Work work work. It's no secret that film photography is a much more labor intensive process than digital. But really, how hard can it be?
First one has to pick the camera and film type: large or medium format, 35mm, or maybe 110 or some other strange size invented by crazy Kodak executives.
Then one has to choose film stock. Will it be black and white, or color? Fuji, Ilford, Kodak, Kentmere, Lomo? What film speed? 100, 200, 400, higher, lower? Expired or fresh?
After that, the film is loaded and settings are chosen. Weather and film speed are considered. Depending on the camera one may have to select aperture and shutter speed, then manually focus on the subject. Other cameras do all of that work for the photographer, leaving him with only the task of composing the picture and pushing the button.
Once the roll (or sheet) is spent, the roll is then loaded into a development reel. Reels are a personal choice, does one select metal or plastic, one with a ratchet or just a clip? The reel goes into a tank, also with several options.
A very important choice is the chemistry. What will one develop the film in? For color C-41 is standard, though selecting a brand is dizzying. For black and white? Welllllll, there are a million choices. I prefer caffenol, but that's because I'm cheap. But every photographer has a preference, and that preference can change based on film stock.
Developing presents choices about time and agitation. How grainy do you want? How much contrast? Tweaking time and agitation can create different results.
Once everything is shot and developed the next choice is how to present the images to the world. Will you scan it? That comes with choices, different scanners, different applications, different settings. Or do you want to chemically print it with an enlarger in a darkroom? Again, choices of paper, chemistry, lens, time, filters, and aperture.
As you can see, these kitty photos were scanned with different settings, and two of them were not set in the holder fully so I actually got film info on the scan. The camera choice was my Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 530, the film Ilford HP5, 400 ISO. I honestly don't know the aperture or shutter speed since I never write them down (some people do). I developed it in Caffenol for nine minutes and fixed it in Kodak fixer for five minutes. I scanned it with my Epson V600 scanner using Silverfast software.
I love film photography, mostly because of the choices, but I also hate how long it can take. Film doesn't lend itself to the fast paced modern world of social media. But I do believe it has made me a better photographer. So if you're bored or stuck with shooting a million shots with your fancy mirrorless, I recommend picking up an old film camera and trying it out!
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