Tone Of A Film Photograph
This image was made in the Alabama Hills in late November 2012. This photo looks west across the hills and onto the eastern Sierra Nevada range. It’s a beautiful area; a very scenic mountain range. I had been working through a roll of 100 speed Kodak ektar film. We arrived in the Alabama Hills and explored the area after the sun had set behind the mountains.
I had one frame left on my roll, and I wanted to make it count. It was a beautiful area and it would be difficult not to find something to take a photograph of.
I set up my tripod and walked around looking at different compositions. Most of them were similar. The problem was the mediocre light. The sun had fallen back behind the mountains leading to harsh backlighting of the mountain range making the east side of the range plunge into shadow. The photograph I wanted to make was not there. I began looking at shooting the unusual water eroded rocks that make up the Alabama Hills. I turned my lens and tripod to face east to catch the warmer light of the sunset and fast encroaching twilight. I was very fortunate that day; a ridge of high clouds lit up as the setting sunlight caught it. The clouds turned a bright and warm yellow, auburn color, and the warm light diffused across the open land that led up to the eastern Sierras.
Tripod : https://www.manfrotto.com/us-en/057-carbon-fiber-4-section-geared-tripod-mt057c4-g/
Kodak Pro Films : https://imaging.kodakalaris.com/photographers-photo-printing/film/color
Film has a distinctive look to it. The appeal of this look is not the nostalgia of color casts and cross processing like Instagram might like us to believe. The film itself has a unique tone and grain. There is a quality to film that is aesthetically different from digital image files. Neither look is necessarily better, or more desirable. But recognizing that there is an aesthetic difference between the two allowed me to choose the option that would best carry out my intent for the mood of the picture.
I once heard photographer Chris Orwig talk about the aesthetics of film in an interesting way. He likened the photographic mediums of film and digital to musical scales. In this analogy, the digital images took the place of the major scale. Digital images are strong, bold, and very present much like the notes on the major scale, whereas you may be able to think of film fitting more closely with notes on the minor scale. They are more subdued, moodier, and can sometimes communicate more emotion.
The Tone Of A Film Photograph is not always more realistic or color accurate to real life, but it can feel more genuine. There is a difference in the way film grain adds to the look and feel of a scene. Film photos will often show more contrast than their unedited digital counterparts. The pictures have deeper blacks and brighter highlights. The images will capture a more full-bodied saturation. Within some of the film photos I have seen, I noticed that the tone of the film can add an almost timeless aesthetic. Some photographs could look like they were taken yesterday or years ago. The tone of the film, though sometimes more subtle than digital, can create a more striking effect on the viewer.
Tone Of A Film Photograph
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