By Bill Thoo
If you must curse a photographer, curse them to live in interesting times, but without a camera.
I’ve been photographing the Sydney New Year’s fireworks for more than a decade now. Because of the time zone they are one of the earliest celebrations and one of the most spectacular for the New Year. The fireworks encompass Sydney’s harbour and harbour bridge. I know I should just be in the moment and enjoy the show, but if I am there, how could I not photograph it?
Each year, though, I’ve been looking for new ways to photograph them. I started off making digital images, and then in the past several years I’ve started making film photography images. I love film camera and the film photography process. I’ve used colour negative, slide and even Instax to capture the lovely colours. So why would I use black and white film
Last year I took the unusual step of photographing the fireworks with the Trichrome process. A trichrome is a colour image formed from combining three monochrome images that carry colour information. Typically, three panchromatic black and white images are made using a red, green, and blue filter respectively. The red, green and blue filter versions of the black and white images are then combined with appropriate colour filters in a slide projection or in a darkroom print, or they can be combined digitally, to reconstitute a colour image.In the digital process the monochrome frames are stacked and then assigned the appropriate colour channels. Some effort is required to make sure the frames and static compositional elements align properly, and a tripod helps tremendously with this at the capture stage.
In the digital process the monochrome frames are stacked and then assigned the appropriate colour channels. Some effort is required to make sure the frames and static compositional elements align properly, and a tripod helps tremendously with this at the capture stage.
Usually, the subject of a trichrome is relatively static. The elements of the composition need to be in the same position for each frame if they are to show the correct final colours. But where’s the fun in that? It’s so much more interesting to photograph a dynamic composition, like fireworks, and to see what the Trichrome process can reveal about movement and time. After all, if you want a true colour image, why not just use a colour negative or digital camera?
So I made photographs of the 2022-2023 fireworks using Kosmo Foto Agent Shadow film at exposure index 1600. I had happily invested in the Kickstarter and was impressed at the films ability to push. The camera was on aperture priority and red, green and blue filters were used sequentially on the same roll. An entire roll of photographs were produced with trichrome potential.
The trichromes were processed in Photoshop in two ways: as individual trichrome frames, and also as an entire roll stacked as a smart object. The stacked smart objects do not output a traditional film photograph look, but I thought the results were unique and ethereal, and something I had never personally seen before.
For 2023-2024 I thought I’d try something different. How about a motion picture of the fireworks? I knew my 90s film camera had a great continuous shutter function, and if a film roll was shot in sequence and combined those frames would make a movie.
Instead of changing filters sequentially for each frame on one roll, I would expose three entire rolls with a different colour filter for each roll, which combined would make a colour movie. I used Agent Shadow at exposure index 1600 again. I set the same shutter speed: 1/4 second, for each roll, and only changed the aperture to compensate for the filters.
I estimated an exposure for the entire roll, rather than changing it frame by frame. The process involved two film roll and filter changes during the fireworks. Thirty-six individual trichrome were created, one for each frame of each roll. Each trichrome frame was loaded into Adobe Rush to create a very short movie. Additionally all the frames were also stacked in Photoshop once again to create a smart object output.
There’s a heavy red preponderance as the red-filtered roll had the most fireworks and hence light. I could have tried to hold my nerve and wait for a better and brighter fireworks sequence later for the green and blue filtered rolls, but I would have been left high and dry if the fireworks had ended before I finished all three rolls. I could have balanced the light in post processing too, but I decided against it.
No, these are not traditional trichromes, they are most definitely not straight out of camera (you know, except for slide, no one ever did this anyway right?), and they don’t convey a traditional film photography look (like, what is that anyway?). But I still love them.
You can find my short movie clip on my Instagram or mastodon social media accounts. Please contact me for any questions on the process.
