Light and Details

Black and white photography is a huge component of my process. The timeless quality that is perceived through its tones is something that has drawn me to photography since I was a young kid. Photographing in monochrome not only simplifies the image but, I think helps draw the viewers eye around the images to things more important, like light and details often missed in the distraction of colour photographs.

When I started out photographing, I was mostly documenting my close friends and family in our day to day, and then later wanted to branch out and meet new people and create portraits.

When I shoot with black and white film, I like to choose a stock that’s either going to have a soft & buttery feel to the tones, or the exact opposite with something that has the contrast and punch. I work mainly with 120 films shooting on either my Fuji GX680s (with a 135mm lens) or traveling with my Fuji GA645zi, both camera’s available lenses are slow speed in comparison to whats available on the Mamiya or Hasselblad kits which had me drawn to shooting Ilford 3200 stock and I haven’t looked back since. The grain is beautiful, and not overpowering on large 120 format cameras, and it also allows me the ability to stop down the lens aperture and capture incredible detail.

How I shoot with Delta 3200

When I’m shooting with Delta 3200, I like to shoot one whole stop overexposure to really give the shadows a nice range, I’ve found that I can still achieve beautiful highlight information even in skies in harsh midday-daylight.

Figure 1 Shot Bio:

Film Ilford Delta 3200 – Camera Fuji GX680s

In this series of images, me and my friend Nyssa ventured out to the Enoggera Reservoir just after a short series of lockdowns here in Queensland. I wanted to play with the reflections of the water and capture some natural ripples amongst the Lilypad’s. This is a good example of my favourite time of day to be shooting this particular film, it lets me capture incredible detail in the scene. I particularly love how clear the reflection of the water is and the way it captures Nyssa’s bright blue eyes.

Special mentions

Special mention to Ikigai Camera in Naarm (Melbourne) who handle all of my film development, They’ve been the best Film lab that I have worked with in Australia. Without them involved in my photographic process  I wouldn’t be producing the film work that I am now, and I have to thank them for letting me experiment with different films and development styles.

Credits

Artist: Andre Cois (Instagram: @andrecois) www.andrecois.com.au

Film Lab: Ikigai Camera (Instagram: @ikigai.camera) www.ikigaicamera.com.au

Figure 1: Model – Nyssa