And more on film

I am still playing with the Nikon FE with film. Not taking a lot of pictures, mind: the moment I touch a film camera, my old film skills come back. Including:

  • “Don’t shoot unless you mean to, because every click costs a dollar”.
  • Manual focus, where you want.
  • Meter carefully: no second chances.
  • Frame carefully: no post work.

Those are skills that are still very valuable; in fact they are skills you should have even when shooting digital. So perhaps your next self-assignment should be: shoot with manual focus for a day or two, and do not allow yourself the luxury of cropping in “post”. Pretend to shoot film!

 

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “And more on film

  1. Great points! Film definitely slows you down, and this is a good thing. It helps me think about composition, and I really think about what I am seeing, and whether I should click the shutter or not. There are a lot of great benefits to digital but it also brings some negatives such as the spray and pray mentality.
    I’ve recently taken up shooting a Nikon F3 (35mm) and Pentax 67 medium format camera. The Pentax 67 allowed me to get into medium format at a fairly inexpensive price, less than $1000 versus the digital medium format which is 10-20k.
    I look forward to more posts and experiences on the film front!

Leave a Reply to Shawn Brezny Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *