Comments | mistress_elaine: Paris in Black and White (Part 1)

mistress_elaine

Paris in Black and White (Part 1)

Nov 02, 2007 11:06

Technically, these photos are rather flawed. I shot them on expired film, seven years past its sell-by date. I then made things worse by keeping the film in my camera for about half a year, which is a big no-no when using old film. The result was a set of grainy, somewhat overexposed-looking photos full of blown-out highlights. And guess what? I ( Read more... )

shadows, statues, architecture, toned b&w, paris, expired

Comments 9

bshakesit November 2 2007, 12:59:03 UTC

i love that last one! for some reason the effect of the expired film goes really well with Paris, giving it that old world look.

mistress_elaine November 2 2007, 14:58:12 UTC

Thank you! Yes, the grain, the burnt-out highlights and the toning do add to the old-world feel of the images. I considered removing some of the grain in Photoshop, but I'm glad I didn't; these images were meant to look grainy.

bshakesit November 3 2007, 14:55:29 UTC

oh yeah, definitely. if you'd taken the grain out they'd look too smooth and give it a magazine snapshot feel. the grain works.

cosmiccircus November 2 2007, 12:59:27 UTC

I like the feel that they give off - kind of an antiquated, classic feel!

mistress_elaine November 2 2007, 14:58:36 UTC

Yeah, they do look very old, don't they? I like the effect, too. As I said, I have a few more rolls of expired black-and-white film. I'll save those for my next trip to Paris, as they obviously suit the subject. :-)

Those are very cool! bittercat November 2 2007, 13:14:55 UTC

Some of them would make great postcards!

I look forward to seeing more!

Re: Those are very cool! mistress_elaine November 2 2007, 14:58:54 UTC

Thanks! Postcards, eh? That's quite a compliment.

*blushes gratefully*

minn November 2 2007, 16:21:20 UTC

Swoon!

Lamp posts and shadows are to me what trees are to you, so yay. Bring them on! Can't have enough. :-D

Seriously, I think these look terrific. The grainy look actually helps in this case, because they look almost vintage. I feel like I am flipping through an album belonging to my grandmother.

The second and the last are my favourites. The last one tells stories, Elaine.

mistress_elaine November 3 2007, 11:11:56 UTC

Thanks, Minnie. I'm glad to see there's someone out there who shares my lamp-posts-and-lanterns-and-shadows fetish. I won't feel guilty now if I, er, overindulge a bit every now and then. :-)

It's funny you should like Nos. 2 and 6 best. As it happens, they were the very first pictures I took on this trip, the very first pictures I took since leaving Singapore seven months ago, and they woke something in me -- a need to take pictures again. It's weird, but I hadn't taken any photos since my last trip, and I didn't realise how much I'd missed it until I took those two photos. And then the floodgates opened and I began to take photos left, right and centre. But it all started with those two... Thanks for appreciating them!