On the beauty of redscale photography

Analog photography has long been out of fashion, but there are still a few photographers out there who prefer to shoot with a film camera. Why this resistance? Well, no one can really explain it, but there is something about developed pictures that appeals to us. It can either be the unpredictability involved or the process, right from being careful about getting the shot correct to developing it in the dark room, you’ll never know.

In analog photography, the redscale effect is around for quite some time now. The redscale effect was discovered accidentally, when some photographers tried rolling the film backwards, i.e. exposing it from the wrong side, the side that is sensitive to the red color. What happened was that this gave a curious effect to the picture, with red and shades of red being the key colors.

Redscale photography is almost like shooting with a red filter on a digital camera, but is much more interesting, due to its uncertainty. The effects vary, depending on the subject and the light available. You will get an even (or uneven) gradation of the monochrome red. Needless to say, now photographers seek this effect intentionally because of the novelty factor. Also, it is quite unlike anything one can do with a film camera. A part of the lo-fi movement, redscale is a stylistic choice that is almost a reaction to the digital media.

You can either make the redscale films yourself or buy them pre-made. It is something  you can’t do in digital photography and worth giving a shot if you haven’t yet.

There are photographers who are a little crazy about film photography, and often organize online events related to Redscale Photography. If you look forward to experiment with Redscale Photography and want to share it with fellow film-lovers, here’s a great chance. Believeinfilm is celebrating the redscale effect in the month of February. You can take part in it by sharing and tweeting yourredscale photos with the hashtag BIFscale15. This will run for the entire month and your posts will get a preference in the February forum on the site.

We can tell you from personal experience that shooting with redscale films is a lot of fun. The results will leave you dazzled, and who knows? It may also persuade you to do film photography in a big way.

You can get a range of film cameras at Unique Photo. Do check the products out.

Also, check out this video which shows two quick methods for respooling color print film by David Hancock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EglL40ZeA0s