Image taken by: Dan Rubin A mindful processĭan also believes that with film, you are making a lot of your creative decisions ahead of time. Film: Polaroid 600 (with a 2-stop ND pack filter). With my raw digital shots, it felt there was still a lot more work to do… although you do need to edit “flat scans” of negatives (see later) I still find this quicker than editing digital raw files.’ The results Dan got with film also felt more ‘finished.’ As he explains, ‘I tried to find ways of editing my digital images so they had the tonal range and unique colour palette of film, but it was quite hard back in the days before film presets. It was the antithesis of everything else I was doing and it got me away from a screen.’ Even with the Polaroid, it would be four or five minutes before the image appeared. We wondered what, specifically, attracted Dan to film? ‘I think it was the tone and texture of film, but as I was living in a world of immediate results via digital in my job as a designer and creative director, I learned to appreciate the sense of anticipation you get with film.
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When shooting in a dark interior, for example, I need the better high ISO performance that you’ll get with a top digital camera.’ When I realised this, I forced myself to switch fully to film, unless it was the wrong choice for the subject and commission. But I was mainly delivering film photos to clients and was mainly taking the digital gear along for safety. I let other (digital) photographers influence my decision. Film: Polaroid 667 (expired) Camera: Polaroid 195. ‘I realised I should be shooting film much more, but didn’t have confidence. He realised, however, that he was using digital cameras as a ‘crutch,’ rather than because he really needed them. I ended up shooting film more and more alongside digital where appropriate, and this had continued to this day.’īy 2015, Dan was shooting film and digital 50/50 for a wide range of commercial photography projects, and had upgraded to the Canon EOS 5D series. I liked the 400D, but I didn’t love the results in the same way as the results from the Polaroid and the FTb. ‘The design part of my brain was trying to reverse-engineer why the Polaroid had captivated me so I carried on shooting film alongside the digital Canon. Film was fascinating because many of us remembered it from our childhood digital cameras were cool but for those of us who weren’t photographers, analogue was cool too.’ His first 35mm film camera was a Canon FTb, and he also upgraded to a digital Canon EOS 400D SLR.
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‘Along with many of my peers, I had a digital point-and-shoot camera but didn’t really know how to use it. Film: Ilford HP5+ Camera: Leica M6 Development and scanning: Bayeux. It changed my life.’ At this stage in his career, Dan was working in a very digital world, doing a lot of design work for the screen. ‘Edwin Land, who designed the SX-70, intended it to make photography easy for anyone and that’s how it worked for me. When Dan saw the images he fell in love with them. He wrote a blog about it after Polaroid had ceased manufacturing and it really intrigued me… I fell in love with the design of the camera, so I decided to get hold of one and start shooting some film while I could still get it, just to tell my grandkids I’d had a go!’ Near the end of 2008, a designer friend picked up a classic Polaroid SX-70, in beautiful brown and chrome.
‘I’d never used a camera as a creative tool when I was younger, and I was more of a painter and designer. ‘It was my design career that led me into film photography and photography generally, but not in the usual way,’ Dan explains. Film: Ilford HP5+ (pushed 1-stop, metered at 400 ISO) Camera: Mamiya 645 Proĭevelopment and scanning: Carmencita.