Street Fashion Shoot With My Fuji GSWiii

I have just had my Fuji GSWiii sit at home waiting for that perfect chance to shoot some landscape images on film. Knowing myself, I figured I would have to create an opportunity! 

With only 8 frames to each roll of film, the 6 by 9 film size is incredible to view, especially on colour positive film.  I parked my trusted Bronica Zenza ETRS and decided to get out and use this camera more this summer. 

This particular GSWiii comes with a 65mm lens which I believe is equivalent to a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera. 

First shoot opportunity came from a shoot setup with Anna. She was in the country and we set up a shoot in Central London late one afternoon. 

I threw in a whole bunch of medium format rolls into my bag and over the next few hours we shot natural light as well as with my wonderful profoto umbrella and profoto A1. 

Shooting Fuji Provia 100F in Natural Light

We started off by shooting on the colour positive film Provia 100F. It was a late afternoon shoot, hence why I brought along my off camera flash. These images were all taken using natural light. 

I really like this image of Anna in her chequered jacket and blue jeans looking over in the distance. 

The colours came out natural to the eye which I was really surprised to see considering the relatively low level light available at the time. 

The details are captured in this frame with Anna resting one leg down while resting her head gently against her left hand. 

The details in the jeans combined with the reds and yellows in the fore and background add more energy to the image. 

The highlights are perhaps a little overexposed but something that can be managed in a future shoot in camera or in post production! 

Going in a bit closer, once again the colour and detail of the 6 by 9 negative has really come out super well. 

This image of her holding the rose, combined with the red seat and red lipstick draw in the line of sight making it a compositionally attractive image to view. 

This combined with how her arms make an almost symmetrical look on either side in reflection to the legs.

I took another image of her standing up with the rose and framed this one up. I think these more close up portrait shots could be the way to go! 

Ending this set I took this shot which is a little out of focus but I really like the effect and emotion coming through the image and this is definitely one of my favourite shots from the Provia batch! 

Kodak Ektachrome in Natural Light

Well, If I was going to shoot some Provia, I was going to have to shoot some Ektachrome to see the differences in colour. 

Unlike the Bronica unfortunately you don't have the luxury of swapping film backs to capture identical images but I tried my best to keep the frames similar in nature throughout. 

Starting off with this shot, the colours are a bit more subdued but nevertheless deliver outstanding colour rendition. 

Part of the ability to shoot well with subjects comes down to how well you both come prepared to shoot. Certainly Anna, turned up with the perfect outfits for a befitting urban location shoot.

As before I took a combination of closer shots combined with wider shots to see the differences between the images. The consistent theme throughout is the more subdued colour rendition. 

I think, in part, maybe there were clouds passing through in comparison to the stronger light experienced when shooting the Provia roll. 

Nevertheless, you can see the film doesn’t perform as strongly in the shadows. Overall, pleased with this batch of images and my personal favourite was this shot of Anna with her arms crossed holding her jacket. 

Shooting Kodak Gold 200

Kodak Gold has made a comeback to medium format and it has been great to see so many photographers getting out and shooting this film. 

Carrying on with the same outfit and vibe, I decided to shoot some in a different location to catch a bit more of the afternoon sunset. 

This time a combination of natural light which has come out with much warmer tones and then brought in the umbrella and profoto to capture these shots with a little bit more controlled light. 

The colour is better balanced particularly with the wonderful warm sunset light radiating off the back of the Victorian buildings. Bit of a New York vibe, no?

Shooting Kodak Portra 800 with Flash

It was twilight and having these tall buildings surrounding us didnt help too much with the light either. It is somewhat fitting that for a camera that I have not shot much with I was reminded to take out some of that Portra 800 that had been knocking about in my film stash from quite a way back. 

I wasn’t going to waste this roll on the hope the images would come out by shooting this pushed 1 stop, let alone 3 stops. All these images were taken having metered using my Sekonic L-308X with the umbrella and profoto a1. 

Shot with this brick backdrop first, trying to capture some variation in styles from Anna. I like the one with Anna sat on the curb out of this mini set. We moved on to take a few with this black backdrop which I think has colourwise come out much stronger. 

When I first saw this on the film strip it looked as if the image had been taken with a greenscreen backdrop applied. 

In hindsight, I was beginning to think how different these images would look had they been shot on Portra 160 or Portra 400. Personally, I don't think it would be very different. What do you think? 

Important Considerations Shooting with Fuji GSWiii

If you are looking to shoot with this wonderful rangefinder camera here are my thoughts on some things you should consider before shooting away. 

First, if you are shooting portraits you have got to make sure you measure the distances between yourself and the subject accurately. 

If you have wonderful 20:20 vision then you might be thinking, wait why can't you just use the rangefinder optics? 

This can be a bit tricky for me and I suspect probably for many others that may have particular eye conditions. 

Easiest way to get around this is to measure the distances. Honestly this will save you a lot of lost frames. 

This particular Fuji comes with a fixed 65mm and if you enjoy shooting street photography could be a fun companion with its 28mm 35mm camera equivalent lens. 

Although primarily known for landscape photography, the  Fuji GSWiii has the potential to give photographers new creative opportunities in portrait photography.  

It got me thinking, are modern digital cameras up to the level of old school medium format cameras? 

I’m not sure, but it could be a fun experiment! Do you have experience with this? Let me know in the comments below. 

Overall, I feel the closer I was shooting to Anna, the richer the details in each of the frames. Images with natural light use of off camera flash came out super well. 

With more shoots I will slowly find my preference, Let’s see where this takes me next! 

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Why You Should Shoot Street Photography

Whether you're shooting with a film camera such as the Bronica Zenza ETRS, a digital camera or even a phone camera, you're going to find this video really helpful to get you started. 

I wanted to go out and check out what I could get with a Bronica Zenza. I don't think I actually went out to shoot with it in the street, and I want to see how it handles, what it felt like? How would I frame my images? This was a practice run for me to see if it's a practical camera to use for street-based photography. 

One of the major blocks when it comes to street photography is actually getting out there. 

A lot of people want to do photography, but they get worried about what other people might think or how people in the street might feel. The absolute simplest thing you can start is grabbing your camera and go out!  This could be in your local area because you're going to be more familiar with it and naturally more comfortable. 

Failing that, you can go further into a field, maybe somewhere people don't know you. It could be your high street, maybe your shopping mall, or a completely different town or city itself. The key thing is to get going and start shooting. As soon as you can get going, that's really going to help you. 

It doesn't matter what camera you've got, whether that's your phone, DSLR or SLR camera. Shooting film, then take lots of film with you on your walk! Shooting digital? I would shoot nonstop, everything and anything that I can see within my walking frame. 

When shooting with a medium-format camera, such as a Bronica Zenza, you're going to get 15 shots on a roll, that's six by four point five If you're shooting by six by six on a Yashica Mat 124 G for example, or a Hasselblad. You're probably going to get 12 images only. If shooting with a 35 millimetre camera, you can get, I would say up to 37 images, maybe even 38, if you are very good at putting on your roll and being very economical with it. 

One of the challenges of shooting with the Bronica Zenza ETRS is that it's actually quite a bulky and heavy camera. That side, when you're shooting outside, it will force you to think about what you're shooting and how you're going to shoot it. Now in the street environment, there are some challenges, challenges being that the atmosphere, the scenery is constantly changing. People are moving in, people moving out, there's cars moving in, cars moving out, something could happen, it's quite spontaneous, And I don't think using a medium format camera such as this one is going to get you the full opportunity to be able to take those shots quickly and efficiently. 

An alternative method of overcoming that challenge is going to be shooting with something a lot lighter, like a compact camera, such as the Nikon L135AF. It's a compact camera. You can put it away into your pocket. And if you want to, you can take it out very quickly or you can carry it around in your hand without having any problems shooting with it. Compact cameras offer discretion so you can quickly take a shot without really disturbing the environment or catching anyone off guard. There are plenty of digital cameras that are similar to this, which will allow you to take a lot more shots than what a Bronica Zenza ETRS can offer.  

I was out with some friends having dinner. It was just a few hours after the shoot. And I remember showing my photos that I'd been taking like Polaroid SX-70. This is one of the images that we were actually looking at at the time. And the waiter oversaw the images and was actually really intrigued by the Polaroid SX-70 itself. 

He started asking me questions about it. How to use it, and why was he using it? Which led him to the ultimate question about what camera he should get for his 15 year old son. He was really interested in photography. He wanted to know what would be the best camera to start shooting with. A lot of people ask me this question. If you're a young photographer and you don't have a budget personally, I had no budget even to have a camera at the age of 15. 

My first camera was when I, when I started working, I think it was 23 or 24 when I first got my Nikon. To get started with photography, the key thing though, is that we have so many cameras that are available to us. Every single person has a camera phone. If you really enjoy and love photography, that is such an easy and simple way to access this medium of art. I advised him to start shooting with his camera on his phone as often as possible. If something is coming off it, then that's the time to start thinking about, well, going into an entry level camera, rather than diving straight into a top level DSLR camera with all these kit lenses and so forth. Better start some projects first before investing fully into it. So shooting with the Bronica Zenza ETRS, and you'd have to take the magazine holder at the back off first. 

Kosmo Foto is a 100 ISO panchromatic black and white film. Perfect for all medium format cameras. One of the exciting things to note about this film is that it is freshly made and stopped in the wilds of Europe. For those of you looking to reduce your carbon footprint and love shooting film, then this could be a more environmentally friendly option. 

The packaging of this film is pretty cool too, with the cosmonaut at the front, and this film can be used on sunny days, overcast conditions, as you can see in my images here, but also for indoors with studio lighting, flush or even natural light, it'll be really interesting to see how it compares with Acros 100 or even Ilford Delta 100, to see the comparisons between them. 

The film is a traditional black and white chemistry so that it can be developed with formulations such as perceptol or tetenal or rodinal as well. If you've tried with any other C 41 chemicals then shoot them in the comments below It can be pushed and pulled to ISO 50 or push processed up to ISO 400. 

Is that your teddy in the video?

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Zeiss Ikon Nettar vs Yashica Mat 124G with Ilford Delta 400

These cameras both use the 6x6 picture format on Medium Format film. The Zeiss Ikon Nettar being the older more rustic version in comparison with the Yashica Mat 124G.

You can have a look at some of my previous videos on the Zeiss Ikon Nettar here.

It was time to test out both cameras under the same conditions using the same film (Ilford Delta 400) and settings throughout. This way I could see how they would perform and what differences potentially could pop up.

Taking a leaf from the Thoreau and his wandering walks in the wild I decided to take a walk of my own in the urban jungle. The walk started on a bright sunny but cold and windy Spring day. I saw these newly painted houses and thought that would be a good place to start.

Surprisingly switching between both cameras was quite seamless. Having the Yashica Mat 124G around my neck and the Zeiss Ikon Nettar tucked away in my jacket pocket. I found taking the folding camera out easy to quick take out of my pocket and snap the shot in frame.

Each time I tried to align it as closely to where the lens from the Yashica was pointing and snap it from that perspective. You can see from the first shot the tones have come out darker in the Yashica on the car and trees. This was to become a consistent theme throughout all the images.

I carried on along and found a side entrance to some apartments which I wandered down to see if there was a route to the other side through. After a short walk through some pastel pink coloured buildings (which I was very much tempted to snap but then thought I don’t have Portra 800 loaded!) I came to a dead-end. I turned back and looked up to see this staircase winding down the side of the building with just the right amount of light on it. While I did my best to shorten the interchange time between cameras, the light had changed slightly after snapping first on the Yashica Mat 124G. The tones have come out a bit darker on the Zeiss Ikon Nettar probably due to the reduction of light on the frame. On a side note, I did find framing and shooting the shot upwards a little tricky and fiddly.

I double-backed on myself and got back to the street where I started from and carried on, turning left and find this row of Victorian Houses. I do like a chequered entrance and with a bike in frame it was a winning combination. The images are almost identical here in tonality, although I slightly prefer the framing on the Zeiss Ikon Nettar.

Coming to the end of the road, I had a decision to make, whether to carryon walking straight or turn left. The decision was made by the graffiti on the wall on the left hand side. Be Happy! The clouds were starting to draw over and the light was intermittent and variable. The framing on the Yashica 124G has come out better probably because of the viewfinder which allows for a more intuitive framing experience. The Zeiss Ikon Nettar has a little square viewfinder which is not entirely accurate in giving you a realistic view of what the image will turn out to be.

The low-ish walled bridge was just about reachable to place my camera on top and capture a few snaps of the railway lines. Initially, I had thought about taking the images of the train tracks but then saw these trains coming along and decided to shoot those in frame. Next time, I’ll stick with the railway lines!

London ‘Mews’ streets are just the best to shoot. More recently, I have seen a trend in these little side streets being blocked off to the public which is quite sad. Capturing the vanishing point of this street on the square 6x6 format was a bit tricky. It would be interesting to see how a 6x9 format would fare here.

The architecture was starting to change as I crossed the main road. Moving away from terraced Victorian homes to more detached villa style homes. Notable persons of historical interest even resided in these homes from almost over a century ago.

As you can see from the image comparison, both cameras came out with near identical shots. The only real difference between the two being with the Zeiss Ikon Nettar shots coming out lighter and less constrasty on the blacks.