Today I'll talk about film edges. This is not a talk about photoshop frames or instagram filters. This is the real deal - printing with the edges of the negative showing on the paper (alternative to cropping them out).
It's a look that I love because it's so "filmy". It also requires that I shoot with an eye for composition and proves that I'm not creating my composition after the fact. This is a source of pride for me. There is nothing wrong with cropping after the fact (and I of course do it on occasion) but I find it harder than composing while I'm looking at the scene. Fact is - I'm lazy and would much rather print full frame, and including the edges adds an artsy look to the final product. I frame them with a white mat cut to show the edges and a bit of the white paper. Beautiful!
Because I scan negatives when showing images online I don't have that lovely film edge. It's something I am going to pay attention to and try and scan more prints instead.
This is a self portrait made soon after my first in-house darkroom. Maybe 9 years ago?
And this is from a recent session. One parent has an interesting job using digital photography and as a result really liked the film edges showing on these portraits.
First is a 35mm negative. If you look really closely you can see sprocket holes (which I print dark on purpose, otherwise I find them distracting).
Second one is a Holga image from same session. Holga's almost always get printed with film edges, I insist. Holga is a medium format camera so no sprocket holes to be found.
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