Film Tips

A quick note on the ancient art of film shooting, some background, and a brief history lesson.

In the days of film, wedding photographers almost exclusively used Kodak VPS 160VC professional color negative film for its natural colors and low contrast. The film has since been discontinued by Kodak and they now offer Portra 160NC and 160VC. Both offer excellent results if you are shooting with film.

In addition, when I shot, or shoot color negative and B&W film,I intentionally overexpose these films by a 1/2 a stop or more. As an example: if the film's ISO is rated at 160, I set it at ISO 125. If it’s ISO 400, I set it at ISO 320.

The reason is, most films are always rated a bit higher than they really are. Furthermore, with the forgiving latitudes of color negative films, it allows one to under or overexpose 1-3 stops either way and still get very decent results.

Slide film is another story. I shoot it at its rated ISO and trust the metering on my camera. Too much exposure in slides blasts out the colors, and then your shots look as if you were shooting in a snow storm; too little exposure, and the colors can be VERY saturated to the point of total darkness, depending on how much under exposure takes place.