Process 056 ☼ Common Analog Mistakes To Avoid
GIVEAWAY: Signed copy of NOTICE
Dear friends,
This week’s letter is about mistakes I’ve made while shooting film and what they have taught me.
Also, an exciting update on Ms. Coreen Simpson’s Muhammah Ali story from a few issues ago.
This week’s PROCESS GIVEAWAY is a copy of a signed first print of NOTICE in light of the upcoming release of the second print.
Mistakes, They Happen!
Even after years of being a professional photographer I still make lots of mistakes. Analog photography is as much an art as it is a science so there’s ample opportunities to make mistakes, from human error to machine malfuction. I thought I’d share a few of the most common ones so you can learn to avoid them.
Messing Up Exposure
Below is a set of images I shot as part of my ongoing series about Amsterdam-based creatives. I visited steel drum maker and kinetic artist Jan Borren at his studio. The light was a bit tricky and even with the help of my camera’s excellent lightmeter I didn’t hit the right exposure with every shot, see below.
On the left I somewhat overexposed by metering for the darkest part of the photo, leading to slightly blown out highlights on Jan’s face. Not good. The middle photo is underexposed so now Jan’s face is shrouded in darkness, which looks pretty cool but it wasn’t what I was going for. In the third image I hit the exposure just right.
Lesson: It’s always worth bracketing your shots if you are not sure about your exposure to make sure you get it right on at least some of the shots.
Mysterious Equipment Failure
When I got my scans back from a recent shoot with Rogier at Studio 13 I had no idea what happened to put a random black bar in the upper left corner (see below).
These images were shot on a Hasselblad 500c/m with a newly acquired back and it happened across several rolls, so I knew it wasn’t likely to be a scanning mistake.
After taking a look at the back I realized a very thin sliver of black plastic had detached itself inside so each time I removed the dark slide it pulled this sliver out and it would block the light from hitting the film. The sliver would also be pushed back in place when I put the darkslide back in so there was no way for me to notice during the shoot. Thankfully I was able to fix it by remove the sliver altogether.
Lesson: thoroughly check your equipment before a shoot.
Missing Focus
I shot my very first rolls on the Pentax 67ii at Photoville in 2018. Like most people when they get an f2.4 lens on a medium format camera I couldn’t resist shooting everything wide open, which adds that beautiful bokeh we all love.
The problem is that of you miss focus even ever so slightly when shooting wide open you ruin the portrait. Below is a shot of my buddy Joe Greer where this happened.
There is something a little bit off about the image on the left which you may not be able to put your finger on right away but if you look at the zoomed in image on the right you can see I missed focus. And it was the only shot I took!
Rather than his eyes being in focus the crispest part of the photo are his ears. Had I shot this images at F4 instead of F2.4 I would have probably had both his eyes and ears in focus and it would have made it a usable portrait. Can’t have out of focus eyes!
Lesson: take more than one shot so you can make sure you hit the focus in at least one.
Self-Inflicted Light Leaks
During a shoot in Brooklyn with my friends Paul and Willem I accidentally created what became my most popular picture on Reddit. I was still getting used to the camera and fumbled a roll of film as I was removing it from the camera. It dropped to the floor as it ever so slightly un-spooled allowing some light to hit the film.
I immediately picked it up, rolled it tightly, and taped it up hoping at least the shots at the beginning of the roll would not be damaged. When I got the scans back I saw that this accidental mistake gave me some pretty cool light leaks which, thanks to a lot of luck, whirled around model Greg without interfering with this handsome face. Lucky!
Lesson: Don’t drop your film, d’oh!
Bringing The Wrong Film
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Kominka Waraya, a young family of cloth makers and restorers who live in a 160 year old traditional house a few hours outside of Tokyo. It was an extremely sunny day and with all that available light I figured I could shoot the entire day with 100 ISO slide film.
Upon arrival I realized the inside of the house was the most interesting and part of the entire scene and I should really photograph the family in there. This was a problem because while beautiful it was also quite dark in there. Not too dark for our eyes but certainly too dark for 100 ISO film.
Thankfully I brought along a tripod but even then with a young child involved I still had to shoot somewhat faster shutter speeds than were ideal to avoid movement. I was able to somewhat save the shoot in editing but I wish I would have brought more film! Below are the original (left) and my edit (right) which I later used for a story.
Lesson: Always bring a variety of film for all occasions. You never know.
All film was developed and scanned by my friends at Carmencita Film Lab, unless otherwise noted. Use code “PROCESS” at check out to get a free size upgrade for your scans. I love working with Team CFL and can highly recommend them.
Coreen Simpson Update
Two issues ago in Process 054 I shared Ms. Coreen Simpson’s inspiring story of being in the right place at the right time outside of a Muhammad Ali fight. So many of you let me know that the story had inspired you so I had to see if we could track down these photos. Thankfully Ms. Simpson is an excellent archivist and found them!
Side note, let this be a motivation to revisit the three issues of Process about how to best archive your work! You can easily find any roll within minutes, even 60 years later.
Process 004 — How to Organize and Archive your Photos
Process 012 — Why every Photographer should keep Roll Notes
Process 048 — How to Archive your Negative and Honor your Work
Ms. Simpson found eleven rolls of film featuring Muhammad Ali including the rolls from the night she described in her story. She kindly allowed me to share some of the images, shot between 1976 and 1980. Let me know if you’d like to see more of Ms. Simpson’s amazing work from her Ali series in print, maybe a zine. How iconic!
If you missed the story and the main lesson Ms. Simpson distilled from the experience, read issue 054 here. I called it the most important piece of advice I ever received in photography.
That’s it for this week!
Keep shooting and take good care of yourselves and others.
Wesley
Process Giveaway!
This May we are publishing the second print of NOTICE. Not many independently released photo books get to have a second print and I’m so grateful this one will.
Ordering a copy of NOTICE is the best way to support my writing here so if you don’t already have one I’d love for you to snap up the last remaining copies of the first print:
I am giving away 1 signed copy of the first print of NOTICE for this week’s giveaway.
To enter email me at hello@wesley.co using the subject line PROCESS GIVEAWAY NUMBER 056 before 11pm EST on April 13th and answer the following question:
What is a recent photography mistake you’ve made and the lessons it taught you that you’d share with a beginner?
The winner will be randomly drawn and notified. This giveaway is for Process subscribers only. Subscribe by clicking the button below:
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The piece of plastic you saw was likely the light seal foil which is meant to prevent light leaks from the chimney to the magazine. I had it fall out on my 203FE just as I began shooting my project of the ICTY in The Hague. Hasselblad in Gothenburg repaired it easily enough.
Interesting concept: returning to shooting on film. I cut my teeth in that medium since I was 14 and somehow survived and thrived in photojournalism and commercial photography since the '70s. But the wait for the film to develop (usually in my own darkroom tank) was nerve-wracking. Especially E-6! Feel so blessed to be able to shoot in RAW and make the usually required edits. See some of my work (both film and digital) at www.thehumanpulse.com