My name is Andrew and I am a fine art destination wedding photographer in Italy (Lake Como, Amalfi). On the weddings and styled photo sessions I also shoot 35mm film, mostly black and white. This article is going to be about 35mm film - Kodak T-Max 100 pushed by 1 stop.
In recent years (since 2019) Kodak T-Max has become my one of the most favourite films for weddings for its super fine grain and extreme sharpness (if one can call 35mm film extremely sharp at all). You can see my review of this film in my other post here. This time I decided to experiment with this film and take it further - shooting the film at ISO200 and then pushing it by one stop in development. I will clarify that I do not develop myself but I send all my film to PhotoLab and they do all the job (few readers asked in the past). Since we had a planned styled photoshoot in boho mood I have decided to push T-max on that photo shoot and see what sort of result we would get. I do not run such experiments on the real weddings so the styled photo shoots is the best place to test new technics and gain new knowledge (at least for me). This time I was working with an amazing wedding planner from Riga (Latvia) Bohemia Events and their team who I would list below. Below I will also list some challenges and my personal opinion about this film, hope you will find it helpful (especially if you are a beginner).
P.S. One more thing - you can always tell me "THANK YOU" by donating 2-3 euro/dollars, this would encourage me to write more articles about film photography as I have a huge library of various film scans and all what it needs now - a bit of my time. When I get no respond from my readers- I kinda feel that no one is interested in film photography anymore. If you think my attempts to share samples of film scans are worth a little tip - please donate. And now enjoy the shots:
Kodak T-Max 100 35mm
Camera: Canon 300v
Lens: Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II
Location: Riga Old Town (Latvia)
Challenges:
The main challenge is Covid-19 and its restrictions. For this photo shoot we had to cross the borders and since it was just about Latvia introduced stricter rules we were at the edge of getting stuck in Riga for 2 weeks of self isolation. Luckily we were just about on time to go home. Photography wise the main challenge was the sun that did not want to stay out through the whole day. I got two films with me - Tmax 100 and Tmax 400. For 400 it was too bright, for 100 - mix of everything. I so needed to get ISO 200 that I decided to push my 100 ISO film by 1 stop. This was a very good decision to make so I am glad I did that. I shot the entire film on as if it was ISO 200 film, then I asked my lab to push it by one stop.
Personal opinion:
I think the shots are very good and I might use this push technique some time in the future again. With the raise of the film prices I noticed the labs have also raised their prices. It becomes more expensive to push film just for fun, so please do not forget to donate. It helps me keep going. In my opinion pushing Kodak Tmax 100 makes no harm - you get very good quality images. One thing that I noticed (see the set of images with the coffee) - the images are not alike. Some are very crispy and sharp, some are like shades, like very vintage film but without scratches and dust. Not sure why there was such a big difference. Not bad, but still quite a difference no note:
Event Planner: @bohemiaevents
Photographer: @happyeverafter_photography
Video: @vytautas.uncevicius
Bouquets: @thebadseedz
Fashion Stylist: @alineskarule
MUAH: @tinatironemua
Models: @madaraanete @dekaans
Grooms Style: @suitfactory.lv
Hat: @straumbergs
Wedding Dresses: @alexangelbridal
Brides Shoes: @bonbonshoes.eu
Brides Boots: @hoglshoes
Earrings #1 and Necklace: @rozenthaljewelry
Earrings #2: @notte_design
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