Black and White Photography

cdleeman · Aug 7, 2006

Hi, my wife wants to start doing black and white photography (indoor, people posing only). She wants to do interesting poses, and even some 'risque' stuff, much like you might see in a 'Guess' ad.

Could you give us some advice on where to begin (best cameras, best film, lighting, how to best process the film, etc)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Chris

ksmattfish · Aug 7, 2006

cdleeman said:
Could you give us some advice on where to begin (best cameras, best film, lighting, how to best process the film, etc)?

I'll let you in on all this info if you can tell me:

What is the best kind of music?
What is the perfect temperature?
What is the best flavor?
What is the best color?

Pick up a camera, and start taking photographs. Only you can decide what is best for you. Maybe a class would help. Photography 101 classes tend to be about BW film photography, and will introduce cameras, film processing, and basic lighting.

cdleeman · Aug 7, 2006

Let me rephrase:

Can you recommend some good digital and 35mm cameras and film for black and white photography?

How's that?

Torus34 · Aug 7, 2006

I'm not sure that you've thought things out very far yet. If you're looking for high quality large B&W prints, you might want to consider a 645 [eg., Mamiya] or 6x6cm [eg. YashicaMat] format. These rigs use 120 film and provide a negative considerably larger [1 5/8" x 2 1/4" or 2 1/4" square] than 35mm [1" x 1 1/2".] This translates into greater detail in 11"x14" and larger prints.

If you're interested in smaller [8"x10" or below] B&W prints, any number of 35mm SLRs will do nicely. The used market is currently glutted with them. You can get a nice Pentax K1000, for example, at a reasonable price.

For indoor work using a tripod, Kodak Plus-X will do nicely.

Are you considering processing your own prints? That's a whole separate kettle of fish.