As you already know, if you’ve read any of my previous blogs, I started shooting on film whilst I was in my teens. I do believe that learning - and I do mean learning - to shoot on film, gives you a discipline digital photography cannot teach you.
Let me explain…I’m not saying for a moment that people who have only ever shot digital, or have learnt to shoot digital first don’t have discipline. Not at all. However, in the days of film, long before the world became digitized, society was different, the world of photography was truly a different place and too me it was one of discovery and wonder. We take photography for granted now, for the masses we don’t even think of the images we take as photographs – they are “pics”. We all have access to it through the use of our own cell phones. We don’t give it a second thought. The whole process is pretty quick, indeed instantaneous. We all want “it” fast now – that’s our society.
Granted, if you choose to shoot film these days – and if you haven’t perhaps thought about giving it a go, with the demise of film and the multitude of photo labs – gone now, it is an expensive way to produce images, but it’s a great experience. Buying film – and your choices are limited by what you can buy today, or afford to buy – then have it developed and printed (remember – far, far less photo labs today), is not all the same as it used to be. I do think it’s worth trying, and if you have the opportunity to develop and print your exposed film yourself…well – do it!
But here it is…there was no “spraying and praying”, you had to wait until your film was developed to even see negatives before they were printed (yes, you could get prints at the same time usually, if you sent them away), or see your transparencies. The whole process was longer. A roll of film was usually 24 or 36 exposures and one never “ran” through a roll, as we do with digital files on a card, deleting an image on film simply wasn’t an option, a wasted frame, was a wasted frame – and money. One was more selective when pressing the shutter button. Developing your own film could sometimes lead to mistakes, I’ve seen it happen – Photo Labs have botched developing films too and if they were posting them back to you – they could get lost in the mail – that’s happened too. Should you do your own printing, a simple mistake was not correctable with CTRL Z (or whatever the MAC equivalent is) – no unlimited “undoes”, mistakes were an expensive business.
And there was no “chimping”.
A sunny Saturday morning in London, found me out shooting with one of my best friends, I remember we were outside Westminster Abbey when I realized – with great clarity – that upon pressing the shutter on my camera, I could see the final print in my mind. Like so many other subconscious things I have done – I had been doing this without realization, I had been forming the image in my mind. All the time I was out shooting, where ever I was, I was constantly thinking about how my images would look once printed. I was doing all my own black and white developing and printing in a dark room, but I had already processed the images mentally. It was a bit of a revelation to me.
...later that afternoon, St Catherines Dock
I haven’t shot film in years now, it’s all digital cameras for me these days and my post processing is done on the computer in front of me as I write this. My files are all digital and I can get to images I’m looking for without too much trouble. Not so my negatives and transparencies – most of which I have no clear idea to their whereabouts. It’s a big job that I will have to undertake sometime – not looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to finding certain images – I hope they’re still salvageable – another big job!!
I couldn’t go back to film, even if I could have a permanent and well-equipped darkroom, time and effort of the process are too much for me now. I am content post processing on my computer, though I do look back on my dark room days with fondness.
Everything I have written here thus far I hope will serve to illustrate how I and countless others grew-up using film. The view finder was optical and there was no rear viewscreen or EVF to recall what you have already shot, time would tell – no “chimping”. For myself, I previsualized my images far better than I do now for the simple reason was that I totally relied on my mind to see what I was shooting – the final image – there was no other way. I’m glad I had the opportunity learning photography through film, I believe it made me stop to think and it gave me discipline.
“Chimping” is a product of digital photography, and I admit to practicing “chimping” now and then – and yes, we all know that we shouldn’t – you should have enough faith in your ability to not have to. My “chimping” mostly stems for shooting with old vintage lenses and checking focus – something you never did with film…and I do remember having great confidence in my manual focusing – I never even thought about it. It seems harder now…perhaps my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be – well, I know they’re not!
My style of shooting hasn’t changed much from film to digital, I use the camera in much the same way, granted cameras are far more sophisticated today, but I don’t need most of it. Quick, accurate, confident autofocus – yes, for when I’m using it. But most of the time, I’m still using (mostly) single point focus, even today. Along with having the camera in manual, I find myself using a good many manual focus lenses – there’s something immensely satisfying with that. When I get to post processing, I treat my image files much the same way as I did my negatives – I don’t do a whole lot, I still dodge and burn! Having the ability to change ISO, on-the-fly – oh yes. But again film – fixed ASA – another discipline!
What hasn’t changed is forming the mental image – previsualization, and though digital photography has added so much…it’s also taken something away. My photography has always been pretty simple – perhaps that’s part of the key. Your photography can greatly benefit from the process of previsualization, it takes practice and patience, awareness and thought. My mind is always on my subject – whatever it is – and my final image. I don’t need to think about the equipment I’m using – know your gear and have faith in your knowledge and understanding of light and composition. Free your mind.
Enough now, I’ve said more than I normally would, though there’s so much more that can be said…I’ve expressed my thoughts and feelings…you get the idea. I hope this gives you some ideas of how to previsualize your images, if you’re not already doing so. And yes, we can throw some poo now.