Tomorrow’s history

I have been playing a bit more with scanning negatives - old and new - to see whether my idea of shooting more film is going to be viable. Various technical conclusions - not especially interesting and probably not very surprising to anyone who has been doing this for a while - but also some deeper insights into photography and what makes a photograph important (to me) that I was not expecting.

Technical conclusions: I cannot detect any difference in the result from using +1 or -1 exposure compensation when I scan the negative, or indeed if I shoot +1,0,-1 and combine via HDR merge. The results after converting with NegativeLabPro are indistinguishable - probably because there’s less dynamic range in the negative than the digital sensor is capable of recording.

Deeper insights: Looking back at old negatives to decide what to scan, the ONLY ones I have any interest in are ones that contain people or places (but not landscapes) that I know - the ones that bring back memories of things that have since changed, or disappeared entirely. I’m not interested in old photos for their wonderful composition, beautiful colours, leading lines etc. I’m not especially bothered about detail, sharpness, story, nature, or themes. I’m interested in history.

Maybe I should be thinking more about capturing tomorrow’s history, when shooting today…