Thoughts on Film Photography

The process from loading a film to producing the final image can seem a long journey, especially when compared to using a digital camera. Even now I sometimes take a photograph on my film camera and look at the back of the camera body, expecting to see an image flash up which I can review and re-take if needed. I have not yet taken the plunge and ventured out with just a film camera. When intending to use film as the primary medium, I always have the digital camera with me as a backup. This feels a little bit like cheating but the safety net is available and I have been making use of it.

What is there to like about film photography?

Personally, I enjoy the process of manually adjusting the settings on the film camera, composing the shot, and then moving on to the next picture. The creation of the image establishes quite a personal relationship between the photographer, the camera, and the photograph. From winding the film on and hearing it click into place, to capturing your images safely and secretly within the camera body, to rewinding the film to prepare for developing … the process has a much more intimate feel than digital photography. I also find there is a certain depth to the images which is not possible with digital photography. Some of the landscape pictures I have taken during the autumn (such as the one below) have a much harder, starker feel to them than the softer images taken with my digital camera. 

During four months in the darkroom I have probably developed more prints from film than I have printed from digital files over the last four years. This is another aspect of film photography which I like. Think about how often you have trawled through old family photograph albums, gazing at images of ancestors who you might or might not have known in person. Or pictures of events which you might or might not have participated in. With the advent of digital photography, family photograph albums are perhaps dying out, in the same way that the memories which they contain are dying. Many people rely on digital methods of storing and sharing their photographs and the magic of trawling through family albums which have been passed through the generations is becoming a forgotten memory.

What is there to like about digital photography?

I do appreciate the speed and variety of digital photography. The camera will look after as many or as few of the settings I would like it to. It provides me with a lot of information which I can use to compose and create the type of image I am looking to achieve. I can take several images of a similar scene and review them immediately. I can then download the pictures onto a computer and store them there without the need for any further development, or I can process and refine them in an editing programme while retaining an unaltered copy of the original image. I can also share the images quickly with family and friends around the world. It is a shorter and in many ways easier process.

If I had my own darkroom I would take more film photographs as I thoroughly enjoy the development process. Until that time, I will use digital as my primary method of photography but my film camera will accompany me on most of my outings.