120>135 not just in terms of IQ.
Sorry but it’s true!
Intro
120 film obviously has more advantages than 135, image quality, cleaner grain and more pleasing depth of field but I have another advantage that I want to talk about today.
Practice makes perfect.
When learning photography I was told to practice composition with a 35mm film camera, this was because unlike digital cameras a roll of film is finite, either thirty-six or twenty-four exposures. While it did help me slow down and consider how I would frame my compositions it has also conditioned me to shoot “properly” with a film camera and spray and pray with a digital camera, this was definitely not the idea of the exercise. This is probably why I love shooting film so much. I get results that I am happy with and enjoy every aspect of the process.
Whilst thirty-six and twenty-four exposures are limiting, when moving up to medium format you are even more limited with the frame count on a roll. Ranging from sixteen to four exposures depending on which format you are shooting. Once again this is a great exercise as now you have even fewer shots on a roll, but coincidentally it poses a different problem when shooting 35mm.
Too Many Frames!
Nowadays I struggle to finish a roll of 35mm film in a day, this is down to thinking I can’t waste an exposure by taking a photo of something I might think is not worth shooting. I currently own four 35mm cameras, two of which haven’t been loaded for almost eight months! My Nikon FM2 is loaded with a roll of Portra 400 which is at frame twenty-four and my M7 has a roll of Bergger and was only loaded about four weeks ago. I need to CLA my Nikon so I’m putting off shooting it but it’s inevitable and I’m going to have to bite the bullet at some point. My Leica, on the other hand, was shot in London the last time I was down there. We had only just come out of lockdown and Prince Phillip had just passed away so London didn’t have the same bustling atmosphere I am used to. I wasn’t feeling it on the day. On this trip I popped into Mr Cad’s to pick up some Hasselblad accessories, ironically if I had taken my blad with me I would have probably finished a roll!
What’s the solution?
It’s a fairly obvious answer but I need to just chill out and enjoy working a scene, besides, I might actually find a better exposure/composition by shooting multiples. Rather than working a scene strictly and trying to get a technically perfect scene, the image might tell a better story if shot naturally and in the spare of the moment.
I perhaps need to try to develop, (if you’ll pardon the pun), separate styles of shooting with different cameras. Large format forces you to. I need to force myself to shoot specifically depending on what camera I am using. I already do this to an extent when shooting SLRs in comparison to my preferred rangefinders.
