Digital or Film?

[Gasoleene]

I'm amateur playing with a digital Lumix (love the Leica lens for my budget) and an old school Nikon FM10. I have a basic Smith-Victor 2 umbrella set up and some "lomography" toy cameras I'd like to experiment with.

I have a love/hate relationship with film...I love the nostalgic surprise and the warmth of analog, hate it when the film is not exposed correctly, etc.

Are there any film lovers out there with tips and favorite types of film?

[Retrodolls Pinup Photography]

Fuji pro film works really well, great color great quality, and try taking your film to a pro photo lab for development. That is what i used to do even for 35mm, that way you can tell them exactly how you want your film ran.

[2d1jh4f6bcokc]

I love playing with B&W film when I have the time...... I used to shoot with a cannon eos5 with ILford film. I would like to shoot some infared on one of my shoots just for s**** and giggles. The playing with all the chemicals is soooo much fun for me ( watching the image come alive ) there's nothing like it. Fuji film has the best color there is ( slides).............

[Carly May Carnage]

i love love love film

i currently shoot film with an EOS700 and a Minolta Dynax 500si.

i find with film i take a LOT more care in setting up my shots, as i know each one costs money, and i like to do as little fiddling around with the image as i have to.

i still do most of my shooting in digital though, although it;s taking me a while to learn all the ins and outs of it all.

[Jian Bastille]

35mm : Kodak Portra 160VC, 160 NC, 400VC, 400 NC (VC for day shooting, NC for night)

Kodak CN 400 for B&W, damn low grain for the speed.

However, avoid the UC, I've never, ever got it to work right.

I used to use Ilford, until I got tired of the fat grey curve and low contrast without filters for black-and-white, and used to use Agfa exclusively for color. I never got into slides, but that's the best way to maximize your 35mm's color/sharpness capabilities, lens permitting.

Digital... good for commissioned work, fun-work, live events, or simply being a shutterbug. Nowadays, I reserve my 35mm film use for gallery-quality work, where I have the time, expense, and such to have every damn thing the way I want it, 100%, no-risk. Film is expensive, I shot for 10+ years with the basic 35mm, so it's not like I'm a digital-only kid. plus, it makes me a better photographer, having learned on film; being expensive, it made you size up a lot of settings and calculations, before you took that sure-shot, you HAD to be sure you were getting what you were paying for, film and developing-wise. ;)

My advice? Do both!

[Jian Bastille]

Jian Bastille said:

35mm : Kodak Portra 160VC, 160 NC, 400VC, 400 NC (VC for day shooting, NC for night)

Kodak CN 400 for B&W, damn low grain for the speed.

However, avoid the UC, I've never, ever got it to work right.

I used to use Ilford, until I got tired of the fat grey curve and low contrast without filters for black-and-white, and used to use Agfa exclusively for color. I never got into slides, but that's the best way to maximize your 35mm's color/sharpness capabilities, lens permitting.

Digital... good for commissioned work, fun-work, live events, or simply being a shutterbug. Nowadays, I reserve my 35mm film use for gallery-quality work, where I have the time, expense, and such to have every damn thing the way I want it, 100%, no-risk. Film is expensive, I shot for 10+ years with the basic 35mm, so it's not like I'm a digital-only kid. plus, it makes me a better photographer, having learned on film; being expensive, it made you size up a lot of settings and calculations, before you took that sure-shot, you HAD to be sure you were getting what you were paying for, film and developing-wise. ;)

My advice? Do both!

As I've said before, it's a sense of pride to have over 1500 selected photos on my own site, and 1200+ of them are 35mm film. It SEVERELY raises your stock as a photographer to be able to shoot digital, and use photoshop... but to NOT NEED it at all to have a stunning, well-shot photo, much less an armada of them.

[Gasoleene]

Thanks for the feedback everyone...pro photo labs definitely! When I was into lomography, I heard a lot about Portra and I definitely wanna try Fuji again. Anybody like AGFA?

[Jian Bastille]

Agfa was my prime color film before Portra, which is a damn good deal for the money, easier to find, as well.

BadLuck Kimmee said:

Thanks for the feedback everyone...pro photo labs definitely! When I was into lomography, I heard a lot about Portra and I definitely wanna try Fuji again. Anybody like AGFA?

[Philip Frazer]

yeah, porta all the way,

[TonyD]

I cut my teeth on film, shooting mostly transparency (35mm, medium and large format). Large format slows you down and makes you think. Shooting film for a dozen years or so makes you sharp.

But after switching to digital a decade ago and being able to get better results and MAKE it look like any film I've ever liked (or create my own look), not to mention the ease of archiving and "free" duplicates to send anywhere, I don't miss film at all. Not for color, not for monochrome. I get way better black & white from digital, as well, there's so much more control.

[Gasoleene]

For Christmas I bought a Lumix LX3, a compact point and shoot that has a pinhole, film grain and multiple exposure mode... I'm glad the digital world is trying to cater to film enthusiasts...

TonyD said:

I cut my teeth on film, shooting mostly transparency (35mm, medium and large format). Large format slows you down and makes you think. Shooting film for a dozen years or so makes you sharp.

But after switching to digital a decade ago and being able to get better results and MAKE it look like any film I've ever liked (or create my own look), not to mention the ease of archiving and "free" duplicates to send anywhere, I don't miss film at all. Not for color, not for monochrome. I get way better black & white from digital, as well, there's so much more control.

[Game Photography Edinburgh.]

I think you are all taking retro too far. The amount of money I used to waste on developing s*** photos was incredible. With digital you are cutting out the chemicals used for developing therefore helping the environment. You can instantly delete what you don't want. You have the power to enhance/edit your own work. We all love Marilyn Monroe, Betty Paige etc but they are no longer with us and that's how it should also be with film photography.

[Gasoleene]

To each their own... A delete button or photoshop can't duplicate the perfect nostalgia of film. Takes the romance out of the process.

The Sabboth Sinner said:

I think you are all taking retro too far. The amount of money I used to waste on developing s*** photos was incredible. With digital you are cutting out the chemicals used for developing therefore helping the environment. You can instantly delete what you don't want. You have the power to enhance/edit your own work. We all love Marilyn Monroe, Betty Paige etc but they are no longer with us and that's how it should also be with film photography.