It’s no secret that I’ve really been enjoying shooting Rollei Retro 400s, a very beautiful black and white film. I’ve mostly shot it at box speed, 400, but have also played around with it at EI 1600 as well. Both speeds offer great results. I’ve been a little anxious to do an intimate portraiture photo shoot with this film ever since I shot the first roll and saw the results.
I’ve been referring to this film as “moody” and thought it would be really interesting to see how that moody film might work for the beauty photography and portrait work I do. Well, I finally got to find out when I used it on my recent photo shoot with Tonya.
My friend, another photographer, Scot Birchfield knew Tonya was coming to Vegas from Alabama and recommended that we shoot together. Tonya reached out and we scheduled the shoot.
Man, from the moment I met Tonya we instantly connected and the shoot couldn’t have gone better. You couldn’t meet a nicer person and she’s incredibly comfortable in front of the lens. I hope you enjoy the photos we came away with. I do.
The Photos
Something interesting happened to one of the rolls of film I shot that afternoon… it got exposed to light after I had shot all 36 frames. That will happen every now and then (not that often if you pay attention to what you’re doing). I went ahead and developed the roll anyway and am very glad I did. I love the effect that the light flares give to the photos. A nice dreamy character.
Here are some of the photos from that roll.
