This photo was shot while I was mixing buisiness with pleasure by shooting pool while shooting photos for a pool related story. I wanted to shoot at Jillian's because I love the exposed brick walls and the big windows on the river side of the huge old textile factory building complex that Jillian's is located in. First I had to get permission from Jillian's Corporate Headquarters, which they kindly provided, then I was able to get to work. The strong daylight coming through the windows on the Merrimack River side of the building and the dimly lit interior provided a lighting challenge that I felt was more suited for color negative film rather than a digital camera.

Before starting to shoot, I used a handheld incident meter to get extensive light readings for the highlight areas (windows), shadow areas (interior side of the tables) and the midtones (tabletops) so that I could determine the shutter speed and aperture combination to use. I took several shots in this same area with a digital camera to get some proofs before shooting with the film. Most of the shoot was done with color negative film because it has a much wider dynamic light range than digital cameras do. I used ISO 800 film in a Nikon F5 body because I wanted to get a grainy look for these photos, and because I wanted the wider depth of field that a faster film would provide. I knew that there would be more detail in the extreme highlight and shadow areas of photos taken with the negative film, but I was still surprised at the amount of difference after comparing them to the digital camera pictures.

The windows detail was almost totally blown out in the digital camera photos, while the shadow areas were more blocked up. I was able to lasso and dodge the shadow areas to get slightly more detail, but it was still quite lacking when compared to the photos from the negative film. The photos taken on the negative film were able to hold details from the trees and river outide the building, and the wood glass pane framing of the windows. They were also able to show the a lot of detail on the interior sides of the tables and the walls. I scanned these photos in very flat so that the window detail would hold, then darkened up interior areas while editing the photos. This is pretty much how this area actually looks. The photos for the story were actually darkened in the shadow areas even more to give them more contrast and mood. I used this photo with the purpose of showing how much more detail can be extracted from a color negative than a digital camera photo.

Some might say that if I had done a 100 or 200 speed photo for comparison, things might have been closer together. I doubt this: I've shot hundreds of photos on the ice in the winter of ice fishing and ice yachting, and negative film still has the advantage. Some digital cameras have better dynamic range than the one I used (a Nikon D100), but not a lot more. I honestly can't wait until digital cameras catch up with color negative film in regards to dynamic range, it can't happen soon enough. Until then, I'll use negative film for high contrast subjects that aren't on deadline.

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