Captured by Sam

Before we start, let me just say, shooting film will not instantly make you a better photographer. In my case, it might even make me a worse photographer.

With this photo shoot, the amount of pictures that came out not in focus is simply driving me insane!! I almost scrapped this whole video after seeing the scans; I just felt very defeated.

But guess what? Instead of burning the negatives, burying my camera, deleting this YouTube channel, and never picking up a camera again, I decided to show you every single shot I took during this photoshoot.

Hey guys, this is Sam. Welcome to another episode of “Watch Sam Freaking Out!”

This will be my first time shooting portraits at night on Cinestill 800T. The 800T is a tungsten-balanced film, and we are here at Santa Monica Pier. It will be interesting to see how this film handles different light situations.

Wardrobe-wise, I knew we were going to be shooting against busy backgrounds, so I picked some simple and brightly colored dresses to help the model stand out more.

You can see this was shot around the blue hour; there was still some daylight. Right after the sun went down, about 20 minutes later, we had this very soft, blue daylight that was perfect for a portrait photoshoot.

The first couple of shots were not bad, but as we slowly lost daylight, some shots were underexposed and came out pretty grainy.

Pretty much everything was shot with available light at the pier. Later, I used a small flashlight, but we’ll get to that. I really like a couple of these shots. There was an LED light changing colors, and with the sky and ocean darkening, the yellow and blue contrast looked really nice.

As we completely lost sunlight, we also started to lose focus.

I really like how the colors turned out, but unfortunately, many of the shots were not in focus. I’m pretty bummed about it. I was shooting at f/2.8, and here I changed the lens to a 35mm prime to open up a little more. Finally, one shot came out nice and sharp. And then, back to being blurry again.

I guess I didn’t really think about what 800 ISO could handle, and I didn’t bring a tripod. At this point, I was shooting at very low shutter speed, handheld.

Not in focus, not quite in focus, not in focus at all, but kinda looks nice? Woo, this one is pretty good, there was a lot of light… and then… not in focus, completely not in focus…

At this point, technical issues were occupying my mind more than they should have been. I was less focused on finding the right frame and directing the model, and more frustrated.

I really like this one though; it somewhat feels magical. And the cooler skin tone goes very nicely with the dress.

(And another pro tip: you should never freak out in front of your model; it doesn’t look good. But me being me, I’m freaking out all the time… so yeah… no…)

I asked myself, why did I start shooting film? The reason was wanting to try something new, wanting to learn something new, wanting to make progress in photography. I’m tired of culling through thousands of pictures by the end of the day; shooting film is forcing me to slow down and be a lot more thoughtful with each shot I take.

But changing the shooting habit from digital to film is not easy!! Especially if you rely heavily on your camera.

It’s one thing if you can’t see the shot; it’s a whole other level of frustration when you see the shot but can’t nail it!! I’m like… ahhh (pulling my hair out).

However, just like learning anything new, it takes time and practice! If you are like me, who just started shooting film, be prepared; there are going to be a lot of disappointments, a lot of trash shots. The blurry ones, the out-of-focus ones, the ones with closed eyes, it happens. Or maybe not; you may be born as a film god.

It is so easy to overlook the bad photos when shooting digital because you probably took 10 pictures with the same pose; you can just check and delete the bad ones on the spot. When shooting film, you naturally want to nail every single shot because it costs money. This is where you will feel disappointed because, fun fact, you just can’t nail every single shot. IT IS OKAY.

I talk too much, are you still here? You are, good!

For the second look, knowing the film has a cooler color temperature, I thought yellow might look nice. The first shot had a light leak again.

We were right next to a parking lot, and there was a car with its tail lights on. So here, we have a yellow street light and a red tail light. The first two shots were not in focus. Then I used a small handheld flashlight, and you can see the color and lighting difference here.

Then we found this tunnel, evenly lit and fairly bright. I was finally able to get some sharp and clean shots. Woo, I like this shot; I wish I could shoot more close-ups.

After the tunnel, I started to feel a little better and tried to just enjoy the process. Less hesitation, less worrying, more fun.

It was pretty chill at night, so we decided to stop walking around and finish the rest of the roll here. The yellow dress is pretty much the same color as the yellow carousel; I found it interesting.

It was pretty windy up there. I really like these close-ups; these three shots here might be my favorites.

I do like a lot of shots from the second look. Ultimately, as I’m getting more and more familiar with the film camera and understanding more about how different types of film perform, the gap between what I see and what I can capture will be smaller and closer. With more practice, hopefully, I will be able to focus more on the artistic side of photography and worry less about technical things like focus and exposure.

This is it, two rolls of 72 photos, the good, the bad, you saw every single shot I took. Again, don’t get discouraged if your film turns out not as you expected; learn from the mistakes, keep shooting, and get good!!

This is Sam, I will see you next time.