Back to the FUTURE!!!

Many of you know that for the last couple of months I have been toying with the idea of moving back to a 100% film studio. Digital is great and I have learnt a lot from it but I feel that it is time to go back to the classic medium that I was trained on. It has been a very hard decision to make as both digital and film have their pros and cons. In the end it came down to costs, with digital I am spending a fortune updating my equipment every couple of years and the budget for storage is topping $2000 a year, and I can see it only getting more expensive. Add into this the time I am spending on the computer, the cost of upgrading all the software, constantly upgrading the computers and also paying someone solely to work on the images. Film is going to save a lot, which I can pass onto my clients.

 

With film I have the one reliable camera that will not need upgrading all the time and they are priced so cheaply that I can have one camera for colour film and another camera for black and white film. Again saving time by not having to convert the photos on the computer later. 

 

For the photographers out there, I will be getting my film direct from Kodak’s pro film dealer in Melbourne and still using Bond Lab in Melbourne for the colour processing and have secured the 3rd floor mens toilets in Holyman House for my black and white darkroom (available for hire too). I have tested a few films and decided on Kodak Portra 400VC for the colour and Kodak 400 TMAX. Having the background in scientific photography, I have completed my densitometry tests on my processing and I am producing curves with a LOG exposure range of -3.5 to 0.5, right on the films recommended specs.

 

So, I know this is going against the trend, some people will call me crazy but I want my clients to have the best. And so I am going to keep on delivering the highest quality images on the most stable and archival imaging papers about. I’m really looking forward to it!

 

Edit: And as this is April Fools, some of you fell for it! Sorry Wayne, your comment stays!