How to record the camera and lens settings?

When shooting film nowadays, I don't even try to remember frame by frame exposure settings. It's not worth the effort. However, sometimes I do as I have a good memory.

Once the film is processed and scanned, I do take the effort to punch lens name, camera name and model, lens max aperture, and film speed into the EXIF data with EXIFtool. Then I add the film type as a keyword with Lightroom. I rarely refer to this stuff later, but it lets me see at a glance when I'm looking through recent work what cameras and lenses are getting some use.

Most of the compulsion to record this stuff evaporates after you've gotten secure in your technical skills ... that is, once you know how to consistently process your film, understand exposure well enough, and know what the FoV from different lenses looks like, the need to record all this data is pretty minimal.

FAR more important to me when I'm archiving my photographs are the simpler things: location and date of the exposure, names of the people in the photo (if I know them). That's the information that 20 years on you wish you had at your disposal. I know this from the personal experience these past three weeks scanning a bunch of slides from the time period 1970 to 1995... Happily, I can remember about 80% of it. (And ironically, I remember about 90% of the technical information too...)

G
 
I think taking photos by film is quite different from taking by memory cards. I took film more seriously. My film camera is a mechanical one. I have to unlearn my digital shooting mode which I used to use bracketing in exposure and white balance. More, I like continuous shooting mode. A couple of clicks can result in over 100 frames. I would select one or two good shots from those frames.

I think that's why I need some means to record the shots and learn how to prevent the bad shots and repeat the good ones.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Time taken writing down data is time not spent shooting. I tried it for about a week when I first learned about the Zone System, and decided it was an even bigger waste of time than Zone System testing.

What is it going to tell you, after all? You'll never be taking exactly the same picture again, except in the studio.

Shoot lots of pictures, and you'll get a feel for what works. The 'data' given in many old photo books were, in many cases, based on a mixture of what the photographer could remember and what seemed probable, i.e. most of it was substantially made up. One photographer I knew listed all his best shots as being taken with one system (which the manufacturer gave him free) and the others as being taken with the other system (which he paid for). I forget which way 'round it was but the systems were RB67 and Pentax 67.

Cheers,

R.
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I agree with Roger here. To compliment his post I will say that if your photographs are good it doesn't matter what camera, lens or film you shoot.

Regards,

Boris
 
I only record the approx date, location, camera, lens, and EI if different from the base speed on each roll directly. I don't need to know any of the other stuff because it's inferable after the fact.

Mark, If there's one thing you have to unlearn it's that of continuous shooting. Visualize the shot and then take it. If the resultant film doesn't match your visualization you need to work on the visualization or technical details of shooting. Don't shoot everything just in case. Shoot what you know should be a good shot. Probably gonna be a bad shot but take it just in case? Just don't take the shot.

Film is a lake of fire but if you can overcome that you WILL be a better photographer.
 
I started using the android version a few weeks ago. After about a week, I got fed up with it, even though it's pretty easy. More than anything else, it just felt like it was killing my flow, and I'll offer no pretense of being a good photographer. Every once in a while, though, you'll go to take a shot, it'll be ok, and then you go to record it when *BAM* that was when you should've pressed the shutter. It would be great to have if it was recorded automatically, but I agree that it's a bit of a waste of time for info that one would think to be useful practically, but actually isn't really all that important.
 
I use a notebook to record.
Not all, but just what I want to see later. (for blogging, caption, check the result...)


撮影メモ / Shooting note by Takeshi Nishio, on Flickr

LEFT page (2 films / page):
Basic setups at header:
-sequential serial film number
-camera body
-film name / type
-exposure index (option)
-date film loaded (option)
-tick mark for reminder, picked up this film or not :)

Notes per frame at under the header:
-frame No.
-date
-lens
-subject
-F No. (option)
-shutter speed (option)

RIGHT page:
-Additional notes (shop name, TEL, weather, where I walked...)
 
If you are using a camera with an aperture ring and shutter speed dial on top you could take a mobile phone picture of the camera after each shot.
 
nikon_sam said:
I only write down this information when testing either film, camera, lens or flash...other than that I don't really need this info...

#1. 190mm f/8 1/125
#2. 210mm f/9.5 1/100
#3. 150mm f/5.6 1/125 w/Polarizer

It looks something like this
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Same with me, I use to try to do it all the time but usually tired of it after a couple of shots.
 
The only time I record such info is when testing a new lens, body, or other gear. I just use 3x5 index cards. Write the info down (camera, lens, etc) and take a shot of the card.

Other than that I don't record any info while I am out shooting unless it is some new trick I am trying, then the cards come out.
 
I use a Palm OS ancestor of that type of program called Fotolog, which I use to record film, camera, lens, aperture, shutter speed, & location/other info; at the end of a roll, the program spits out the info as a list in a plain text file. There's another good IOS (probably Android, too) program called PhotoEXIF, but nothing I've tried thus far is as easy to use , customizable, & suited for my purposes as the old Fotolog. Before that, I used a small paper notepad.

I don't find it difficult or too distracting, but I've also had years to work note-taking into my shooting workflow. I always shoot 1st, record later (though usually not more than several minutes later). As others have posted, once you're an experienced shooter, the exposure information is usually only useful when you're testing equipment, experimenting w/new techniques, etc. For routine shooting, the location & background information is often the only thing that really matters for me as well. Indeed, that's why I also record this information using Fotolog even when I'm shooting digital.

However, since I'm recording the background information, anyway, it's trivial for me to include the exposure information (it's not like I'm constantly changing aperture & shutter speed from shot to shot) while I'm at it. I also go through several rolls a week, but only get around to developing/reviewing them in batches, sometimes several weeks later. Consequently, since I do get a surprising result, good or bad, every once in a while, I've found it very useful on those occasions to be able to pull up my records while trying to diagnose what happened. Finally, as a gear nerd, I like to be able to know which camera & lens produced a particular shot.

Iestrada said:
If you are an iPhone/iPod touch user, there is a app that enables you to record such data. It is called FilmEXIF-Lite. You can enter multiple cameras, lenses,and films commonly used. From menus you chose the camera and film being used. You are then able to select the lens being used for each exposure along with the aperture and shutter speed.

I have played with it at home but have not actually used it in the field.

It is a very nice app. It can also save a geo. tag of the location of the image.
Click to expand...
 
Hi,

When needed the back of an old, used envelope will do and a stub of pencil. When testing new cameras a notebook.

I find it useful to list the apertures available and the shutter speeds in a row in the note book and tick them off when used for the tests. And, because of RFF, I now take demo shots and make a note of the setting where possible for thread like the traditional question "does anyone use a Leica" and so on.

Minolta made a 35mm film camera, IIRC, that took a little SD card and recorded the setting used. I've often thought it would be interesting to use and then look at the reality, since, like Roger I tend to take the picture my way (and cross my fingers).

Regards, David
 
I find very difficult, almost impossible to keep working the creative side of my brain together with the rational side. If I take notes I cannot concentrate on the images, when what I see moves me and I start shoot I forget about the notes! In a very few cases when experimenting something I take notes, but more than the usual parameters (iso, f and time) I note how I expose the film: exposing for the light or for the shadows, average an overexposing x stops because of..., etc. Or average metering, spot pointing at...
Simple exposure parameters do not add anything special to my experience.
robert
 
Track Shot Settings via OneNote

Track Shot Settings via OneNote

I keep track of my shot settings via Microsoft OneNote on my Windows Phone. I also like that it automatically syncs with my SkyDrive so when I get back to my laptop or home, the data is waiting for me.
 
Get a camera that will imprint this on the film between the frames.

Otherwise, you will spend so much time taking notes that it will take away time spent thinking about the scene in front of you.

With digital, you're popping off hundreds of shots per day. With film, you take far less, but it will be a colossal pain to write down information about each shot, especially if you are shooting with a zoom. Waste of time, I think.

All of the recording of data (EXIF) has turned photographers into micromanaging pixel peepers. Just get out and shoot. Make every shot count.
 
If you're just learning to shoot, I think it can be worthwhile info to take down. There are plenty of unexpected qualities to shots, and if you don't remember how that shot was taken, you might not be able to do it again on purpose later, if you wanted to.

If you have an android phone, exif4film is a sort of equivalent to filmexif-lite on the iphone.
 
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