Speaking of film, now this is how you did it in style back in the old days .... Large-format view camera, tripod, and patience. Including metering with a hand-held Sekonic spot/incident light meter.
You're not giving us any timeline here Birna but maybe this was the 1980's?
Having enjoyed using 35mm B&W film from the late 70's I started a quest for higher quality once I started earning enough to buy better kit.
That and seeing the results people got with larger formats
I bought a used Pentax 6x7 plus a big (for me) Benbo tripod and Sekonic light meter (it was fun playing with using Incident Light readings)
It was about this time that my wife stopped bothering to wait for me to get set up & take shots when we went out on long walks....
...I finally decided the increase in quality wasn't always enough to justify the effort required, when I took this setup and several 6x7 lenses up Mount Snowdon
Snowdon may not be much of a mountain in European terms, but I was struggling to catch my breath, especially when trying to catch up with my wife!!