As per title
I know there are loads of you seasoned film users… but I really want to just hear from those who have only recently started shooting film again after a decade or so of digital.
What was the biggest surprise…..or shock?
How did you cope stuck with fixed iso?
Did you struggle with just 36exp after years of 1000+ per card?
What’s your keeper rate per film? Please be honest.
Do the labs override your deliberate exposures?
I’m on the cusp of having a go. But I can’t shake the voice in my head telling me that I’m wasting my time… like dusting off a type writer to post a letter as opposed to sending a message via phone!! It’s almost silly… but there must be something I’m missing.
I’m a rank amateur who gave up film for digital 20ish years ago. I purchased an F3 with 50mm lens from the BS board on a whim. After about 20 rolls I’m pleased with my keeper rate of about half. Finding a good lab was the hardest part. I tried 3 labs before I found one with good results. And there are none within 200 miles of my home. So the wait can be exciting and the results can be surprising. Shooting 36 frames on the same roll of film can be paralyzing. But if there is a BW roll in the camera and I want color then I shoot digital again. Film is for slowing down and thinking about the shot, so not previewing 500-1000 shots is refreshing. Scanning is tedious. Overall it’s a great time. I’m not shooting more photos but I’m shooting more frequently and intentionally. Give it a go and post. The film board is the most supportive and entertaining. Eric.
I started shooting film again three years ago, mainly out of curiosity about how my lenses (most of which are from the 1950s or 60s) would look on the cameras and medium they were designed for.
I almost gave up after my first roll as the results were so disappointing compared with digital. My images (shot on Portra 400) had none of the depth and subtlety I was used to seeing from those lenses on digital; all of their magic seemed gone. I had maybe three photos out of 36 that I liked, and I didn't like them very much. But shooting film is like being able to switch out the sensor on your camera for a different one: every film has a different look and character. So I kept on, trying 20 or 30 different films and taking note of which ones I liked.
Three years later I'm shooting 99% film and 1% digital. I've grown to love everything about film. My keeper rate still isn't great but that's mainly due to my standards: a photo might be perfectly composed and exposed, but if it's boring or just uninteresting I don't consider it a keeper. I don't shoot very differently on film vs. digital; I was never a spray and pray photographer on digital and it would often take me a few days before I got 36 shots on my digital camera. If I'm shooting events, concerts, dances, I take a lot more on digital but not as much as most digital photographers. For a 2-hour concert I might take 600 photos; I know some photographers who'd take 6,000 during that period.
One little trick if you're worried about fixed ISO: you could shoot Ilford XP2 400, a chromogenic black-and-white film, which Ilford advertises can be shot from ISO 50 to 800 all on the same roll and developed normally, no pushing or pulling required. I've done it many times and it works. It's not magic, you're just under or overexposing from box speed, but the film has so much latitude it can handle it even if developed normally (it's developed in C-41 like colour films). That might be a way of sticking your toe in the water if you're not ready to commit to one ISO for the whole roll.
But really the one ISO for a whole roll is not a big deal; people managed to do it for more than a century. A good strategy is to use a higher-speed film like ISO 400 or even 800 and use filters on your lens (neutral density for colour film; yellow or red filter for B&W) to bring it down a stop or two in brighter conditions, then remove the filter when the light is more dim.
Pixelpuffin wrote:
As per title
I know there are loads of you seasoned film users… but I really want to just hear from those who have only recently started shooting film again after a decade or so of digital.
I started back with film about 10 years ago after having fully switched to digital since the early 2000s. I probably would have never convinced myself at the time to go back to film, but a seasoned professional photographer friend challenged me to compare my posted digital B&W photos with similar ones taken with B&W film. For my first try after many years, I reactivated my old Canon EOS film camera and had the B&W film developed via external photo lab processing. The difference between digital and film media was very obvious which kept me going.
What was the biggest surprise…..or shock?
In my case the experience, how bad development and scanning of films in external labs can be! I quickly decided to do all film development and processing by myself to have full control over the process.
How did you cope stuck with fixed iso?
Honest answer: by buying more than just one reliable film camera. To this day, I keep one low ISO film in one and a higher ISO film in another, mostly B&W films. The above answer from @bjhurley@ is correct that Ilford XP-2 400 film is very variable in the ISO and is unaffected by the required C-41 development for this film. But con is that the XP-2 film is not the best for darkroom printing from its negatives in case this is an area you ever want to expand to. But it is perfectly fine for scanning/digitizing, no problems here.
Did you struggle with just 36exp after years of 1000+ per card?
More of the opposite - sometimes 36 frames were too much on one roll when taking photos selectively during a one-day trip. I always roll my B&W films myself from a 100' roll which allows me to be flexible with the amount of frames per roll up to 42.
What’s your keeper rate per film? Please be honest.
It hasn't changed much over the years - it is about 60-70%. I have less of technical issues why the others are no keepers - I simply don't like the composition with them.
Do the labs override your deliberate exposures?
As mentioned earlier, I long gave up on using external lab since I do all my development including for color negative (C-41) and color slide (E-6) films myself. But yes, in the past external labs caused wrongly exposed photo prints. I found out later that the negatives were fine but when printing, they screwed up.
I’m on the cusp of having a go. But I can’t shake the voice in my head telling me that I’m wasting my time… like dusting off a type writer to post a letter as opposed to sending a message via phone!! It’s almost silly… but there must be something I’m missing.
Film takes a lot more time than digital for sure. For professionals, I don't think film can ever fully replace digital at this point for this reason. But for hobbyists film is getting you acquainted with a different medium and experience. My recommendation is to give it a try first before diving and vesting too deep into it. Even risky, but in the first try have a reliable lab doing the development and scanning of the negatives just to get a feel for it to compare with digital. You only need any kind of film camera and a 35 mm film (assuming you will be using a 35 mm camera).
What else can I tell you? When I started off with film again back 10 years ago, I had years after where I shot predominantly film only similar to what @bjhurley@ mentioned because I found the film process more interesting than just using a digital photo for post processing on my computer. But I also admit that it has leveled off for me since a few years after film prices became much more expensive. I am taking now a lot more digital than film photos - probably 80:20 ratio. When I travel now and use airports, it is all digital for me at this point. This moving back to digital has nothing to do with me enjoying the film process less - but price consideration for film made me fully desert color negative film (here the difference to color digital is minimal at best IMO), and I have now also less time I can spend for all what good film development and digitization requires.
madNbad wrote:
Here's one from a film user that never switched to digital;
Use your digital camera with the restrictions of a film camera for a month.
Set the ISO at 400
Pick either B&W or color
No reviewing the exposure.
No more than 36 exposures per session.
It's a low cost way to learn the the workflow by using equipment you already have.
I already set about doing exactly this a year or so back. I bought a 256mb & 512mb sd card
Did what you mentioned, turned off everything except AF ( only ever use centre spot) The card gave exactly 37 exp 🤣👍🏻. Switched off auto ISO and made a point of deliberately setting the WB and not just using AWB.
I lasted 2days… the restrictions made it boring. But I’ll try it again.
