Long Exposure: a look back at film

Chapin | Updated October 23, 2023

I am lucky enough to still do photography work with our clients at Coates Kokes. While I spend more of my time these days in meetings, conceptualizing, writing and overseeing projects, I still get to wield the camera during photoshoots. Often, we’re trying to squeeze as much as we possibly can from our days to make the most of our client’s investment.

On these shoots, we are using digital cameras, specifically my Canon 5D Mark IV. Typically, we’re going for variety and quantity over nailing that one perfect shot. As a result, we shoot a lot of images, sometimes more than 1500 a day, with less than 5% making the cut.

This 5% is “color graded”, meaning we enhance the image in post by manipulating the color, saturation, exposure and a myriad of other controls. Yes, we’re cultivating a look, but often we are fixing and even creating things we we’re not able to nail during the shoot day. In other words, we put the time in on the back end.

Photo of two smiling people outside at sunset, one person giving the other a piggyback ride. The city of Portland can be seen out of focus in the distance.

In the Spring, some family friends gave me their old Nikon F, a SLR still film camera first manufactured in 1959. The camera became the first 35 mm SLR system widely adopted by professional photographers, specifically with photojournalists during the Vietnam War. With it came four lovely old lenses, each with unique characteristics of their time.

Close up image of Nikon F camera, first introduced in 1959.

Working with film requires more care, more thought and ultimately more time. It’s a precious medium, especially when you consider the Nikon F doesn’t have the automatic focus and exposure controls of modern cameras. You have to carefully set up each shot and you can’t check a moment later to ensure you nailed it on your camera’s display. Instead, you find out weeks later if your settings were right, your subject didn’t blink, your focus was sharp and your framing was interesting.

Despite its modern impracticality, there is such a magic with film. When light hits film a chemical reaction occurs sealing that moment in time. There’s no processing in post, at least none that I’ve needed. Instead, that effort and creativity is front-loaded, and what comes back weeks later seems like a
miracle.

Photo of a grandmother and her grand-daughter outside. Portrait shot on Kodak Portra 400 Professional film with the Nikon F, 50mm 1.4.

Portrait of Dylan Snyder, shot on Kodak UltraMax 400 film with the Nikon F, 50mm 1.4.

In our fast-paced work schedule, slowing down to truly embrace technique and creativity is a battle we often lose. We’ve adapted, all of us have, from professional photographers on down to amateur iPhone users. But part of me wonders if we’re missing some of that magic that film gives us.