Sliding Into Something New

I set up a trip for my students to study abroad in England. It was ten days, starting in Manchester and making our way through Britannia until we reached London. The focus of the trip was literature, stopping at locations like Lakeland, Haworth, and Stratford. But this obviously gave me am opportunity to photograph places I rarely have a chance to visit. The last time I was in the UK was over twenty years ago. I had gone with my grandparents over a spring break and had taken a bunch of Kodak film with me to make photographs all over Britain. I know I have those negatives somewhere and I am now furiously searching boxes in my home in an attempt to rescan them. But I am much more serious about photography today than I was at 15 when I first travelled to England. And I wanted to challenge myself a bit. As fun as this trip would be, it was a work trip and I wanted to work for my photographs. So, I decided I was finally going to try shooting slide film.

The concept of slide film had been something that drew my attention for about as long as I can remember. I remember seeing old slides, both at my grandparents home as well as at school, and was amazed that these emulsions looked like the prints I got back from my lab and not my negatives. Of course, finding my way back to film in 2020 after a long hiatus meant that I could no longer shoot Kodachrome, but Ektachrome was still readily available and oh look! Palm Film Lab around the corner from my work has it in stock. So I purchased one roll because I was unready to commit to a ten day trip all over England, a once in a lifetime trip if ever there was one, with a film emulsion I'd never used before. Oh, I did a fair amount of reading and was aware of the narrower exposure latitude of slide film compared to film negatives, but until I shoot and develop a roll, I don't really know what the results will be.

The results, I think, were not only surprising in the color rendition and sharpness, but also in the number of frames with which I was able to nail exposure. Oh, I botched a few. But it was a great learning experience.

Figuring Out Color Reversal

\The very first frame, I think, is one that shows how easy it is to miss exposure. While there was enough information in the sky to not have the highlights entirely blown out, there's definitely not much. I metered for shadows as I usually do with film, but thought there was low enough contrast to be able to pull highlights back in editing and be left with a balanced exposure. I was wrong.

However, I am not entirely disappointed with this frame. I will always remember that this was the first frame of slide film I ever shot and and am quite happy with the composition, having a strong street photography feel with all the context of a telephone booth, double-decker bus, and Westminster Abbey in foreground, middle ground, and background respectively. The colors definitely pop, especially that vibrant red of the phone booth and bus.

I am, though, happy that after taking this shot I decided to play it safer and find even lower contrast lighting situations for which to make my photographs.

For those unfamiliar with the geography of London, just past Westminster Abbey is Parliament Square. And thankfully the sun was not positioned directly behind Big Ben as it was with the tower of Westminster. It allowed me to meter in a more balanced way and account for a lower contrast between highlights and shadows. The result was a photograph that I am much happier with.

Westminster Abbey with iconic red phone booth and stone walkway in London.

Here, I think, I found a composition and exposure that mimics the slides I saw in my youth. The colors are bright and pop with an almost 3D quality. Of course, this is helped by the camera and lens. Despite what one may read on various sources on the internet, Leica's Vario Elmar 28-70mm f3.5 lens is an amazing set of glass that has become my workhorse lens for film photography. And when you nail focus along with exposure, and compose with care...well, its magic.

Wasn't I talking about slide film? I think I was. Yeah, let's get back to that.

What really struck me about this one frame in particular is how accurate these colors are to what I saw that day. The skies were bright blue with heavy, white clouds. The county flags were almost nauseatingly colorful. The grass was a rich green thanks to lots of rain in the weeks leading up to our visit. And that is exactly what I see here.

Big Ben tower and Parliament buildings with flags flying against blue cloudy sky in London.

What I did not expect was the blue cast that is present throughout the photograph. And while it is present in that first frame, I think it is more noticeable in this one. The shadows in the skies seem to be tinged with blue. It is an odd, almost unreal color cast in an otherwise entirely realistic color rendition. And I like it! It is at odds with the usual warmth that is produced by my Leica lenses. In fact, when I use my Leica R lenses with digital cameras, I always have to move the warmth slider a few shades to the cold side to balance out that warmth. But here, everything simply seems cooler. Not unnaturally so, rather it is a pleasing coolness.

Leaning Into Contrast

By the time I had made my way to the Tower of London, I had purposely chosen a few odd exposures and compositions to try out with the Ektachrome specifically to see what the emulsion was capable of. One of my favorite hacks is to take a shot on a digital camera first, making sure to use an ISO that mimics the film speed I have loaded into my film camera, and make sure the exposure I want works the way I think it will. This, I assume, is similar to how medium format photographers used Polaroid instant film sheets to test exposure before taking their shots with 120 film. So, I was able to see via the viewfinder of my Leica SL what the historgram was reading as well as seeing how these shots looked before I took them with Ektachrome.

Royal guard in red ceremonial uniform standing at attention in stone doorway.

The frame here of the royal guard shows heavy contrast. With the digital shot, I was able to pull back shadows and see the details of his face, but not so here. However, after considering the contrast, I think I prefer this one. The thankless nature of the job coupled with the fact that their uniforms seem to remove any of their personality comes through with such contrast, obscuring his face in shadows. The end result is a moodier photograph than the one I made with my digital camera and I'm grateful for it.

I think the same emotional weight is found in this image of London Bridge. Seen from behind the window pane, a feeling of being trapped, with freedom just on the other side of the Thames, is accentuated by the heavy contrast between the shadowed foreground and well lit background. And while everything I learned about slide film cautioned heavily against composing frames with extreme contrast, I think that using it creatively to work for you is a fantastic way to turn a limitation into a creative tool.

It wouldn't be the first time this philosophy is pushed on photographers. I cannot say how many times I have heard or read that the limits that come with prime lenses is a great characteristic, forcing the photographer to think artistically and work with the focal length. Why did I not read this about the limitations to be found with slide film? The positives are certainly numerous, but it seems that the "difficulty" with metering for film with such a narrow exposure latitude is what often scares potential users away. I know it scared me away for a long time.

And while I don't think I have ever found myself in a situation where I have thought, "you know, I wish I had X film loaded into my camera instead of Y film," I can definitely see a benefit to having used this emulsion for shoots and photo walks where I used more conventional film negatives.

View of Tower Bridge through window on cloudy day in London.

Final Focus

Group of Hare Krishna devotees in orange and white robes walking down a London street.

While I don't see myself ever becoming a full-time slide film shooter, I can see myself using slide film for specific situations and certainly traveling with a at least one roll of Ektachrome. Even if only to capture a city and its people in an old-school way, I enjoy the idea of slide film. But I also really enjoy the final look of these frames. Then there's the artistic aspect of the film. If I knew I was going to be working on a high-key or low-key shoot, I would consider Ektachrome. Simply put, The blacks, whites, and colors are more vibrant and true to life than any other film I have tried.

A part of me wishes I had been afforded an opportunity to shoot Kodachrome. Such a thing is impossible today and unfortunately I had no idea what I was doing with my cameras when it was available. So, I'll have to live with Ektachrome for slide film as Fujifilm Velvia seems to be on and off again. Not a bad compromise, I think. At any rate, I enjoyed shooting this roll almost as much as reliving the memories on these slides.