Up until a week ago, my quest in photography was to create images devoid of grain. After a healthy dose of perspective from another blog, I decided I wanted to see the grain. Having recently finished 100' of slow speed film, I opted to waste my time fighting grain with my medium format camera and got a roll of high speed film. The grain wasn't readily apparent, so I pushed it from ISO 400 to ISO 800. I didn't see much grain. I wasn't making huge images, I wasn't making wet prints, and I wasn't seeing the grain I wanted to see. So I pushed to ISO 3200. Due to finals getting in the way, it took a few days for me to develop the rolls I shot, and a little longer to actually get them scanned.
After the first batch of scans, I was dumbfounded. Where was my grain? It didn't seem like there was much more grain, so I checked my scan settings to make sure grain correction was off. Then i checked my next image and I found my grain.
Despite being warned about the lack of shadow detail I was still caught off guard, especially because my black cat disappears in any shots with him not on a black background. It also seems like some shots just get more grain than others. Some I can't tell if I focused correctly, others look like they were barely pushed.
I very much like the top image.
ReplyDeleteAre you scanning? What scanner? Using a medium format, you'll have to see resolutions around 3x the size of 35mm before you see comparable grain.
Sorry I made that confusing. I was dedicating my medium format work to avoiding grain and my 35mm work to embracing it. I am scanning it with a Canon 8800F. And I appreciate the compliment. The bottom image is so grainy its silly. I just finished a 11x14 wet print of the middle image and it shows some grain but I was surprised how good it looks considering.
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