Film Photography: Why You Should Try It Out
So I'm guessing few of you guys are using film cameras these days. The few of you who're, best for you! This dying kind of photography remains magical to me. I recently found myself in it again, on the sideline, and I definitely believe it's helped me as a photographer in general. Comprehending that you cannot get an instant preview of one's image enables you to concentrate harder on your composition, exposure, and all other areas of taking a photograph Clip. The manual SLR that I am using makes me concentrate even harder, focusing and exposing manually, and as many folks have already said, thinking about an image BEFORE you take it often results in a better shot. Furthermore, employing a prime (fixed focal length) lens allows you to concentrate much more!
You could be using a vintage Leica rangefinder from the'50s or'60s, a Japanese SLR from the'80's or'90s, but the film medium still remains the same. Sure, the newer ones do have autofocus and auto exposure, but besides that, the essential means of using film cameras is more or less the same. You take your shot, you finish your roll, process it, and get your prints, or as more people do today, get em scanned. You have no idea what you've shot until afterwards
Processing your own film can also be a very fun experience, especially once guess what happens you're doing (and it's not necessarily that hard, specially when processing black and white film) - in addition it saves a great deal of money, as photo labs that still do film have the ability to charge pretty ridiculous amounts for processing and printing/scanning film
Film is available in many formats, such as for example 135 (35mm) film, which can be the absolute most commonly used today, in addition to medium format (120, 220 etc.) which is still used today by professionals.
In this post I'm going to talk about the normal 35mm film, which will be what I have been using, and the various types, the various brands, and other factors that will help explain to you how your photographs can in fact vary (and improve) on the basis of the film you use
First of all, there are two basic types of film: negative film and slide film (reversal film)
Negative film is what most of you probably used as a kid, if at all. This film is processed into'negatives ', where your images show being an inversion of the normal image i.e. light is dark, dark is light. Negative film is available in both color and black and white. Color negatives are now and again known as "C41" - this name arises from the most common means of developing color negative films, which is C41. Black and white film continues to be called...well, black and white film
Slide film (or reversal film) is one other kind of film that I mentioned. Much less commonly used each day as negative film, as far as I understand, slide film is processed into color transparencies, not negatives - i.e. the developed film strip could have the exact same colors as the initial picture, unlike negatives where in fact the colors are inverted. This is beneficial, as you can simply support the transparency to a source of light, and view the image, albeit in a tiny (36x24mm frame) size. A slide viewer is really a little device with a light source and a magnifying lens: simply pop in your transparencies (slides) into the device, and you see a larger version of the image - no printing or scanning necessary to preview your shots. As far as I understand, only color slide film will be manufactured currently. The final black and white slide film was the Agfa Scala film, has been discontinued for decades now - however, if you actually wish to really get your black and white shots as transparencies, you will find many ways of processing ordinary black and white negative film which develops the negative film in to a positive strip of transparencies. Plenty of people send their black and white negatives to a company called DR5, who specialize in this technique - however, do observe that that is NOT black and white slide film, but simply an activity of creating transparencies from negative film
A significant difference between negative and slide film may be the exposure tolerance. Negative film is quite flexible, and allows incorrectly exposed shots to be fixed to a good deal. Slide film is generally not forgiving. This makes sense whenever you recognize that you often view slide film directly (through a slip viewer or something), where as in a negative, you have to either scan it or print it - it's in this printing or scanning procedure that the exposure could be fixed. Some say that slides may be exposure-corrected if you print or scan them too, although some still insist that slide film is not at all as tolerant as negatives. However, as an over-all rule, remember that negative film is unquestionably more flexible than reversal slide film, and if you're using slide film make sure to get your exposure spot on.
You could be using a vintage Leica rangefinder from the'50s or'60s, a Japanese SLR from the'80's or'90s, but the film medium still remains the same. Sure, the newer ones do have autofocus and auto exposure, but besides that, the essential means of using film cameras is more or less the same. You take your shot, you finish your roll, process it, and get your prints, or as more people do today, get em scanned. You have no idea what you've shot until afterwards
Processing your own film can also be a very fun experience, especially once guess what happens you're doing (and it's not necessarily that hard, specially when processing black and white film) - in addition it saves a great deal of money, as photo labs that still do film have the ability to charge pretty ridiculous amounts for processing and printing/scanning film
Film is available in many formats, such as for example 135 (35mm) film, which can be the absolute most commonly used today, in addition to medium format (120, 220 etc.) which is still used today by professionals.
In this post I'm going to talk about the normal 35mm film, which will be what I have been using, and the various types, the various brands, and other factors that will help explain to you how your photographs can in fact vary (and improve) on the basis of the film you use
First of all, there are two basic types of film: negative film and slide film (reversal film)
Negative film is what most of you probably used as a kid, if at all. This film is processed into'negatives ', where your images show being an inversion of the normal image i.e. light is dark, dark is light. Negative film is available in both color and black and white. Color negatives are now and again known as "C41" - this name arises from the most common means of developing color negative films, which is C41. Black and white film continues to be called...well, black and white film
Slide film (or reversal film) is one other kind of film that I mentioned. Much less commonly used each day as negative film, as far as I understand, slide film is processed into color transparencies, not negatives - i.e. the developed film strip could have the exact same colors as the initial picture, unlike negatives where in fact the colors are inverted. This is beneficial, as you can simply support the transparency to a source of light, and view the image, albeit in a tiny (36x24mm frame) size. A slide viewer is really a little device with a light source and a magnifying lens: simply pop in your transparencies (slides) into the device, and you see a larger version of the image - no printing or scanning necessary to preview your shots. As far as I understand, only color slide film will be manufactured currently. The final black and white slide film was the Agfa Scala film, has been discontinued for decades now - however, if you actually wish to really get your black and white shots as transparencies, you will find many ways of processing ordinary black and white negative film which develops the negative film in to a positive strip of transparencies. Plenty of people send their black and white negatives to a company called DR5, who specialize in this technique - however, do observe that that is NOT black and white slide film, but simply an activity of creating transparencies from negative film
A significant difference between negative and slide film may be the exposure tolerance. Negative film is quite flexible, and allows incorrectly exposed shots to be fixed to a good deal. Slide film is generally not forgiving. This makes sense whenever you recognize that you often view slide film directly (through a slip viewer or something), where as in a negative, you have to either scan it or print it - it's in this printing or scanning procedure that the exposure could be fixed. Some say that slides may be exposure-corrected if you print or scan them too, although some still insist that slide film is not at all as tolerant as negatives. However, as an over-all rule, remember that negative film is unquestionably more flexible than reversal slide film, and if you're using slide film make sure to get your exposure spot on.
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