Sunny Saltair has become our home! This little area on Vancouver Island seemed like a little paradise so we immortalized our arrival day by filming a reel of 16mm film. Meet our dogs Stella and Wolsky as they bring us to a place of rejuvenation.
Reversal Film, or Slide Film in photography, is a type of film that once developed produces a Positive Print, instead of the usual Negative. The process to obtaining a Final Print was thus simplified and costs reduced. This appealed to the independent film-makers and photographers who didn’t need their images cut or edited to be released.
Reversal Film also has a slightly different aesthetic than Negative Film. On the upside it is said to have finer grain and more accurate or pleasing color rendition. On the downside, it’ ability to record shadows and highlights at the same time (also called latitude) is far inferior to that of Negative Film. This often results in more contrast.
As you might have noticed, most of the images are very bright, or overexposed, meaning that not all the information was captured in the bright areas. This was due to Exposing for the shadows instead of Exposing for the highlights.
It is a classic mistake because the usual Negative Film has a greater tolerance for highlights than for shadows. Therefore, to maximize the amount of information captured on the film, exposing for the shadows is the safest bet. In this case though, because the film doesn’t have the latitude to cope with all light, the information that would usually get captured ends up being Blown Out.
All this being said, Reversal Film (Ektachrome in this case) is a great way to obtain a distinctively nostalgic look straight out of the camera and it has only recently become available again as it had been discontinued for a number of years. Thanks Kodak!
