There are certain iconic film stocks which have a distinct look. For me, one of those is Kodak Gold - definitely a name which conjures up a sense of summer holiday snaps, with golden hues and vivid colours. When it was announced recently that Gold was going to be produced in 120 format as well as 35mm I knew I had to buy some to use in my pinhole cameras. The fact that it’s just two thirds of the price of Kodak Ektar (one of my favourite colour film stocks) was just a bonus!
Click on any of the thumbnails to see the photos larger
As soon as the film was available to pre-order I bagged a pack of five rolls but it’s taken me a couple of months to find the right moment to run a roll through my camera. That opportunity came with a warm, sunny day at the Culford School car show. The bright colours of the classic cars were just what I was after and the results have exactly the eye popping look I was hoping for. Pinhole photography requires longer exposure times than when shooting with a lens (although not very slow on a day as sunny as this), which often distorts the colours a little. The blues become even bluer and the other colours really sing.
On days with so much contrast black and white often works well too, so I also took the opportunity to use up some Fomapan film. This is about as cheap as things get with film - just £4-5 a roll, and I found it struggled a little compared to my usual monochrome film of choice - Ilford FP4+. Still, it provides a dramatic contrast to the colours of Kodak Gold and I know in future to stick with Ilford for super sunny days.
10 July 2022