Kodak Tmax 400 is my second roll of black-and-white film. Previously I shot with Ilford Pan 400 but I didn’t like it. It’s due to my skill and not the film itself.

Black-and-white in film photography is a skill compared to digital. To nail a shot, there’s a lot of thinking needed to be done. For example, you need to look at colours and think ‘will they give you the same shades of grey?’ If yes, then how can you differentiate them? Which filter do I need to use?

It’s also better to find clean background according to what many people told me. I am currently on my third roll of black-and-white- Ilford HP5 400. I also use a yellow filter, just to see if there’s a distinct contrast.

Colour filter

Colour filters function to differentiate the colour shades. For yellow filter, it has the least dramatic effect compared to orange and red filters. So if you are shooting yellow flower against green background, a yellow filter will help bring out the contrast between yellow and green.

If you want a super contrast, use red filter, which will totally make the green look black. Same for the sky.

35mm Kodak Tmax 400

This film claims to be the ‘sharpest film’. Below are my samples photos, pushed to ISO 1600, developed by Triple D.

Kodak Tmax 400, Singapore (2017)

These are the four presentable black-and-white photos from this roll of film, the rest is simply underexposed, or just shades overlapping each other, making it unpleasant to see. Sometimes they say your photos reflect who you are. I guess it is true. In reality I am a messy person. My desk is never neat. I like to put my stuff all over the place. Hence, in my photos, my subjects are also all over the place, messed up.