Why Digital Photogs Should Shoot Film

This is not a post about Digital vs Film, it is not a post to claim one is better than the other, the intent of this post is to illicit a thought.

Reasons why every digital photog should shoot film, at least for a period of time. These are in no particular order

1) Shooting film slows your shooting process down. Unlike digital, where you can shoot and shoot and worry about processing later to correct errors and straighten images, etc., with film you have a limited number of frames per roll (24 or 36 in 35mm and between 10 and 15 for medium format, 120 film), this limited number of frames forces you to properly compose and meter. With film, every frame you expose comes at an expense, once the frame is exposed it cannot be deleted and it has to go through the development process. The need to be more meticulous, so as not to waste any frames, affords for the “training” of your photographer’s eye, this means you will improve your compositional and metering skills……making you a better photographer at the end of the day.

2) Shooting film requires patience. Unlike digital, when you expose a frame on film you cannot review the image on the back of the camera, you have to wait to process the film, if you process yourself, or wait for the developed film to be returned to you from the lab. This means you have to patiently wait before you can review what you have shot…….this make the above reason, proper composition and metering, more important because you may be unable to re-shoot the images.

3) Image quality. The use of film generally affords you a broader dynamic range. Films like Kodak Portra, for example, will allow you too over expose up to 5 or 6 stops and still retain the highlight details. Every the best and most expensive digital cameras will not afford you such leeway. Yes, some film stocks will produce grainy images but you can also control the grain through exposure and development. The below image of the straw bags was shot on Kodak TMax 400, a low grain B&W film, as you can see grain is nearly non-existent. However, grain in film is different from noise in digital, the grain, by many, including myself, view grain as part of the beauty of film photography…….ask yourself why there are so many digital editing presets looking to replicate film grain.

4) The here and now. How many times have you been shooting a subject and after even capture, or every few captures, do you stop to review the image(s)? This takes you out of the being present with your subject, it is a disconnect. This is important because if you are shooting a model the best images result from developing a photographic connection with the model, each time you stop to look at your screen you create a disconnect and depending how long you take to review and make adjustments the more time your model is waiting for you. Stopping to review could also result in missed photo opportunities. With film you don’t have this issue because you have nothing to review.

Again, this is not about one being better or worse but it is intended to help you to understand how shooting film, even casually, can improve your digital photography work and your workflow.

Happy, as always, to discuss this and any other photography subject.

Why I decided to Teach Photography

For nearly as long as I have known myself I have had a fascination with pictures.

As I got older this fascination grew and became a passion. When I first learned photography, most professional photographers were unwilling to teach someone who could potentially become their competitor, so pretty much learned on my own, through trial and error and experimentation. After “practicing” this wonderful art form for nearly 40 years I have garnered a whole lot of knowledge and what good is knowledge if you don’t share it?

I never viewed photography as overly difficult but there are some technical aspects that one must learn in order to capture the beginnings of a quality image.

While each element of photography works in unison to create a great image when first learning photography there are steps one can take to begin to create good images. The first, in my view, after learning how to properly hold/stabilise the camera, is Composition. An image with good composition can be an effective image even if the exposure is marginally off.

Second is proper exposure. After Composition, Exposure, in my view, is the basis of good photography. So while an image with good Composition with Exposure being slightly off can make for a good image, if Exposure is such that everything is way over or under-exposed the image is unusable.

The third element is focus. This is in reference to both focus itself and focal point. Focus is making sure the image is not blurry and focal is directing the viewer’s eyes where you want them to go.

Let’s Address Exposure First

Exposure is a matter of balancing the three elements of the Exposure Triangle (shutter speed, aperture and ISO) . The easiest way I have found to teach this concept is to break it down by determining two of the elements and use the third to get correct exposure.

What do I mean? For example, make sure your camera is in Manual Mode, set your ISO to say 400, now determine if you want everything in focus or only items closest to the camera with items furthest from the camera blurred (this is an artistic decision). Let’s choose a relatively large aperture, say f5.6. Now select a subject, look through the view finder of the camera and read the meter, if it is to the left or right of centre the image is over or under exposed. The goal is to “zero-out” your meter, that is, place the marker in the centre of the meter scale, to do this you only need to increase or decrease the shutter speed to get the meter marking to the centre.

Once you have done this you have effectively used the Exposure Triangle to correctly expose an image.

You can use this method by “fixing” any two of the three and using the third to zero out your meter.

See how easy it actually is? After a while much of it will become second nature, you will make decisions before you ever put the camera to your eye. Typically, if you are shooting during the day there will be little need to change your ISO unless lighting conditions are changing rapidly, unlikely to happen. So you can “fix” your ISO. You then decide on your depth of focus, Aperture, you fix that, the only thing left is shutter speed and you use that to correct your exposure.

You may decide to “fix” the shutter speed, you may want to create blur in your image, you will set a slow shutter speed, you can again leave your ISO at 400 and set your exposure using your Aperture.

So you see, this proper exposure thing is easy, once you have a basic understanding…….anyone can do it.

Remember that photography is nothing more than the capture of light, the light falling on or the light being reflected from your subject. All you need to do is properly expose for that light.

Since, I stated that I believe that Composition is more important, overall than exposure, I say that because automatic settings in cameras do a pretty good of setting the right exposure and I believe one should learn Composition first.

Composition is nothing more than attracting and keeping the attention of the viewer, at least long enough to truly experience what you have captured.

Without going into too much detail, couple of key Compositional Elements, are:

Rule of Thirds - think of thirds as splitting your view finder into three equal rows and three equal columns……..simply, in your initial learning, never place you subject in the smack dab middle of the frame, that makes for a boring and predictable image, on most occasions. Place the subject in the left third or the right third of the screen. This creates negative space and gives the eye somewhere to go.

When shooting a landscape image where there is the presence of the horizon, never place the horizon in the middle of the frame, again this typically creates a boring and mundane image, place the horizon in the upper of lower third of the frame. This again gives the eye somewhere to wonder across and through the image. If you are shooting a Sunset, put the horizon in the lower third because you want the viewer to focus more on the beauty of the Sunset. If you are shooting a beach scene, for example, your goal is likely to show the beauty of the beach so you would place the horizon higher in the blue sky to have the viewer focus more attention on the beach and its details.

Lead In Lines - this is taking elements that are essentially straight lines, placing them in the frame as if they are pointing the viewer into the scene of toward your ultimate subject, an example would be, there is a line of rocks in the sea that lead to a sailboat in the distance. You would frame the image so that the line do indeed point directly at the sail boat. These line lead the viewer’s eyes into the scene.

I trust this has been of some assistance.