Timeless Grace

Timeless Grace, originally uploaded by LooseCanon.

Portrait of an old Shepherd Lady, shot on b&w film at a village near Hosur, TN. I was surprised at the grace she had on her face inspite of the wrinkles that tell the tale of a hard life.

This is one of the first portraits i shot with a b/w film. Later I used that roll of film to click more landscapes and also for wide angles at Lepakshi. Compared to color film, b&w film is a different ball-game altogether. Here are the learnings -
1. Almost all my frames are over-exposed. That too, when i know for sure that i metered them properly. The dynamic range of b&w films is much lower than that of color films. So the dark shades appear darker and bright shades appear brighter. So, need to deliberately underexpose every frame by at least 1 stop to achieve correct exposure.
2. The details are captured, but the contrast is usually quite high. Therefore, It's an excellent choice for portraits, historic monuments, textures and sculptures.
4. There is a LOT of grain in b&w film. But the kind of mood it creates is outstanding. Every frame, looks right out of history.
5. It's tough to get b&w film developed. If you find a good developer, let me know ASAP.
6. If you plan to get the film printed, always ask about the paper being used. B&W film printed on regular color paper looks awful. You get only brown/sepia tones and the feel totally goes for a toss.