Why I still shoot film

smile said:
i live in a small town on a small island and there are just few labs here that can process neg c-41, non of them can process slide. the quiality is always awful, overexposed or underexposure, film is scratched all over. i quit shooting film. my leica is now staying in the closet. i hate this island. i hate my digi canon :bang:
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I lost some images to bad professional lab processing and went back to doing my own film work. I hadn't processed film in years. I ran 8 rolls with good results. You don't need much. A dark closet or changing bag for loading, chemistry and a source of water. i encourage you to try. A little success and you'll be set.
 
I love using the old classic film cameras and lenses, and I love the craft (hands-on) nature of traditional film developing and printing.
 
my life is complicated enough. I have a hectic job that demands 1001 decisions to be made a day. Shooting film calm my nerves, developing them is a form of relaxation for me.

raytoei
(ps. I did a count today. I have 15 cameras, only 1 is a Digital, the rest I have acquired in the past year, cheaply and of high quality).
 
yolk, PKR -
thank you for your advice. i was thinking to start doing it at home, to buy a processor and chemicals. but it's very expensive, moreover there are so many types of chemicals and processes so i was just got confused while trying to understand what to start with, and i gave up.. chemistry is not what i am good at.
there are no photo schools or special courses here at the place where i live. i thought i could find someone to teach me but digit is everywhere, and i couldn't..
but i definitely will! some day
 
smile said:
yolk, PKR -
thank you for your advice. i was thinking to start doing it at home, to buy a processor and chemicals. but it's very expensive, moreover there are so many types of chemicals and processes so i was just got confused while trying to understand what to start with, and i gave up.. chemistry is not what i am good at.
there are no photo schools or special courses here at the place where i live. i thought i could find someone to teach me but digit is everywhere, and i couldn't..
but i definitely will! some day
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Smile, if you are talking about B+W film developing, it couldn't get much easier! Two chemicals (developer and fixer), add a third chemical (hypo clear) if you want to cut down on the washing time, and you are set. Rodinol developer (1:100) is great for slower films (>100 iso). Twirl the film for 1 minute, then just let it sit for 30 minutes. Then 5 minutes in fixer, wash, and you're done. And highly satisfied to boot.
 
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FrankS said:
Smile, if you are talking about B+W film developing, it couldn't get much easier! Two chemicals (developer and fixer), add a third chemical (hypo clear) if you want to cut sown on the washing time, and you are set. Rodinol developer (1:100) is great for slower films (>100 iso). Twirl the film for 1 minute, then just let it sit for 30 minutes. Then 5 minutes in fixer, wash, and your done. And highly satisfied to boot.
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FrankS, it looks like it's not as complicated as i was thinking. also i already found some interesting threads here about film developing. i will try to find some chemicals this week.
 
I'm in love with photography for about one and a half year now. Starting with a DSLR, and ofter some time followed by a SLR. That just gave me something. Quite nice pictures, not too many and a lot of fun.
When I got my first rangefinder (Agfa selectronic s, which was defect), I had no choice. I wanted to try rangefinder, but an M8 (M9 wasn't even released then) was way to expensive, I didn't even know, there was an M8. By the time, after shooting with the wonderful Olympus XA, I got my Bessa. And still the digital ones were to expensive. But more important for me is, that you will never get the same digital picture you did it with film. That's most important to me. 🙂 The look, the slowlieness (is that right?), the exclusivity, that's it. :
 
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Mcary said:
It appears that these folks didn't receive that memo.

http://www.daguerre.org/

http://www.collodion.org/workshop.html
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Yep...these people would read this thread and lament, "You guys with your slick, modern film gear...get over yourselves!" 😉

dannynono said:
I know it's a bit of a stretch, but a few years back when my youngest was about to be born I realized that having a boatload of digital photos of her childhood just wasn't going to cut the mustard. There's something about having an archived neg/pos that's more permanent to me. I still wonder how many digitally shot family snaps will survive the next 10-20-xx years.
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No need to wonder: as a freelance IT guy, I've come to the 11th-hour rescue of way too many people who didn't think backing up their hard disk was any big deal until they booted up one day and got nothing but ominous clicking sounds from their computers. Most of the time, I was able to save the day (barely); too often, however, the drive was ding-dong dead by the time I arrived, meaning they either called an outfit like DriveSavers (and kissed upwards of $2000+ away), or simply cried in their beer (and kissed untold amounts of data away, almost always including "important" photos of friends, family, and so on).

Dealing with a film-based workflow, for both my own work and the (very) occasional client is, in some ways, more of a PITA than digital, but it's the medium I prefer by the proverbial country mile: I know my fave film typed like the back of my hand, what I can and can't do with them, and how to get what I want from them. The worst film based camera I ever owned is generally preferable to the best digital camera I've ever used, far more straightforward and solid in everyday use, IMO. The film/digital "hybrid" system I've been using over the last twelve years has gotten rather nicely-refined. I do the pure digital-capture thing once in a while, but post shoot work can sometimes be more tedious than working via film.

And, yes, for me, process counts almost as much as results.


- Barrett
 
I find inspiration in the tactile sensation of a well-engineered machine. Digital cameras just don't feel right, there is something about the way the nice heft of a vintage, heavy, metal machine feels in my hands that a digital camera can't match.

And I like the feeling of anticipation that shooting with film brings, hoping that you mixed light, glass, film and machine together in the right proportions to create magic. Not knowing immediately if you got the shot (or not) is half the fun of photography, and separates a photographer from being just another button-pusher in our instant-gratification world.

Kolame, "slowlieness" might not have been a word before, but it is now ... LOL
 






Shooting film is one of the good things in life. Being able to use classic mechanical cameras is a bonus. Just holding a mechanical camera, loading film, setting exposure, composing, focusing, I can feel my heart rate go down. I still shoot digital and enjoy that as well. I don't have to choose. I can do both. For me, it's not an either/or deal.

I love going to the lab and droping film off/picking it up. Interacting with people and have them be part of the creative process is a good thing.





Taken with 28 1.9 ASPH/50 1.0 on Leica M7/MP Ektapress 160 ASA.

The other thing with film is that sometimes, you get mistakes that turn out pretty cool like this double exposure.



Gregory
 
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I shoot film because I shoot digital as part of my day-job (video and stills). I am just marinated in high-tech. When I go home I want nothing to do with it, but I did get a Lumix G1... oh man, am I slipping?
 
I'm a newbie, started taking photos 5 months ago. I started off with Canon 7D. After 2 months, i bought my 1st TLR, a Seagull (originally it was for fun). From then, i started taking film photos. I like the feel, texture, and depth. However, yesterday i downloaded Exposure 3 from Alien Skin. I found it quite amazing turning digital photo to film "feel".
 
I got into shooting film because after getting into photography with a DSLR I wanted to take the next step in the learning curve by being forced to shoot fully manual. I started with a cheap Zorki and a Lomo, and then when I was sure it was for me I quickly upgraded. There are two things I really enjoy about it. First, the style of shooting and thinking through each shot instead of just pushing the button and moving on. Second, the workflow is slow, physical, and only involves a computer if you want it to. It's an artistic outlet as well as the perfect antidote to sitting in front of a PC for multiple hours at work every day, who could ask for more? Oh yeah, and sometimes the compliments I receive on my photos or the gift of a print to someone make it all the more worthwhile!
 
smile said:
yolk, PKR -
thank you for your advice. i was thinking to start doing it at home, to buy a processor and chemicals. but it's very expensive, moreover there are so many types of chemicals and processes so i was just got confused while trying to understand what to start with, and i gave up.. chemistry is not what i am good at.
there are no photo schools or special courses here at the place where i live. i thought i could find someone to teach me but digit is everywhere, and i couldn't..
but i definitely will! some day
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You can get a cheap plastic tank + reels and a decent thermometer (don't skimp on the thermometer, a good one will be $20 or less on ebay) and some chemistry. You can use old plastic juice or milk containers for the chemistry for a try out. Read about your favorite B+W film and its processing on the web. When you get good at it, then try C41 or E6 if you want to process color. The Temp regulation is more critical with color.., 1/2 degree. It's do-able, I've done both with good results.
 
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