Film Photography isn't for the faint of heart

It’s been awhile, to say the least. As many of you already know, I’ve been experimenting with film photography. Trying to see what I can do on my own with the knowledge I already have with photography. I won’t be the first or the last to say that film and digital are two completely different beasts when it comes to photography.

There’s a whole different science to each. The only things that are similar are some of the technicalities (apertures, shutter speeds, etc.), but even with that, there are way too many differences to hop smoothly from one to the other and back without extensive knowledge of each. I’ve gotten to the point with digital where I feel (I could be completely wrong) like every shot I take is a breeze. I look at something, set up my composition and shoot.

Of course, I think about what’s in the frame before I release the shutter, but that’s about it. I’ve seen plenty of people take a digital camera, shoot like crazy, and pray that something good comes from it. Heck, I’ll freely admit that I used to be like that. It’s very easy to get to that point with digital. With memory getting cheaper and cheaper, you can just keep on shooting to your heart’s desire. Film photography restrains us and forces us to think.

“Film photography restrains us and forces us to think.”

With film it’s different. You don’t have 700+ exposures to play with before switching out your CF card. After all, is said and done, you usually only have 24-36 exposures. Regardless, you have to consider what’s in the frame before you capture it.

That’s what I want. I want to take fewer photos that aren’t important. I want to be able to capture the moments that count and that’s it. I’m sure that there isn’t going to be endless amounts of awesomeness that I capture, but I’d like the percentage to be a little higher, especially when dealing with film photography. I think that’s my main concern when it comes to what I’m practicing, which leads me to my main point (two paragraphs later…Yowza!).

“Film photography is super organic, at least in my opinion it is.”

Film photography is super organic, at least in my opinion it is. While digital sensors are trying to figure out what kind of light you’re using, film photography just captures what you see. Colors flow perfectly without colliding. It’s full control. At the same time, that control is permanent.

There’s no Photoshop. There’s no way to fix this or that (as far as I know). To me, that’s the beauty of it. There are so many photographers that I hear saying, “Oh! I’ll just fix that in Photoshop.” There shouldn’t be a need for that. Everything that you capture in camera should be usable right from the get go.

We’re all photographers, not graphic designers. We’re not meant to spend hours upon hours editing photos. I mean, if you want to, you can go ahead and do it. I definitely don’t. I’d like to be a photographer and that’s it.

Here’s a sample of what I’ve been doing. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Film Photography