“Is that all ?” Steve asked after the quiet snick of the leaf shutter in my 300mm 8×10 lens indicated another exposure was made.   With all the setting up, loading each individual film holder and just the sheer size of the camera it can seem like an anticlimax.  Making portraits has always daunted me, but I’ve just embarked on a project to try and fix that.  The aim is to create a series of classic black and white 8×10 film images.  I started this weekend with Steve and Claire and I’m quite happy with the first results.

The process is really different to any other people photography I’ve done previously.  The camera takes time to setup, compose and focus.  The sitter has to be an active participant, staying still when asked.  For this session I took 6 frames, and but for a processing mishap I’d have 6 decent finished images – when was the last time you only took 6 images with a digital camera ? The other thing which is kind of magical shooting film like this is that you come home, process the film, contact print it and you get beautiful finished prints with no fuss.  No editing, cropping, levels, contrast or retouching.  I’m planning to use the Ilford Art 300 paper you see scanned here for all these images, it’s a 300 GSM pure cotton paper with no coating apart from the print emulsion.  A chameleon to work with; having aspects of RC, Fibre and rag inkjet papers alike.  Get in touch if you’d like to sit for me – james@thirdglance.com – James