Lately I have really missed the joy of shooting with B&W film. I still have my Canon AE-1
and Canon Elan (both film cameras) and I am tempted to pull them out, buy some B&W film, and set up a small darkroom.
I miss the grain. I miss the chemical smells. I miss the softer almost mysterious look of film, where sharpness was not the ultimate king. I especially miss the surprise of each roll.
Last night I had to go lock up the chickens so I grabbed my camera, 50mm f/1.8
(nifty fifty) lens and set it on jpg, monochrome, and 6400 ISO to try to capture some of the allure of B&W film. And it was wonderful.Maple was shot in low light at 6400 ISO, 50 mm, f/2.8, 1/320. You can't tell in this low res. image, but there is grain (some people might refer to it as digital noise) and I love it. I spend so much time worrying about shooting at a low ISO so I won't see noise that this was a refreshing change. Noise in color looks ugly, noise in B&W can be beautiful.
Break the rules and go shoot at high ISO in B&W for those grainy shots. Sure, it is not film and probably won't fool anyone, but you might be surprised and pleased with your results.
I still miss film, so don't be surprised if I try opening up my darkroom again in the near future. I sometimes get tired of the "perfection" of digital. But most of all I miss the surprise of each roll.
I have a grain texture with tutorial I will be posting in the next day or two so you can convert your noise-free perfect digital color images into grainy B&W's.
I adore that stupid dog...
