

Another good thing about high-quality old lenses without autofocus is their durability, as there are fewer elements that can break.Īn additional advantage of film photography is that you can use any full-frame lenses to the highest of their abilities. My absolute favorite is a cheap 50mm f/1.7 lens that I attach to my Minolta with a bayonet mount. The same goes to lenses: the ones that don’t have an autofocus and can’t be fitted in a modern camera lost their value moneywise, but not the quality. I’m often asked “What is the difference between film and digital photography?”, and, apart from the obvious, I tell people about my own reasons (that you see below) to prefer film.įrom the time cheap DSLRs appeared on the market, the price of a high-level film photography camera fell.

Create your own guide to film photography with best settings for different film types and environment or see what settings other portrait photographers use. Working with your digital photos, you can return to the EXIF data any time and refresh your memory, but there is nothing of the kind with the film. Simply being stubborn and spending extra costs, I kept trying to memorize everything, but it never worked. Note Down Film Stocks and Settingsĭon’t wait until you learn it the hard way as I did. If you don’t have much money or time for taking photos on films, but you want to get this moody effect on your photos, use this collection of Lightroom presets and make it in several clicks. Do your research and find which labs other film photographers go to. Don’t let them be wasted because of negligence or unproficiency of those quick-to-serve places. You are putting money in the materials and effort in the results, capturing important moments for your relatives or clients. Yes, the 1-hour photo kiosks conveniently located in supermarkets are not reputable. Even if you can set the right camera settings on your film photography camera and the object you’re shooting is great, choose the wrong angle and you’ve ruined it. No matter if digital or film, all images require a good composition. Make sure the chemicals and techniques you use are the same and note down all temperatures and times to be able to replicate them. Practicing certain camera settings or lighting options will be more efficient because you see the actual difference they make on the stable background of the same film. Thus, an important matter is the consistency in film type you use to avoid too many unnecessary variables. The photography film of the same type made by different brands can differ a lot.

The biggest regrets in film photography often come when you hold yourself from hitting the button more than once. If you need to save money, you’d better become picky with the scene itself, but once you find a worthy one you can and should use the whole roll on different perspectives and frames. It is easy to become stingy once you realize every shot you take is worth money, but that is the wrong approach. View more about what camera settings for portraits to set to take high quality photos. Digital shots, however, make it impossible to recover details from highlights but easily allow to bring them out of shadows, that is why you tend to underexpose here. With the former, it is always better to overexpose because highlights can be easily handled on film.

In film photography vs digital photography battle, the biggest difference is exposure. Higher exposure let you take nice and more detailed photos. I’ve compiled a list of 20 analogue photography things you need to know when you’re first starting out to shoot film. When I first started shooting film there was tons of information about film photography but there were never little tips and tricks that really helped in real-life situations.
