Film
At the beginning of each new year, many of us make resolutions to take on something productive, beneficial, or rewarding for the subsequent 12 months. For photographers, I'd like to propose a multi-faceted resolution for the new year: Try film. Whether this means picking up a film camera for the first time ever, digging back into your past filmic craft, or even just going through some old film you have and bringing it into the digital age, it's a valuable task for any photographer to add a bit of film to their practice. Whether to slow your
While we’re all confined to our homes for the time being, don’t let this time spent indoors and around the home spoil your creativity. And especially for those working photographers and digital gearheads, it might be a good time to slow down and reconnect with the roots of photography. While camera development and the state of imaging in general are all about speed, ease of use, connectivity, and availability, consider spending some time with the fun and more “genuine” side of photography for a bit, and rediscover the simple but magical
Recently, I wrote the Black-and-White Film Roundup, and started the article with the claim that “despite film being ‘dead,’ there’s still a surprising number of different and unique films to choose from in 2020.” The same holds true for color films, both negative and reversal types, with many contemporary classics still readily available, along with a surprising number of new films recently arriving on the scene.
Let’s take a look at the
Like a painter mastering realism before advancing to abstraction, photographers benefit greatly from learning to shoot film before moving to digital.
Stark black-and-white images can swiftly and brutally reveal a weak composition. And shooting with film teaches photographers to be thoughtful about what subjects are worth one of their precious 36 frames. Beginning with black-and-white film helps creates a visually articulate and well-rounded shooter. Which is why many universities have stuck to the practice, despite our entrenchment in a
Traveling with film isn’t quite as straightforward as traveling with a digital camera. With digital, you simply need to pack your camera, pack your lenses, and take some batteries and memory cards. This is all the same for film photography, except, instead of some memory cards, you have to make an active decision about which and how much film you’re going to bring. The more often you travel with film, the easier this question becomes. But even still, as a veteran, I always second-guess myself each time I’m packing film for a trip.
The issue
2,594 Views ·Posted
Watch B&H’s Rob Rives as he walks you through using the Sound Devices MixPre 10-T, a multi-channel audio recorder and USB interface. As you hear the dulcet tones of his voice through the unit’s Kashmir mic preamps, Rives will expound on the device’s channel count, I/O combinations, Timecode capabilities, 32-bit A/D conversion, control methodologies, and more. We hope you enjoy the video, and invite you to view the wide selection of
Despite our increasingly digitized culture, interest in analog processes is still on the rise. At a time when most of what surrounds us are ephemeral computations of zeros and ones, there is an indisputable appeal to photographs shot on black-and-white analog film.
For photojournalist Peter DaSilva, this appeal is rooted in having something tangible, “having an archive that’s not going to evaporate because the medium has changed or due to the incompatibility of files and systems.”
His distinctive style of run-and-gun street photography is
Have you ever wondered how B&H manages to sell fresh rolls of film in spooled sizes that were discontinued by Kodak (and everybody else) 20 years ago? Me too; so when I found out we were purchasing the film from one of, if not the last guy re-spooling film for long-gone film formats, I knew I had to meet him.
Above photograph: Dating back to 1845, the old red mill that sits adjacent to Honeoye Falls is home to the Havilands and their company, Film for Classics.
Honeoye Falls (pronounced HON-ee-oye) is located about 20 minutes outside
There is no doubt that digital photography is here to stay, and film has certainly seen better days, in terms of availability and affordability. However, what if you’re a digital photographer who simply wants to shoot a roll of film every once in a while, for fun? Film photography has a distinct look that, even with the latest and greatest 50MP cameras, cannot be duplicated by digital imaging. It’s subjective to say whether one look is better or worse, but there is no denying that there is a unique quality to film. Back in the halcyon days of
Today’s digital cameras are capable of awesome imaging performance and they offer an unparalleled combination of convenience, efficiency, and cost effectiveness that has made them the dominant mode of image capture. Nevertheless, shooting black-and-white film, especially in medium format, is a fascinating and worthwhile experience that’s rewarding, fun, and can also go a long way toward making you a more thoughtful and effective digital photographer.