Why would anyone bother shooting obsolete film cameras in the current digital era? Simple: film looks great, its a boatload of fun and can be an incredibly liberating experience. Perhaps you feel like returning to film after a hiatus with digital, or perhaps you might be young enough that youve never even shot a film camera. Either way, you might feel like partying like its 1985, and need some pointers on how to get the most of your camera. Heres how. Get yours elf a camer a. This is the easy part; people are literall y giving them away in the digital era. If you cant scaven ge one for free, and dont have the time and inclinat ion to resear ch the many differe nt kinds of film camera s, look for any 35mm film SLR from one of the major manuf acturer s (Nikon, Canon, Pentax and friends ). Read the manual for the very basics of operati on, like how to load and unload the film, how to focus, and so on. Get yours elf some film . There s little point in econo mising here by using the very- cheap- and- less- than- cheerf ul consu mer films (even though these can get great results if you know what youre doing). Treat yourse lf to expen sive profes sional film; if you feel bad about doing this, cheer yourse lf up by calcula ting how much film you could buy and proces s for the cost of a profes sional digital SLR . Get a col or neg ati ve ( pri nt) film if you are conc ern ed abo ut the avai labili ty and cost of dev elop ing and sca nnin g. Eve n in the digit al era, nea rly eve ry tow n of som e size will hav e at leas t one plac e you can get this don e. Also , colo ur neg ativ e film has eno rmo us latit ude for ove rex pos ure. Get a slid e ( rev er sal) film if you care abo ut colo ur, and don t care too muc h abo ut the cost and avai labili ty of dev elop ing and sca nnin g. Slid e film s hav e muc h bett er and accu rate colo ur ren ditio n (if only bec aus e ther e is only one accu rate way of ren deri ng the colo ur in a part icula r slid e). On the oth er han d, prof essi onal labs that run the E-6 proc ess use d for nea rly all slid e film s are muc h less com mon , and ten d to be mor e exp ensi ve. You ll also find that its muc h, muc h easi er to scre w up exp osur e on a slid e film. Go for bla ck and whi te if you like the look of it. Tra ditio nal blac k- and - whit e film is, agai n, mor e diffi cult and exp ensi ve to get dev elop ed tha n colo ur neg ativ e film (but is easi er to sca n tha n slid e film) . On the oth er han d, you can dev elop it you rsel f if play ing with fun che mica ls is you r thin g. The res a spe cial sub set of blac k- and - whit e film s: tho se that can be dev elop ed in the sam e C-41 proc ess use d for colo r neg ativ es. Ilfor d XP2 and Kod ak BW 400 CN are two of the m. Try as ma ny diff ere nt film s as you can until you find one, or a few, that fit you r styl e, and the kind s of pict ures you tak e. You mig ht eve n find you rsel f likin g the che ape r film s bett er tha n the exp ensi ve one s. This is fine. Get out there into the big blue room. Shooti ng film should be liberati ng; a break from playing with digital camera setting s and consta ntly second -guessi ng yourse lf by looking at your LCD all the time. Dont put yourse lf back in chains again by taking a whole lot of junk you dont need. This is the bigges t disince ntive to gettin g out there, and a huge disince ntive to moving around if you do. Strip your kit down to the very bare essent ials: Tak e a sin gle len s wit h you . Eve n if you own man y mor e, its goo d prac tice to tak e a sing le lens and mak e the bes t of it. It doe snt eve n mat ter whic h lens you tak e, tho ugh a fixe d, fast 50 mm lens is abo ut the only one you ll nee d mos t of the time . Tak e a spar e film in you r poc ket. Or don t bot her if you re alre ady load ed up with a fres h one. Put mor e tho ugh t into you r sho ts rath er tha n bur ning thro ugh you r film as quic kly as pos sibl e. Lea ve eve ryth ing else at hom e. Don t bot her with oth er junk , like a bag (oth er tha n for drin ks and sna cks) , or a trip od, or flas h gun s, or add -on mot or win ders , or a digit al cam era. If you ve got you r gea r dow n to wha t fits ove r you r sho ulde r and in you r poc ket s, you ve got the perf ect set up. Take photo graph s . This is art, and nobod y can tell you what to do here. You can, howev er, take a few steps to make your photog raphs less snapsh ot-ish and more like things other people would like to see. (for more, see How to Take Better Photog raphs and How to Develo p Your Photog raphy Skills ). Stic k you r cam era in a full y- aut om atic mo de , if you hav e one. Aut oma te eve ryth ing you can if you don t. Aut oma tion exis ts for a reas on: it lets you conc entr ate on gett ing the imp orta nt part s of you r sho t righ t rath er tha n conc entr atin g on tech nical trivi a like exp osur e that cam eras can gue ss mor e accu rate ly tha n you can mos t of the time . Mov e aro und all the tim e. Don t tak e bori ng pict ures at you r nor mal eye leve l. If you hav e to cra wl on the gro und to mak e it inte rest ing, do that (its wha t was hing mac hine s wer e mad e for). Alw ays get as low and clos e to you r subj ect as you can. Thi nk bef ore you sho ot. Ask you rsel f: wha t can I rem ove fro m this sho t to sim plify it? Wha t am I con veyi ng her e? ( Thi nk colo ur, text ure, rep etiti on, cont rast s, etc.) Is this sho t just a bori ng sna psh ot of not hing that any one else wou ld tak e? Don t sec ond gue ss you rsel f. Don t wor ry abo ut whe ther the sho t you just too k is exp ose d and focu sed pro perl y. If it look ed goo d thro ugh the vie wfin der, and you r cam era tho ugh t you r exp osur e was abo ut righ t, mov e on to the nex t sho t. You ve got no LCD to nag you afte r eac h sho t ( alth ou gh you may find you rsel f look ing at the bac k of the cam era out of habi t). Cha nce s are goo d that you got it righ t. Go home. Unload your film and stick it in the fridge, then kick back and relax. There s nothin g else you need to do; that is anothe r of the joys of shooti ng film. Get your film devel oped and scann ed . Nearly all labs will toast a CD for you with high- quality scans of your picture s for a small additio nal charge. Do this. There s no reason for you to scan them yourse lf. Not only does this put additio nal effort into the proces s (which is bad); its also likely that their scans will be much better than what you could do with all but the most expen sive of dedica ted film scanne rs. Pick out the best of your photo s and put them online . Owing to the extra effort that you put in to making each shot worth the develo ping cost, youll likely have many more great photog raphs than you did shooti ng digital, so show them off to the world! Tips If you do shoot slide film, and dont plan to project it, you can still easily get prints. Find a photo lab with a Noritsu 3001 or higher series printer. Have the slide film developed, but not cut and mounted. A Noritsu can scan the positive film in an uncut roll, just like it can scan negative film. Keep in mind, optical printing labs (with machines that use a light/lens system to make pictures) are few and far between. Even negative film is now digitally scanned to make photos, thus compromisi the overexpos latitude of film. Also, any film can be scanned and printed into B&W, whether it is color film or B&W film. One benefit of this is that underexpo (not enough light made it into the camera) negatives can now make decent prints. Helpful? Be comfortabl shooting both film and digital. Dont get the impression from this article that film is the be-all and end-all of photograp It isnt. Both can be a huge pile of fun, and both can get you incredible results if you know what you are doing. Helpful? Fuji Velvia 50 shines well in the purples and reds not with cool colours. Velvia is good for darker, slightly under- developed shots. Its not for people, portraits, or a wide variety of light shades.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 19:34:12 +0000
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