautiful, but the prints were horrid. The good labs are 50 mi round trip. Yup, it's home processing from now on, but I'm probably done with e6 for a while. Until I can do it myself.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

pbromaghin

Subscriber
Joined
Sep 30, 2010
Messages
3,812
Location
Castle Rock, CO
Format
Multi Format
Christopher Walrath said:
0000000000I'd be shooting color film while trying to photograph black and white subject matter.
Click to expand...

Now that I am a grandfather, I have assumed my grandchild will want color photos and have started shooting color. It is PAINFUL, but I am learning a lot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…