I headed down to Shoreham-by-Sea a while ago and thought I’d shoot some Portra 160 film in the Noblex. Got a nice day for it!
Portra 160
This is the first roll of Portra I’ve shot and I’m quite happy with how the film handled the colour! It is quite naturalistic but its also got a quality that I don’t think you see in digital. You hardly get any situations where you get clipping of highlights, all tones are smooth and soft and the tonality is very clean and realistic. I’m going to keep testing different kinds of film here but I’m interested in coming back to shoot more of this film and getting to know it better.
The grain is quite fine on this film which adds to the sharpness in the shots but the grain doesn’t distract from the images, I think.
At the moment, I do prefer a more stylised look when shooting film and am going to keep on shooting different film types to keep on expanding my understanding of film types. I think I need to choose the film I’m using based on what I’m shooting so I’ll come back to Portra at a later date.
I first stopped off at the boats that get stranded on the gravel along the river. There were some Korean women collecting some shellfish in the pools there.
I WOULD RECOMMEND TO CLICK ON THE PHOTOS BELOW TO SEE THEM AS LARGE AS POSSIBLE
I like this photo overall. The woman under the rope is a bit too small but it is an interesting idea. Think I’ll have to go back to Shoreham in different lighting conditions in the future.
I like the detail on the boat here and the girl in the pool but there is a lot of empty space in the left of the shot that could have been used.
The seaweed is nice in the pool and the blue reflection ties the pools and the sky together. I think the horizon works ok in this one, possibly because the buildings get bigger on the right, to stop it seeming so curved.
The scanning of this one is a bit off I think. The colours just don’t look right. Still need a bit of practice.
Scanning Film
This is also the first roll of film I’ve scanned myself. It has taken a lot of reading, research and testing but I think I’ve got there.
I’ve decided to do it myself so I’ve got control of the process and I don’t need to rely on someone elses interpretation of how my images should be scanned. Its going to take a bit of time to really understand this process and I might write up a blogpost about it in the future, once I have more experience.
After the river and the beach, I headed along to the House boats that are moored in the sand. There are a lot of very interestingly designed boats there. A lot of artists have moved into these boats and have decorated them uniquely. I think, each boat clearly shows a lot of the character of the resident on board. This is a fascinating spot and I think I’ll have to revisit in the future.
The colours are a bit out on this one too, mainly because I overexposed the shot quite a bit and had to bring it back down. There is a lot of empty space in the middle of this image and I could have framed the bomb so it stood out from the background more. I think the people in these boats are very creative! I love the car embedded in the boat on the left!
I like the sign with the womans name in this shot, the mail box and the plants growing along the walkway. It really gives an idea of the person who lives there.
Not too sure if a panorama would be necessary for this photo.
This boat at the end of the row of boats is surrounded by the mud. Generally, I think that the photos work better from this camera when you can’t see the curve of the horizon too clearly. The distortion can become the focus instead of the subject matter. Will need to bear this in mind.
Although the horizon is bent in this one, I think the overall composition works. For all you flat earthers out there, this shot conclusively proves that the earth is not flat!