Film photography

FeatherstonSo I've just gotten a Canon AE-1 Program with the usual 50mm lens and a flash.
I was wondering if anyone has any experience in film ski photography and could recommend so additional lenses and film types that would be good to have?

ok so i've shot film a couple of times when skiing. it doesn't matter the camera or film you have, you can make anything work, but one thing that's key is the exposure. u gotta overexpose your images so the snow actually looks white. for reference, on a bluebird day open your aperture by 2 f-stops, and on a more grey day (even tho i would avoid shooting ski film on overcast days) open it by like 2 and a half f-stops, and you'll be good.

Shooting film in snow is crazy hard....I don't have much input other than I just got done a film photo class and got increasingly frustrated with shooting in the snow haha

chris.goodhueShooting film in snow is crazy hard....I don't have much input other than I just got done a film photo class and got increasingly frustrated with shooting in the snow haha

hahaha I'll keep that in mind and try not to go crazy.

chris.goodhueShooting film in snow is crazy hard....I don't have much input other than I just got done a film photo class and got increasingly frustrated with shooting in the snow haha

Actually, it's SUPER easy.

Is it sunny? Is there snow? Set your aperture to f22 and your shutter speed to whatever your film speed is - or whatever is closest (so 400iso would be 1/500 of a second.

and fire away. just about perfect exposures all day long.

It's actually called the "Snowy 22 rule" or, equally the "Sandy 22 rule"

Similar to the Sunny 16 rule, or the cloudy 8 rule.. but for snow or sand.

If it's cloudy, set the aperture to f8, just as you would normally.



Personally, I shoot black and white 100 speed film at 400iso, and then push process to 400 speed for the added contrast. also Adding an orange filter for black and white massively improves contrast in snow, as snow reflects the mostly blue light from the sun. (yeah, believe it or not, the midday sun has a cold tint to it)

Oh, and if youre shooting in snow, and want a good colour film, I would recommend Lomo 400 film.

It's a very likely copy of Kodak Gold 400 that they don't really make anymore, and it has a yellow cast to it, so it tends to cancel out the midday tones of the sun a bit and make things look far more as they should, or perhaps a bit warmer, even. especially trees and rocks.

And personally, I like the snow to have a lot of texture to it, rather than looking like an overexposed white void.. I want it to look way different than how you and I see it.

FeatherstonSo I've just gotten a Canon AE-1 Program with the usual 50mm lens and a flash.
I was wondering if anyone has any experience in film ski photography and could recommend so additional lenses and film types that would be good to have?

Look at an 85 or 135mm lens and ektachrome and velvia would be interesting to try if you have a local lab that can develop slide film.