A few years ago, during one summer holiday I bought a second-hand film camera. Now I don’t mean film as in videography but film as in photography where you have to load a film into the back of the camera and don’t get the instant feedback from the back screen like you do on a digital camera. I absolutely loved learning to use it and I was so excited to get my first film developed. I wrote about it here.

For my first two films, I decided to try both colour and black and white. While normally, I prefer photography in colour, there was something about black and white film that I fell in love with. 

The next film didn’t quite work out as it came back blank for some reason unknown and I was somewhat disappointed – I had taken a photo of my sister and her husband on their wedding day and I thought the shot would have looked lovely on black and white film. After much annoyance, I tried again with another film, not really knowing if any photos were being taken. Fast forward two years, I’d finished the film and took it to be developed. I knew I wanted prints and when the guy in the shop asked, I agreed to having the digital files too. The prints, I knew, would take 48 hours before they were ready to be picked up so I assumed it would also take this long for the digital files too. Imagine, then, the excitement when I opened my inbox that evening to find the digital files were ready for me to look at and download. 

I was quite hesitant initially, as part of the excitement and novelty of film is waiting for them to be developed and then going to the shop to pick up the prints to then look through. I almost felt like I was cheating, that I should have waited for the first look to be the physical prints themselves. But, I am quite impatient when it comes to these things so I downloaded the files and had a look. While some of the prints were not the best, there were some prints that I really loved. 

So what do I love about film that’s different to digital photography?

1. The rawness of the photo.
   When I’ve taken photos on my dSLR, the next step I always take is to look through them on the computer, open them up in Lightroom and edit. With film, I don’t feel the need to edit – obviously I can’t do that do that with the prints but I could to the digital files, I just don’t feel the need.
   
2. Having to think through the process more.
   With film, you are limited to the number of photos in the film reel – 36 in the case of the film I use, therefore, I like each shot to be thought through carefully so as to not ‘waste’ the photo. The lack of a screen displaying the photo you have just taken means it’s important to get the settings right  as well as the composition, and you don’t really know if you’ve exposed the photo correctly until you get the film back. While this could be seen as a disadvantage, I actually think it helps me in my digital photography because I better understand how ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed work together, as well as thinking more thoroughly about the composition. With digital, there is the scope to take hundreds of photos and you can immediately see if the settings were right or if the composition needs tweaking, which I think for me personally, makes me a bit click happy rather than really thinking it through.
   
3. Taking time to stop, look around and appreciate the scenery around me.
   This one goes hand in hand with point two. Because of the limited amount of shots that can be taken, I’m forced to pause, survey my surroundings and really look at what would make a good photo. Particularly with black and white, textures and light are so important in creating a good photo that I’m forced to look beyond the colours and find shapes or textures. I find I can get more creative. Again, I think helps my in my digital photography because I think through the photo more.

I’m excited to continue on this journey and see how I progress both with film and digital photography.