Learning from previous rolls of film

I’ve been told that I’m very hard on myself in my analysing the roll posts (here, here and here). This week it’s started to dawn on me that there are more factors at play as to why I’m underwhelmed by those rolls.

Choosing the right film

As I work more with developing my film and digitising negatives and as I put more rolls through my cameras, I’m learning more about the different types of film and my preferences.

For instance many of the shots in Roll 3 lacked the saturation I wanted. This is because I was shooting Portra and should have been shooting Ektar if I’d wanted punchy colours. Portra provides a softer colour palatte and can produce fantastic images given the right subject and lighting but it wasn’t what I was looking for here.

This shot below from Roll 3 may have worked much better in black and white. The light was coming in through the window and illuminating my father and my son beautifully but the Portra has rendered the scene very muddy. Black and white may have caught the lighting on the scene much better. I also find that black and white can be a better option when you are trying to capture a mood or relationship.

Choosing the right subject matter/style

I’ve been looking at more artists and looking back through my previous images and I’m noticing a pattern emerging in what I’m drawn to. Whilst I can appreciate a good lanscape image and I’m certainly envious of the beautiful portraits that some people produce, it’s the more artistic and abstract shots that I like. I also really like the experimental work and mixed media work being done.

So potentially I’m feeling underwhelmed by these images because I’m trying to capture landscapes and similar subject matter but that’s not what I enjoy photographing. I’ve included below some of the images which have jumped out at me when looking back through my previous rolls.

I’ve just sent some colour rolls off to be developped which were shot before I had this little epiphany so we’ll see how much of it I like. For the next rolls going through my cameras I’m going to shift my subject matter and see if I produce something that I prefer.

I also think this idea of what sort of subject matter I prefer is worth exploring further, including reflecting on my photographic journey so far and the misconceptions/stories about art that I’ve grown up with.