Zen and the art of development
Earlier on in the year, I blogged about incorporating black and white film into my work – but over the year, haven’t had huge chances to do anything with it! So with a stack of films to develop, I decided to go retro and try developing the film myself – rather than getting someone else to do it for me (quicker – but more expensive and less control). So yesterday, I took over the kitchen and got out the supplies of Ilford ID11 developer and fixer – and left photoshop behind for a couple of hours.
The first thing that got me was the smell of the chemicals – my kitchen took on the slight smell of an oldish high street lab! There’s nothing like the slight citrus smell of Stop solution 
So, after 7.5 minutes in the developer, 20 seconds with the stop solution and then 2.5 minutes in the fixer – we were done – and I had a roll of albeit wet, but developed black and white film. Given this was the first time in terms of hand developing, I’d used a test film that I’d shot the night before so I knew none of the shots were spectacular. So, in the space of 30 minutes I had 3 strips of negatives hanging up in the bathroom to dry with images on them.
It’s kind of amazing the way that technology has developed over the last 100 years and even the last 10 years when it comes to imaging technology. 10 years ago, the majority of wedding photographers still tended to use film and managed to stay well away from Photoshop! Once the film was finished, that was pretty much it. The photographer would send the film to the lab to be developed, and the lab would colour correct and produce the negatives and the prints – that was all out of the photographers hands. When I come back from a wedding now, I have about 1000 shots to go through and sort which takes about 2.5 hours. Then I have to colour correct and adjust any photographs, followed by producing slideshows of the images and album proofs. So generally, after I’ve finished a wedding it’s anywhere between half -a-day to full day, just to get the images in front of the Bride and Groom – and this doesn’t include the time taken to produce the wedding album!
With film, you don’t take as many photographs – you make sure that what you are taking is right – no going back in photoshop afterwards! This in term means less time editing images just because you can – and also less shots to choose from. Put it like this, if I take a group photograph, then generally I’ll take 3 shots, – the first will usually be a waste of time because someone will either not be looking in the right direction or have their eyes closed. The second and third shots are usually the ones that will be the better out of the three. Now with digital, it is easier to shoot as many pictures as my heart desires – but does that make us better photographers? No it doesn’t. What it means is that we have far more choice in terms of images selection which means more times spent at the computer. When I think about the number of times I’ve sat infront of my computer, looking at 4 virtually identical images – taken seconds apart, to find the best one, I could laugh/cry. If I had just taken one shot, possibly two – then the time spent making that decision would be far less.
Technology hasn’t made things easier per se, It’s made things more convenient and quick but is that a good thing? I remember not having a mobile phone and was life much different….. yes in that it meant that people didn’t expect to be able to contact and get hold of me at whatever time they liked. I had to make an effort to meet up with friends and spend time with them. Now, with texts, email, facebook and twitter – people can see what I’m upto, what I’ve been doing without actually speaking to me – but what’s missing is all the nuances of conversation – the body language, the intonation of voice. As we all rush forward embracing new technologies, lets not forget our past and make sure that we learn all we can from it.
So for now, whilst not not moving from digital to film – I am learning the lessons of film – get the picture right once, patience is a virtue and just because you can doesn’t mean you should!
