Film

Don’t leave Home without it!

Without film the camera really IS just a box, and an empty one at that. The lens might come in handy for lighting camp fires, but a five dollar magnifying glass takes up less room in your pack. Even though it may sometimes appear the camera and lens are the entire hobby - and to some people they are, these tools are merely the means to the end. That little piece of celluloid is the product - the equipment is merely the "support system".

It’s like keeping a guppy. The one dollar fish needs a ten dollar tank, and a twenty dollar filter, and a fifteen dollar pump, and a twelve dollar heater, and a ten dollar bubbling shipwreck, and… Or you could compare it to the space program. Just add a few trillion to the equipment prices.

Unprocessed film is, like the guppy, completely unable to live in our world. It needs light to turn from a strip of pinky grey nothing into the magic of a photograph. Uncontrolled light however, will destroy the magic in an instant. Every bit of equipment you have bought serves the function of controlling light so the ugly film can grow into a beautiful picture. Clap if you believe in film.

Of the three basic film types: Colour Negative, Black and White Negative, and Colour Slide, I recommend most people start with the colour negative (aka Print) film.

Black and White (B/W) calls for the beginner to have access to a darkroom or pay for expensive custom processing. Should you have that darkroom access, use it. Processing and printing your own is one of the most satisfying pastimes ever invented. There is no feeling so wonderful as watching a blank sheet of paper blossom into a print under dim yellow light. It is triumph. It is alchemy.

It is also a complication, so unless you can use an existing darkroom, skip the black and white film for a while.

Slide films call for a secondary support system just to see the picture. You need a darkened room and a projector, or a light table a loupe and a very flexible back. In much of the world you need patience too, as the film must be mailed away for processing. You won’t see how you’ve done for a week or two - or longer.

With Colour Negative can drop your film off, go have lunch and pick the finished prints up in an hour. This is fast enough that you will probably remember what you had in mind when you shot the film, and easy enough that you will be encouraged to shoot more.

There is a drawback to colour negative film, but it’s a rather peculiar drawback. And one that Mr. Kodak spent years perfecting. Colour negative film will forgive most mistakes. You can over-expose or under-expose your shots and still end up with a decent looking print. What kind of drawback it this, you ask? What kind of drawback is it to get good pictures every time?

It is the best possible drawback for you. It’s a drawback millions of people love. It’s the basis of the entire film industry, which makes the stuff by the mega-mile and makes it possible for an untrained teenager to process and print film as fast as it comes into the shop. There is no drawback - it’s a boon.

So why are people telling you to shoot slides? They’ll give you a lot of reasons: It’s sharper, the colours are better, it’s the only film the pros shoot, print film is for wussies, etc. There are only two real reasons to shoot slide film instead of prints:

To test your equipment.
Because slides look so darn good.

Nothing else matters. Some professionals DO use only slide film. But this has nothing to do with you. You could become a professional in the future, and you can take up whatever, if any, kind of film that profession uses when you know a little more about it.

Some will tell you slides are the only way to learn exposure. This is simply hogwash. The meter in your camera will expose most slides quite well without teaching you a damn thing. I know people who shoot nothing but slides and they haven’t the vaguest idea why their exposures are good - or bad. Furthermore, slide film will not teach you how to expose print film - the techniques of exposure are very different. Slide exposure and print exposure are as alike as classical and heavy metal guitar. The best way to learn how to expose print film, is to shoot print film - and avoid heavy metal!

However, when it comes to testing the meter in your camera slide film is the only way to go. If it is inaccurate, slide film will show this up - quite well. If you get a new lens and think the prints look a bit yellow compared to your first lens, a roll of slide film, with comparison shots will tell you if your eyes are playing tricks on you.

The other reason for shooting slides, is the reason I shoot slides. Man - they look good! Did I do that? --- WOW!

Slides, viewed with light coming through them are probably the best looking photographs you will ever see The colours ARE bolder, and sharper, and the grain is smaller.

Sounds perfect right? It is, if you don’t want prints. Once you print slide film you lose the light through the film effect. You also end up paying custom prices for prints that frequently look much worse than the output of the local drugstore minilab.

Eventually you may feel as I do, and shoot only slide, but take the easy route for now, unless you are already so heartstruck you must shoot nothing but slides.

What is the BEST Film?

This is a FAQ on the usenets. It is not answerable. I know the film "I" like the best. I know what films sell the best. I even know what film comes in the best package. I will never know the actual best film - and neither will you.

There are two major brands available in the US - Kodak and Fuji. Both are good film and both make good pictures. Both companies make dozens of different films to satisfy every section of the market. There are several other brands too, most of which are made by Agfa, Konica, or 3M and packaged under those names or as house brands for chains of stores. The trouble with house brands is that the "house" has usually given the contract to the lowest bidder.

If CHEAPOSTUFF DRUGS finds a great buy on a few million feet of film that was perhaps coated at the wrong humidity it will be sold in the same packaging as the perfectly good film they had last week. Next week it could be some stuff that was stored next to a leaky steam pipe. The colour could be off, or the emulsion might start to fall apart long after development. You won’t know until it happens. House brand film is rarely "the BEST".

How do you determine the BEST for you?

There is only one way. Buy some, shoot it, buy something else, shoot it, look at the prints, buy yet another, shoot it…. It goes on and on. I know that this sounds like a pile of work - When do we get to the FUN part?

Guess what --- This IS the fun part.

You bought the camera to shoot film. That’s what your are doing. You can’t know how a film is going to look until you shoot it, so shoot it and find out. Get a couple rolls of Fuji and a couple of Kodak then go out and take some pictures. You don’t have to test it out with a colour chart, or shoot under controlled identical conditions. Just shoot some people or places - something you think might make an interesting picture. When you get the prints back you might decide you really like the Kodak better than the Fuji or vice versa. You might also start to see differences between them, differences that could be exploited later.

If you shot that neat Red Tessatore that’s always parked down the street with Kodak, how about going back later and trying it again with the Fuji? Aunt Milly’s hellebores looked good in Fuji - try it with the Kodak.

For general outdoor sunlight shooting 100 speed film will probably do the trick. If you find the camera is always giving you that little warning light about slow shutter speed then use 400 speed film.

You should always be trying out films you’ve never used before. Film changes faster than any other part of your system, and it’s the one part you CAN easily change. That 600 dollar lens, that 200 dollar tripod, that 400 dollar body, that 70 dollar filter, that… you don’t want to buy this sort of stuff new every few days. Film is cheap - shoot it by the kilometer.