Analogue Project- Film, Exposure, Shutter Speed and Aperture

Yesterday we headed out to Hesketh Park, Southport to photograph our first roll of film each- which surprisingly went pretty well.

There is something magical about working on film maybe because it slows budding photographers down and makes you appreciate your shot more because it took blood, sweat and tears to create it and then develop it.

So a little bit of information about one of the most popular original film camera in the world, the Pentax k1000

So the Pentax K100 is a 35mm, single lens SLR film camera and it was manufactured from 1976-1997 by Asahi Optical Co, originally in Japan.

Film

Film Definition

'Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film.'-credits wikipedia

There are many different types of film but the most common and standard film type is called '35mm film' and like the other film types it is sold in a light-tight cartridge that you literally just snap into your film camera. Inside, the cartridges contain a long reel of plastic film separated into one , two, or three dozen rectangular frames that measure 24mm x 36mm also known as 35mm film.

Exposure

So exposure is the intensity of light falling on a photographic film or plate multiplied by the time for which it is exposed, a combination of lens aperture and shutter speed used in taking a photograph. Here is the 'exposure triangle' to show you what I mean-

As you can see and like I stated before, exposure is a combination of aperture and shutter speed.

Here is an example of exposure where to the left it has been underexposed, in the middle it is correctly exposed and to the right it is majorly over exposed- exposure takes a while to perfect and it is very easy to under or over expose especially when taking a shot in a rush.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed, also known as exposure time, stands for the length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. If the shutter speed is fast, it can help to freeze action completely and If the shutter speed is slow, it can create an effect called “motion blur”, where moving objects appear blurred along the direction of the motion- which is often used in transport advertisements which gives the viewer a real sense of speed and motion.

Shutter speeds are typically measured in fractions of a second, when they are under a second. For example 1/4 means a quarter of a second, while 1/250 means one two-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second or four milliseconds.

Aperture

Aperture is basically the hole within a lens through which light travels into the camera body, it is easier to think about if you think of your eyes- a large pupil size= large aperture whilst a small pupil size= small aperture.