Taking Pictures the Hard Way
blog.brixit.nl
Taking Pictures the Hard Way
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Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#2Funny to read someone discover analog film for the first time, when you grew up with it yourself. While I am happy I learned and practiced manual film development in the lab (bw only), I would not move back from my full frame DSLR anytime soon.
Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#3Welcome to the wonderful world of film. I’ve shot almost entirely analog after a short foray trying digital in the late 2000s. With my life so digitally connected I found having the analog process kept the joy in photography for me and I simply love the slow process from making images down to the final print in the darkroom. At the end of the day I don’t want to dodge and burn in Lightroom, spending even more time in front of a screen. I want to do it with my hands and home made darkroom tools under red safety lights.
All this to say: if you’re getting into analog photography I suggest following it all the way to the end and making prints over scanning your images. It’s a lot of fun and gives you a lot of respect for every older photograph you look at plus wonder at what image processing has brought us in mobile phone sensors.
Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#4I’d argue ‘the hard way’ is probably shooting large format slide film and developing it yourself ;), but seriously congrats on this foray into the exciting world of analog photography!
Just don’t get too attached to any Fuji film stocks…
Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#5I’d argue ‘the hard way’ is probably shooting large format slide film and developing it yourself ;), but seriously congrats on this foray into the exciting world of analog photography! Just don’t get too attached to any Fuji film stocks…
Raised on analog film (spent many hours in darkrooms both in high school as well as in elementary school). 35mm was the largest film size I tried.
When I went back to analog a few years back I introduced myself to medium-format as well as the tried-and-true 35mm. I think I was surprised at how inexpensive (eBay) and yet capable the older medium-format cameras were.
I confess to having put down the 35mm cameras though after I saw what the medium-format could do [1-3]. By all means, if you want to dabble in analog, consider an old waist-level, "box camera" and a roll of 120 film (the original Instagram square format, ha ha).
Amateur photos on Instagram:
[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CE0f9B-FklF
Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#6A nit:
"The larger the sensor the blurrier the background can be, and this also changes the distance at what you can make a picture of something and still have a blurry background."
Blur is totally determined by optics and has no direct relationship to sensor / film area.
Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#7Alas, film's recent popularity comes with (literally) a price. Cameras that were practically being given away are, thanks to "influencers", now insanely priced. Film was expensive enough but pandemic-related supply issues and Fuji's slow withdrawal from the film market have just made things worse.
I was lucky in that I picked up a bunch of film cameras when they were cheap. Processing hasn't risen in price all that much (yet) so that's nice. I even shoot 4x5 B&W that I process and scan myself. I still shoot digital, but it's 50:50 with film these days.
Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#8> It's possible to get a great APS-C sensor size digital camera for ~300 euro. But as soon as you go up in sensor size you're up into 1000+ euro.
The fair comparison is with used digital cameras. Great used full-frame cameras are readily available for https://www.mpb.com/en-us/used-equipment/used-photo-and-vide...
https://www.keh.com/shop/canon-eos-5d-12-8-megapixel-digital...
https://www.mpb.com/en-us/used-equipment/used-photo-and-vide...
https://seattle.craigslist.org/est/pho/d/bellevue-canon-6d-c...
etc.
Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#9I’d argue ‘the hard way’ is probably shooting large format slide film and developing it yourself ;), but seriously congrats on this foray into the exciting world of analog photography! Just don’t get too attached to any Fuji film stocks…
Raised on analog film (spent many hours in darkrooms both in high school as well as in elementary school). 35mm was the largest film size I tried. When I went back to analog a few years back I introduced myself to medium-format as well as the tried-and-true 35mm. I think I was surprised at how inexpensive (eBay) and yet capable the older medium-format cameras were. I confess to having put down the 35mm cameras though…
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Re: Taking Pictures the Hard Way
#10Welcome to the wonderful world of film. I’ve shot almost entirely analog after a short foray trying digital in the late 2000s. With my life so digitally connected I found having the analog process kept the joy in photography for me and I simply love the slow process from making images down to the final print in the darkroom. At the end of the day I don’t want to dodge and burn in Lightroom, spending even more time in…
I completely agree. Some of my best parts of film photography was in the darkroom. It was one of the most calming and relaxing environments for me. It's magical to see an image slowly appear in a developer tray on the exposed paper.