The nuances of film exposure can be quite complex, especially when you’re just starting out, but understanding these basics will dramatically improve your work.
Coming to you from Teo CrawfordThis informative video covers the essentials of film exposure, with a particular focus on how to expose film right and should you shoot at box speeds. Crawford starts by breaking down the basics, explaining that when you shoot film, you can rely on automatic exposure, which is common in point-and-shoot cameras, or go the manual route, where you control the settings yourself. While automatic exposure may seem convenient, it can sometimes lead to mistakes. Manual control, while more difficult, gives you the precision you need to get consistently well-exposed shots.
Crawford explains how film exposure works by comparing it to cooking. Too much light and you’ll overcook the film, resulting in an overly bright negative. Too little light and you’ll undercook it, resulting in a dark, dull image. The key is finding that balance, and that’s where metering comes in. Crawford walks through his process, mentioning that he typically uses an app on his phone as a light meter. He notes that while pros can use dedicated light meters, a simple app can do the job just as well.
Crawford offers practical advice on metering for shadows rather than highlights when shooting film. He explains that, unlike digital photography, where it is easier to recover detail from shadows, film tends to retain more detail in highlights. This means that underexposing film often results in unrecoverable shadows, while overexposing can still produce a usable, albeit bright, image. Crawford’s method involves metering the darker parts of a scene to ensure they are properly exposed, then adjusting settings such as aperture and shutter speed accordingly.
Another important aspect that Crawford mentions is shooting at box speeds. Box speeds refer to the ISO rating printed on the film canister, which is the recommended sensitivity setting for that type of film. Crawford discusses how some photographers like to set their ISO lower than the box speed, essentially overexposing the film slightly to get better shadow detail. However, Crawford himself doesn’t strictly follow this rule, instead focusing on metering for shadows and adjusting as needed based on the particular scene. Check out the video above for Crawford’s full rundown.
