In my group of friends... we all have something in common.
We love to take pictures.
Not necessairly professionally (like me), but at least of our kids and family.
We range in levels of camera knowledge and experience. We have different preferences on what kind of camera is for us. We all have SLRs, DSLRs, or the dream of one day having a DSLR (Megan... that's you). I'm pretty sure we all have point & shoots too...
We have our different areas of passion. Correct me if I'm wrong on these...
- Jamie loves her point & shoot digital camera... and searched long and far to find one that suited her. She is a lover of film, and has a SLR Canon Rebel. THE FILM KIND in case you didn't catch it already. Not to be confused with the
Digital Rebels that are amazingly popular right now. For her everyday camera needs... she uses her point & shoot. But when she thinks an occasion is really important, and she wants a GREAT SHOT... she gets out the ole trusty film camera.
- Megan (who announced she was pregnant today) fares very well with her digital point & shoot and it fits her needs, barely. She longs for a Canon Digital Rebel, and has enough camera knowledge to at least not drown in a camera conversation. She will be getting a Rebel before the end of the year, or I will kick her square in the bottom (you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about Megan).
- Beka is a digital girl like me. Heaven forbid anyone get caught in a conversation with us about cameras. We both started with Canon 20D's. We both didn't know a lot about SLRs when we started out, and gradually built our knowledge. We both bought books about photography. She took classes. I didn't. We leap frog each other on the equipment we buy. The cool thing about this is that we can try out each others goods to see if we like it before we buy! We both have differing versions of photoshop, and could be considered dangerous with it. We both have no clue what we are doing with a flash... yet own the most expensive Speedlight Canon makes. We both became interested in TtV technique, and bought vintage cameras on E-Bay. However.. I don't think either of us has actually built a contraption yet. We both got sidetracked with wanting to actually shoot film in it, the way it was originally intended. She had minor success (until her camera broke), and I'm yet to purchase 620 Film. I 100% admire her eye for composition, and my idea of a perfect day is to hang with her (cameras in tow) and talk shop while we "shoot" our kids. She currently uses a Canon 1Ds, which was purchased for commercial purposes (and doubles as a personal camera).
- Me. I gave a pretty good description of myself above. I started with a Canon 20D and still have a 20D. I love my 20D. It has served me well. I want a Canon 5D. Well, actually I want a Canon 1Ds... but if I did have $8,000 right now, I would be sinking it into the house I'm trying to build. I take photographs professionally (sort of. I need more business). I loathed the thought of having a film camera. Until recently. I attribute this to my (lack of) camera knowledge. When I was learning (and still am learning) the basics of ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed it was nice to be able to take a picture and instantly see if I was doing something wrong. I don't think I would have ever learned how to use a SLR if I only had a film camera to learn on. But, lately... I have become interested in film. So I did what any self-respecting photographer would do. I experimented. I decided that using a fully manual film camera would be an excellent test of my skills.
A couple of weeks ago I got our Jared's old SLR... OLD SLR. It is a Canon AE-1 Program, made in 1981. No, this isn't as old as my 1949 Kodak Duaflex... but old still. This thing is as manual as you get! You set the shutter speed on the camera, the aperture on the lens, then manual focus. Very difficult when your subjects are kids may I add. Then, you have to remember to wind the film between each shot. That's the part I have a hard time with!
Below is a pictorial representation of my findings.
I love both film and digital. If I had to choose? I'd choose digital.
What I love about film. It's mysterious, and you really have to know what you are doing (at least with the camera I'm using now).
What I love about digital. The speed, and the option of fixing minor mistakes without a dark room. The fact that you can erase bad pictures. The fact that you can have all of your pictures stored on your computer and on discs, instead of in albums and only printing the ones you like. And I don't like the thought of keeping track of film. And believe it or not... the low cost! I've found that using film in todays digital world is way more expensive!
The picture on the left is Katelyn the other day at a splash pad, taken with the Canon AE-1 Program unedited. On the right is the same picture after I cropped it in photoshop and added a little more saturation to the colors. I prefer the second picture, because I guess it's just more my style. I could have achieved this alone with film... but it would have taken different lenses, filters, reflectors... etc. In PSE I can achieve the look with a slidebar. I also like the ability to crop. I purposely took the picture further away, because with film I had to be aware of different crops the photo-lab would make. 8x10s are cropped differently than 4x6s. Pictures are almost always cropped as a 4x6 aspect ratio on my blog.
These pictures were all shot with Kodak 400 speed film.
(Above): I ran into another film problem. I wanted to slow my shutter speed enough to smooth out the water coming down the steps, instead of freezing it (like shown above). But to obtain a prober exposure... I couldn't achieve this, mainly because I already had 400 speed film in my camera. Maybe this would have worked with 100 film... but I didn't have any. With my digital camera, I could have lowered my ISO to 100 and worked from there... setting next my shutter speed at 1/30 of a sec.. and then selecting my aperture for proper exposure. No, 1/30 of a sec exposure wouldn't have completely smoothed out the water... but it would have been as slow as I could of handled hand-holding the camera and shooting kids. Instead I had to settle for a shutter speed of about 1/125sec. and an aperture of about 22. (I didn't write it down).
The above shot just comes from me not knowing the camera very well. Everything is very well exposed... except for Jocelyn's face, which is overexposed. Ideally I would have exposed for her face, and let everything else be a bit underexposed. This is something that is not easily fixed in photoshop (if at all). If this photograph were taken with a digital camera and in RAW format, I could have easily fixed the exposure in my RAW editor.
I love this one of Tess...
This one had a little cropping in photoshop only to cut out the face of a boy that I didn't want to post on-line.
Kate loved these fountains, can you tell? I probably would have cropped it a little closer if I were shooting with my 20D. But I only had a 50mm fixed lens on this camera. I couldn't get any closer without getting wet, so this is what you get! I still would have included a lot of the background for a little context, but I wanted to focus just a little more on Kate and the water spray. Not the lady holding a baby in the background, or the slight presence of the little boy on the right hand side.
Jocelyn, a little underexposed (her, not the background) for my taste... but good great I think!
Lastly, Calvin trying to get a drink out of the fountain.
I spent $7.52 at Costco to get 25 exposures developed (singles, not doubles), and to get the images put on CD. Plus I spent $15 on a 4 pack of 400 speed film a couple of weeks ago. Overall, digital is more expensive to start. But eventually the cost of film and processing will catch up! I feel like I could have taken the same quality and even better pictures with my DSLR, and I wouldn't have had to spend a dime... unless I wanted to make a print for my wall or scrapbooks.
Film ='s Lots of fun and I will continue to use it!
Digital ='s Lots of fun, and more practical (for me)... and I will always be on the lookout for better equipment (as the field is constantly evolving).
