Film Photography Fundamentals: 35mm Made Simple

1. Introduction: Hello. I'm a commercial lifestyle, fashion, and portrait photographer. My name is Fynn Badgley. Originally, film photography made its way into my life through being a way to document everything, where I could take a great photo and not be separated from the moment. I quickly realized the feeling you get from film is like no other and it quickly took over my work. This class will teach you everything you need to know to start shooting film. From camera types to film stocks, all the way to developing and scanning, we're going to go through all of it as well as some best practices and even some mistakes I've made so you don't ruin any film by making those same mistakes. Film photography made me fall in love with taking images again. It's a medium like no other, and it can be shared with everyone in your life where they're all excited about it. Without further ado, if you're ready to start learning how to take control of your film camera and take some amazing images, then let's dive right in. [MUSIC] 2. Why Film?: First things first, in the modern day and age with the evolution of digital cameras and ever-growing technology, why would you even want to use film as a photography medium in the first place? It's expensive, it's slow, but it's like nothing else. The mentality I had for a long time was, well, digital is faster, it's cheaper, why wouldn't I just go that route? By and large, this may be true. But what I quickly learned as I started taking more photos on film, is that the quality you get out of it, the feeling more than anything, can't really be replicated by a digital camera and if it does, it takes a lot of work in post-production to get there. Rather than keeping up with the latest specs, the latest technology, film is unchanging. It's the initial photographic medium. It slows you down in a way that you otherwise wouldn't be. It makes you think about each frame you're taking more and it makes you become more intentional with every photo. Like I mentioned in the intro, I was originally drawn to film as a way to document my life. Something where I could carry around a small camera and I could take photos of my friends, take photos of my everyday life, and not have to worry about always checking the back of the camera because we've all been there. You're at a family gathering or you're out with your friends and they want to take some photos and you pull out your phone, you pull out your camera and you go, great. You take the photo and immediately you look at the back of the camera and you go, oh, let's take another. Oh, I wasn't quite right here, let's take another. By the end of it, you're taking 100, 1,000 photos to get one good one. You keep looking at the back every time and you're separated from that moment. That screen puts a wall between you and the life happening around you. What I find film has done for me is that it allows me to, oh, there's a particular moment that's happening and that's it. I don't even bother looking at the back of the camera because there's nothing to see. That makes it so I have those memories, I catch those moments, but I'm not taken out of the moment. I'm still in it with the people around me and it's something that I found they really appreciate. What's even better is when you get the film back and everyone wants to see the photos, and everyone's posting them on Instagram. Why? Because film offers a feeling that you just can't get anywhere else. It's something that brings out nostalgia. It's something that people want to share and you can share with everyone in your life. As I dove more into film, I actually rekindled my love for photography through it through the feeling you get through these images. It's nothing that I've ever experienced before and hopefully through this class I'll allow you to experience the same thing. 3. Understanding Camera Types: [MUSIC] If you look to the table in front of me, you will see a variety of camera types. Now, off the bat, this probably looks quite overwhelming, and fear not, we will condense it down a bit so it is not intimidating. So something like this, we're just going to take off to the side and something like this beast will take off the table for now as well. For reference, that is what we call medium format film, and that is not a medium that we will get into in this particular class. In the spirit of keeping things accessible and relative to the cameras that you're probably going to be using, we're going to keep this simple. So there are two types of cameras we're going to be focusing on, and that is your point-and-shoot camera and your SLR. Think basically a analog version of the traditional DSLR, digital single-lens reflex. Well, this is its father, the original single-lens reflex. What that stands for is the reflex is the mirror that flips up and down as the shutter opens, and that mirror is there so you can look through the viewfinder and see the image. First off, we have the point-and-shoot camera. Basically think a higher-quality version of your old-school disposable cameras where you buy it with the film already inside it, you just take a photo and don't have to worry about it. This is like a higher-quality version of that that you can change the film in and out of and usually offers a little more functionality. This type of camera is actually what I love to carry around with me on the go to document life. You can see the form factor of this, it's smaller than my hand and it can easily fit within my pocket or a fanny pack or a little bag on the go, and it's something that's very unintimidating if you could just go to take a quick photo. This particular one has a built-in flash that you can turn on and off as well, but we'll get into the functionality of these a little later. Another important feature of these point-and-shoot cameras is they are usually all automatic. This means auto exposure, auto winding, auto flash, the whole deal, and this makes these cameras very user-friendly. You don't have to worry about messing around with any settings, trying to make sure your exposure is correct, it does all the guesswork for you. Usually, you'll find these cameras with a single lens inside of them, that is a fixed focal length, meaning that focal length does not change. This particular one is about a 28-millimeter focal length, so it's on the wider side and usually these cameras are. Sometimes you will find ones with a variable focal length, meaning a zoom lens, it's built-in, but those ones I find aren't quite as reliable, as it's a moving part that especially as these cameras age, can tend to fail. If you keep up with any celebrities, you will know that these have exploded in the recent years as influencers have been taking them around to take photos of their lives. The Contax T2, in particular, has really exploded in popularity and is not exactly affordable anymore because of this reason. But even so, later in the class, we'll talk about how you can find these still at an affordable price. Then we move over to the SLR, a single-lens reflex. Now, these cameras, you usually can change the lens on. You can have a variety of lenses, although if you've been given one of these, if you have one of your own, if you picked one up, generally they come with a standard 50-millimeter lens. This isn't always the case, but in most cases that is the standard lens you will find on one of these by default. To contrast the point-and-shoot, these cameras are completely manual. Some of them do have automatic features. For example, this RICOH here is completely manual, nothing is automatic at all. Now, to contrast that, the Nikon here does have some automatic features if you were still learning the ins and outs of exposure. Now, these cameras allow you a lot more control over how the image will look. You can control the depth of field more, shutter speed, the exposure, all of it. That way you can get the image that you're looking for. If you're no stranger to aperture, shutter speed, changing your settings a lot on the go, then maybe this is the type of camera for you. Similar to the point-and-shoot cameras, some of these do have auto winding features. Just look up the particular model you're looking at to see what features it does or does not have so you don't get surprised later on down the road when something isn't included in the camera body that you hoped it would be. Myself, being a professional photographer, I love just full manual controls. In fact, that is why this camera is usually my go-to, and I'll just use the light meter with it to get a properly exposed image, and I love the results that it produces. Now that we know the different 35-millimeter cameras that we're going to be looking at, let's actually look at how you can find the right one for you. [MUSIC] 4. Finding the Camera For You: [MUSIC] Based on your different needs and expectations, you will want a different camera to match. Like I mentioned in the previous lesson, I love a point-and-shoot camera for on-the-go documentary photography. This is when I'll be meeting up with my friends, or taking some behind-the-scenes photos if I'm on a larger shoot or something, and I'll keep that around to take some photos of everyday life. These are essentially the moments that you don't want to miss. It's a very unobtrusive camera to carry around to capture those. The other benefit is, if this is your first film camera, it is very unintimidating because of all the automatic features. From my more professional work, I tend to steer more towards an SLR because of being able to control the image more. The added bonus of being able to change the different lenses is a great reason why if you're looking for a camera to both take photos in your everyday life. For something you can use for professional photography work, then an SLR is going to be your best friend. Now, if you're coming to this class and you don't already have one, there are a bunch of different ways that you can find a film camera that works for you. When I was first getting into film, I had a couple of family members who used to photograph using film, and they knew I was a photographer, they knew I was getting more into film, and they actually gifted me a couple of these cameras. Now, I'm not saying to go bug your family members to see if they have any, but there might be some people in your family that have them lying around, that they're not doing anything, and they could go to a great home in the form of you. If a family member has already passed down one of those cameras, then stay tuned for the rest of the class so you can learn how to take some great shots. Now, if you're looking to buy your first film camera, there are a lot of different ways to go about this. If you want to take the online route, there are some great options such as KEH Camera, where their cameras are pre-tested before they're even sold so you know they're in good working condition. Additionally, there is eBay, but the spread on these can be a little more diverse. Some might be in great shape, some might be in not so great shape. Then there are the more in-person options. These are Craigslist or Kijiji if you're in Canada, like myself, or there's also Facebook Marketplace, is a great avenue as well. Beyond that, what I love doing is supporting local photography shops. The thing is they might be a little more expensive, but you'll be able to go hands-on, take a look at the camera, and see if it's in good working order. The bonus here is any local camera shop should have already tested the gear so it will work properly. If you want to do this on a budget, one of my favorite ways to do this is that go out and look at different thrift stores and vintage stores to find a couple of film cameras that people have no longer needed. This is actually how I found this particular point-and-shoot camera here, the Minolta AF101R. This only cost me about $15 Canadian, so $11 US if we want to do that conversion. It's a great camera, it works perfectly. I have no complaints about it. If you look up something like this online, it's going to cost you upwards of $150-200. Now, the one drawback is finding cameras at vintage stores is more of a tedious and a long-term process. Now, this is something that also can be dangerous for your wallet, especially if you continually want to grow your collection. But if you have some patients and enjoy the thrill of the hunt, then this can be a great way to find different cameras on a budget. Not only can you find some great SLRs and point-and-shoot cameras, but you can also find some more interesting cameras, something like a twin reflex camera. This where you get the two lenses. You have the one that you look through to actually compose the image, and the one that takes the image itself. I've seen those at vintage stores myself. Oftentimes you can get a good deal, but it can take some time and you have to know what you're looking for when you open the camera to make sure that it's in good working order, which is something we're going to discuss a little bit later in the class. When you're looking at these cameras in-person, what you want to make sure is the light seals are intact. This means when you open up that camera, you want to look around at the edges to make sure there's no debris, and that the rubber seals are in fact still there, because if not, that is when you're going to run into light leaks, and then your images won't come out as good as you would want them to. This was actually a camera that was given to me by a friend, and I can see upon opening it, there's some dust, some debris. I'm going to have to clean this up a little bit before taking some photos with it. Beyond the little light seals and the back of the camera looking proper, you also want to make sure that the shutter and the film advanced system works. Usually, you'll just take it and [NOISE] take a couple of photos just to make sure that works properly. Some cameras like this point-and-shoot were bit of a gamble. I did not know if this would work because there were no batteries in it. Usually, point-and-shoot cameras do have to have a battery in them to work. One way that you could potentially solve this is bringing a couple of batteries in your pocket. Or if you're at a camera shop, they should have some batteries that you can load up into the camera to make sure it works. Now, vintage stores like where I found this camera, it's a little more of a gamble, but generally, you will find that the cameras should be in working order. Take a look, make sure everything seems okay. It is a bit of a gamble that you end up playing for the cheaper price for the camera, but it can be worth it. Usually, the cameras aren't in that bad of a shape where they should be fine. I've only had one camera where I bought it and then I put a battery in it and the shutter mechanism just wasn't working. Even to this day, still haven't got it in working order. Definitely, do be careful and try to eliminate that as much as possible. This is also me just giving you a caution if you decide to go that route through buying your first film camera. Next up, we're going to look at how you can understand the way your camera works to get the best results out of it. [MUSIC] 5. Navigating Your Camera: [MUSIC] Now that you have your camera, there are a bunch of different settings that you can change, and here's what they all mean. On your traditional SLR, you have your film advanced lever up top and this advances film to the next slide, to the next frame. Sometimes, if it won't move, just make sure that the photo is not ready to be taken because if it is, that film advance won't go. However, if you have something like this particular Nikon, you can advance the film, but to actually take a photo, if you try to do it, when the film advance is just resting here, it won't work. You have to pop it out to a midpoint, and then that photo will take. Beside the film advance lever, you have your shutter button, which is your shutter release that actually takes the photo, and you have your shutter speed dial. This controls how long that shutter is open for and how much light is let in. If you know the fundamentals of exposure, the higher your shutter speed is the less light and the more sharp your image will be because it's a smaller fraction of time. If you haven't open longer, that's when you get a bit of motion blur in there, and bulb mode is where that shutter is open for as long as you hold that shutter release. Now, some models, like the Nikon here, have an automatic function on the dial as well. But if it's only manual controls, it won't have that. Now, on this dial, you might also notice a little red number that indicates what the flash sync speed is. If you are using a flash with your camera, that is the optimal speed to get the full flash in there without cutting it off at all. Now, some cameras have the ISO dial on the shutter speed as well. You simply lift up on that and you can turn it to match the ISO that is the same as the film that is in your camera. Some of them have it on the other side where the film rewind lever is. You will just usually hit a button to release it, and then you can move that dial to set whatever ISO you're going to be shooting at. This is just so the internal light meter in the camera can read what your exposure is set to, and then it will tell you how to adjust your different settings from there to get a properly exposed photo. Beside the shutter speed, the shutter release, and the film advance lever, you have your indicator of what frame number you're on. You'll have the S is for start, and then you have two blank frames before you start your actual roll of film. Then this will continue up until you end up running out of films. Some rolls have 24 frames, some have 36. It really depends on the film stock you're using, which we'll talk about in the next lesson. Before we do that, we'll jump over to the left side of the camera where we will talk about the film rewind lever here, and this, what we'll do is we'll rewind your film you have from your camera, so that way, once you shut the roll, it goes back inside the canister where it will be nice and safe until you pass it off to be developed. Now, jumping onto the bottom of the camera, you will usually have a little spot for some batteries, which will usually power the light meter, and some cameras actually require batteries for the shutters to release. For example, this camera does not. This camera can be no batteries and it'll work just fine. The light meter won't work inside, but the camera will work just fine. Now, this one on the other hand, if you don't have batteries in the camera, not only will the light meter not work, but the shutter itself won't release. Now there is a function, this M90 here, that will allow you to use the camera completely manually without any batteries in it. But to adjust anything and take a photo, you will actually have to put batteries in this guy. Make sure, depending on the model of camera you're using, some of them do require batteries, and the one for this is just on the bottom again. But you have a little button down here, and this is a very important button. This is what you press so that way the film, once it's been shot, that spool, that leader inside of here, this guy right here, that button allows this to release and go back the other way so the film can be be rewound. Always make sure to hit that button beforehand when you are rewinding your film, and then you just pull up on the lever to actually open the back of your camera. That's what that looks like there. Now, jumping to the front of the camera, we have usually a button to take the lens off. Some, like this RICOH, will be a thread on mount where it just has a bunch of threads and you just thread the lens on like so. Some, like the Nikon, will be a [inaudible] . It depends on the camera, the different functionality, and so forth. These lenses are completely manual, if you're used to autofocus, forget all of that because you have a manual aperture, and get the different setting you're looking for, and then you have manual focus as well. Then, if you really want, you can look inside, and you will see that's the mirror there that flips up every time you take a photo. Now jumping to the viewfinder of the camera. Depending on your camera, you should be able to notice a couple of different things. This one just has one of these. It has a light meter built-in that allows you to adjust the exposure based on the spot meter reading that the camera gives you. They don't have different metering settings like most modern digital cameras do, they just have the simple spot metering, meaning the center of the frame is what it's going to meter for. If you want to meter for a different source, you can point the camera at it and then adjust it from there, and then move it back over. But that's something we'll talk about more in depth later on in the class. Now, a camera like this Nikon here, you will have that light meter on the inside, which will indicate what your exposure should be at based on a little needle that will go up and down depending on what your settings are, and that suggests what shutter speed you should have based on where the camera is facing and what it thinks is the ideal setting for that lighting situation. Now, the other thing this one has in particular, and many other more modern film cameras have as well, is they have a little circle in the middle. Now, this is actually a focus assist. What that does is when the image is out o focus, there are two semi-circles, and they will be off center, so you will see something looking like this. Then as they get in focus, you'll notice the top and bottom begin to bring together, and when that image is perfectly in focus, the two halves will become one, and it will just look like a regular circle and how it should. When it's out of focus, you'll notice they're off-center from one another, and that means adjust your focus until they match to get a properly focused photo. It's a great little feature that's in a lot of film cameras and I definitely appreciate it, especially when everything is manual focus. There's not a lot of guesswork involved, but with something like this that doesn't have that, you're going to be guessing a little more, and sometimes you might end up with the occasional out-of-focus photo. Moving along to the point-and-shoot camera, this one is a lot simpler, and you'll notice there are far fewer settings on this camera. We have a couple of things here. There is a built-in lens cap that you can slide open and off. When you open that, the flash automatically starts turning on, and we have a flash auto, a flash always on, and a flash off setting. You can decide when you want or when you don't want that flash to be on when you take a photo. This definitely helps in low-light situations where the flash is going to be the main source of light. Jumping up to the top of the camera, we have our shot indicator here, and we have our shutter release button right beside it. We have a nice small viewfinder that doesn't have anything like a light meter or anything fancy in it because it's a fixed focal length, it's autofocus and it's pretty simple. You're not going to be adjusting the aperture or shutter speed so you don't need a light meter in there. Then on the back, you can see the different film you're using. You can jump here to the side and that will open the back of the camera there, that's your little release, and then we have this guy down here which is to rewind the film. You hold that back and the motors in this are going to pull that film back into the canister. I do currently have film in here, otherwise, I would be doing that right now. Then here we have the battery slot there. This particular camera takes two double As, but some of them might take different style watch batteries like this Nikon here. Whichever film camera you have, just make sure to look up the particular model, the manual, if you can find it, and see what batteries that particular film camera takes, so that way, you get the correct batteries in there, and then you can have a proper working camera. Now that we've looked at the different types of cameras and how they work, let's talk about the film stocks that you're going to be putting in them. [MUSIC] 6. Exploring Film Stocks: [MUSIC] Before we get into loading our film cameras, this is what a film stock is, as well as a couple of recommendations. Consider a film stock like the picture profile that you might set on your digital camera, only it's baked into the image itself and has a lot of characteristics as to how that image would actually look. Some of these characteristics might include the overall dynamic range, tonal range, the depth of color, as well as the overall color tone you might get, as well as the exposure value. In fact, on different film canisters, you will often see a name and then a number beside it. This number refers to the exposure value, or the ISO that that film is. Similarly to a digital camera, the higher the number you go, the more granule introduced, but the brighter the overall image will be. In front of me, I have a 200 speed film and a 400 speed film. Naturally, the 400 speed is going to produce a brighter image because that film is more sensitive to light. There are what we would consider a more prosumer, or a consumer grade film and a professional film. Something like this, a personal favorite of mine, Portra 400, will give you a more professional look because the tonal range is going to be a little wider, you will get a bit more dynamic range, and the grain itself will actually be finer. Usually, the more professional films are going to give you a finer grain than a lower-end film. Now that doesn't mean don't go for lower end film. In fact, especially if you're starting out, this is a low cost way to get into shooting film, especially because film prices continue to go up, especially for my favorite. Some great options, if you want to keep the cost down, or are just getting started, are something like Fuji 200, or 400, or Kodak Gold 200. This is a great high-quality film that is going to be at a cost that can actually be more affordable, especially if you're going to shoot a lot. These you can often find in different department stores and sometimes you'll even find them a three-pack. All of these stocks that I'm talking about are color negative 35-millimeter film. There's also color negative 120 film, which we're not going to get into today because that's more into what we call medium format. But just know that it's out there. Well, negative film is the most popular type of film, it isn't necessarily just what's out there. There's negative and positive film, also known as slide film, which is going to be a little less forgiving in terms of its overall dynamic range, but can produce a great look. To give you an idea of how it works, when you take a photo on color negative film, the image is exposed in color and everything is inverted. All the brights are going to appear dark, all the darks are going to appear bright. The when you scan a negative, it inverts those colors and turns it into a positive, and then you have your final image. Now positive film, on the other hand, the brights are the brights and the darks are the darks. But in the name of keeping things simple and accessible as slide film is harder to come across and work with, we're going to just stick to C-41 color negative film. That's what C-41 stands for. Not to mention, if you want to be a little artsy, there are also black and white film stocks available as well, which are always a great option. I also love using some black and white alongside a camera that is primarily shooting in color, so I have the black and white photos as almost like a little tag along to a lot of my professional workshop in color. Something to note when you are using color negative film is you don't want to underexpose the photo because the shadows are harder to bring back. The more you underexpose the photo, the muddier the photo will turn out as a result. The way to solve this is knowing that film has a lot of latitude in the higher range. If you overexposed your photo by six stops, that's doubling the amount of light six times over, you can still recover that photo, but the moment you start to underexpose that photo, you're going to continuously lose more quality and introduce more grain into the photo. You can be shooting on the highest-quality, finest grain film out there, but if you underexpose the photo it will turn out muddy and really grainy. The way to fix this is what I like doing. I find whichever film stock I'm using. Let's say, for example, we're using Portra 400, the speed is 400. Great. I'm going to come over here to my camera, and on the diode that tells the light meter what the camera is shooting at, I'm going to take that down. We see 400 there and that's what you would think to set it at. But I'm going to intentionally overexpose every photo just a little bit. I could go down to 200 and overexpose it by a stop if I really wanted to, but I like to keep it somewhere in the middle, about one to two-thirds of a stop overexposed. A stop means you are doubling, or halving the amount of light. If you underexpose, you have half the light needed to actually produce a properly exposed photo. Then you allow twice the amount of light in and you're adding a stop of light. Now, if you are overexposing by a stop, I would go 400-200. If I overexposed two stops, I would go to 100. But we have these nice little dots indicating thirds of a stop. I'll put it at two-thirds overexposed. That way the light meter inside will actually give me a reading that will have the photo come out overexposed, which is totally fine. In digital photography. We're used to this being an issue because highlights are typically harder to recover and shadows are easier, but with film it's the opposite. The highlights can be recovered for days. Meanwhile, the shadows can't be. If you're not going to properly expose your photo, then at least overexpose it, or just overexpose it to be on the safe side. Now, where this becomes an issue is if you're using a point-and-shoot camera, there is what is called a DX code on the film. That's that little bar code there. Typically, your camera reads that DX code and knows what to set your different settings to accordingly to get a properly exposed photo. This is how it also tell us when to turn the flash on off and because you can't set the shutter speed, the aperture, or expose your compensation, it will only try to properly expose your photos. That's something to keep in mind if you are using a point-and-shoot camera. When you're storing your film, the best place for it is in a cool environment. This is why you'll notice a lot of film photographers store their film primarily in a fridge. Now that we've talked about how to use your camera and what a film stock is, let's pick a film stock, put it in our camera, and go out and take some photos. [MUSIC] 7. Loading Your Film: The time has come. Now, we're going to load the film into our camera, then we're going to go out and take some great photos. First thing you want to do is pick the stock that you're going to be using. For me, I'm actually going to use this to test out a new camera of mine. This particular Nikon was given to me by a friend of mine and I haven't shot a roll with it yet, so this will be an experiment for the both of us. Actually, when I get the images back, you'll see what I look for to know how this camera stacked up against some of my other cameras. This has a lock for the actual release here. So I'm going to push that lock, pull up and pop open the back of the camera. Now, I did go ahead and clean this out so that way I would get the best results out of this camera. Because [NOISE] if you're getting cameras secondhand, it's always best to give it a quick clean. I like using a bit of compressed air, whether it be using a can of air, using a compressor, or just using a little rocket blower that you would use to clean your lenses with. Then I like using some isopropyl alcohol because it does not damage any of the electronics or anything within the camera itself. I'm going to put the lens cap on this guy and put that face down. Then we can see the anatomy of the camera here, there are two sides. We have the film leader on this side, which winds the film, and we have where the film canister goes. Now because I am shooting a test roll today and I haven't shot with this camera yet, I don't want to use my more expensive professional film. I'm going to go with good old Kodak Gold and I'm going to load this roll in. I have 24 exposures on this particular roll of film. That's how I'll know that once I get to 24-ish on the indicator, that should be the end of my roll and then I'll know to wind it back in. I'm going to put this face down. The nub goes at the bottom here, and then we have our film strip hanging out over the edge. Then we pull our strip ahead and there's these little grooves in our leader, which we'll want to tie that into, and it should naturally stop there. Then what we want to do is crank that forward. [NOISE] I like to give it a second crank just to make sure that film is tightly wound around there. The reason for that is so that way, the film actually catches properly because sometimes I've had it where it doesn't, and then you start taking photos and it's not fully in there, and that can lead to some larger problems. Making sure it's on there is a great way to solve that. [NOISE] That looks pretty good to me. I close that, lock it, and we're good. Now, you'll notice this indicator starts at S, so then I'm going to take a photo, wind it again. Take a photo, wind it again. This particular camera starts at zero. This is where you'd want to naturally start. Now, for my RICOH over here, this actually starts at one. What you would do here is you would load the film into the camera, take a photo, wind it, take a photo, wind it. All of these photos aren't going to turn out because the film hasn't actually entered yet and just makes sure you don't get any light leaks as well. Because sometimes if a piece of film is half exposed, you'll get a bright light leak and then you won't be able to see part of the photo. That's how you can avoid that from happening. For this particular model, I would wind it until I'm looking at one on the dial here. For this guy, I'm going to wind it to zero and then I'm going to take my photos from there, look at your camera, and as you learn how to use it, you will actually know where you want to start. But usually, it'll either say zero or one and that's where your roll of film starts. Now, the moment we've all been waiting for. The film is loaded in our cameras and we'll go out and take some photos as well. While we're doing this, I'm going to share some of my best practices and some handy little tricks to make sure that you get the best results out of your film camera possible. [MUSIC] 8. Shooting Your First Roll: [MUSIC] Now we have our film camera loaded up. I really like the perspective you're getting from the bridge here so I'm going to start off with a photo of that. I'm going to look through and use the light meter inside the camera. Or another great option I like to use as well, is you can download a light meter app on your phone that will tell you what the exposure should be. This is a great way to do it if you want just a particular spot of the image meter for versus the whole photo in and of itself. We can pop that open and it will go through your camera. You can set the different ISO. Then when you hold it up, you can adjust the different settings to what it should be. I'm seeing a shutter speed of about 60 for 200 ISO, which is what we have in the camera. I'm going to open it up to about 30, overexpose that slightly, and then take the photo. Because we are losing light here, we do have to open up our shutter speed quite a bit because we are on a slower speed film. Being 200, we're going to need to open up a bit to allow more light in, but we just hold that camera steady and we should be fine. [BACKGROUND] That'll be a cool shot. Something I always love is looking up at buildings from down below. It gives a really unique perspective. [NOISE] Something that's super important to do when you're out taking photos like this is always keep your eyes open. You'll never know what you'll find. You'll notice for all of these, I am shooting wide open because we have so little light right now and we're continuously losing light. But I think this should turn out pretty well, especially because I'm holding the camera really still. I'm remembering to set my ISO on the camera a little bit darker than I actually have in the camera, so that my meter reading is going to overexpose the image just by a little bit. So that way, I get a properly exposed photo and it can be recovered no matter the scenario and that way it's not going to be muddy or anything weird like that. Something else I love doing as well, especially if I'm carrying a point-and-shoot camera, is I'll put it in a fanny pack, and then I'll have additional film in there as well. Then maybe a little baggy to put the exposed rolls, that way, I keep them separated. Let's go down this way. [MUSIC] What am I at? I'm at 21. We're doing pretty good. You'll notice after every photo I take, I'm always winding the film so I know it's ready to go for the next shot. Now that we've finished the roll, I'm going to hit the button on the bottom and then wind that back in. You can feel it as you're going that is winding back in and then you'll feel release. That's how you know the film is all the way back in the canister. Now it's time to take this out, take this to the lab to be developed, and then we can have our photos back from there. I'm just going to quickly pop the film out of the camera, we can see it is nice and roll it all back into the canister there. Actually, the lab I use has a nice portal that you can do online to pre-fill out everything for the film. So I've already gone ahead and done that for this guy so I can walk in, drop it off, and we should be good to go. If you're like me and lived in a big city, it should be pretty easy to find one or two labs in your local area that you can go in and drop off your film to. If that's not the case, there are a bunch of labs that you can actually mail your film into online, they'll scan the photos, and then send them to you. Usually, they'll mail back the negatives if that's something you want. Usually, these different services also provide prints for you if that's something you want as well, to print your photos and have them to put up on your fridge or anything like that. Without further ado, I'm just going to drop off my film, and then we'll wait for the scans. [MUSIC] 9. Exposing Common Mistakes: [MUSIC] Now that we've exposed our film, it's time for me to expose myself and share some common film photography mistakes so that way you don't make them whenever you're taking photos. Now, these are pretty humbling and definitely will give you a blow to the ego, but hopefully, me sharing these with you, allows you to not make the same mistakes. Yes, I've made made of these. During the loading process of the film, I mentioned that you want to give them an extra crank to make sure it's properly on the film leader. Now, the reason I do this, sometimes I even give it an extra two cranks before I close the back of the camera. The reason I do this is because sometimes, [NOISE] not always, not often, but sometimes, when you have the film in the leader, it won't always catch at first, and you think it does, you give the crank, you take a photo, so you close the back up and you think you're good to go. Then you start taking photos and then you say you have 36 photos in a roll, suddenly you start getting to 37, 38, and you're like, that's weird, or your winding it and it seems like it's a lot easier to rewind into the canister than should be. You'll be able to feel it when you're winding that back and you'll know when it releases, but it doesn't feel that way, so you're like, something is wrong. That is when you realize that the film was [NOISE] never actually properly on the leader and you didn't shoot anything. Or if you did, you maybe got one shot off and that's it for the entire roll. All the memories are now only in your head and your roll is back inside the canister, but nothing's been shot. It's a very humbling experience that I don't want for any of you. That is why I'll usually give it an extra crank on that leader to make sure first off that it's on there. If you ever find yourself in the position that I just mentioned where you're realizing, "No, I don't think it was on there properly." I've had this happen once and what I did was I found a completely black environment. I had my vehicle close by, so I put the camera under a blanket and then felt around, made sure is on the leader, extended it a little farther than I had to, and then from there, I could keep taking photos or rather start taking photos. If you don't have a fully black environment, you can put it in your camera bag and seal up as much as you can, make sure that's on there. You might get a little bit of light leaks, but you will have a roll film to actually work with versus nothing. That's the first mistake. Here's the second one that I wish I hadn't done, but I have. I mentioned earlier about how important that it is that you hit this little button right at the bottom, and this is why. Because when you don't and you try to rewind that film, what happens is the leader isn't released, so it's only turning one way and it won't turn the other way. But the canister inside is still turning, it's still trying to rewind the film that isn't coming, so you're putting a lot of pressure on that trying to rewind it. What ends up happening is you tear the roll of film completely out of the canister. Because that isn't released, you're trying to turn this thing and you end up turning it against the film that's held solidly in place by the leader, then you just have a free roll of exposed film in your camera. It's not in the canister, and that is when panic mode sets in. But there is a way to fix this, don't panic. Whatever you do, do not open the back of your camera. Here's what you do. Don't touch it at all until you're in an environment that you can be in complete darkness. Then what I want you to do is grab a roll of tin foil, cutoff a big enough piece that you can wrap that film in it. So what you're going to do, is you're going to go in that completely black environment, take the film out, and as you're feeling it, roll it up nice and tight, and then after you roll up that roll film, you're going to completely encase it in the tin foil. Make sure that no light will get in at all. Now, before you even take it out of the black environment though, make sure to take that tin foil roll now and put it in one of these, put it in the case that the film roll came in. Now there are two types you'll see here. The ideal one is a solid black case because it's going to block any [NOISE] light at all from getting in there. Or you have a more translucent color like this. The way to solve this is completely cover it in tape, ideally like a black colored tape, so that way no light will get in whatsoever. Then when you pass it off to your lab, let them know what happened and they will be able to handle it accordingly. This happened to me and I followed this exact process. This was exposed film inside here that it was free, and I let my lab know, and all of the shots came out exactly how I wanted them to. There was a little touch of a light leak, but that was it. Everything actually came out proper because I didn't panic, I handled the film carefully and I fixed what would otherwise be a tragic mistake. For reference, what would happen if I opened the back is that entire roll would be exposed to light and then suddenly it would just be a completely white roll of film. Or if you were to see any details at all, they would be really muddy, really blurry, and it just would not look good. None of the photos would really be usable at all. Now, Number 3, this is arguably the most humbling out of all of these mistakes, and that is just make sure you have film in your camera before you go out and take photos. Now it sounds pretty straightforward. I should know that there's film my camera, but sometimes, especially if you're jumping between different cameras, you're not using them every day, it might be hard to remember what you have film in and what you don't, especially if you're at the beginning of a roll. This is what I always do. Whenever you have taken a photo, always advance that film to the next photo, so that way, you know, [NOISE] if I can advance it, there's no film in there. The other thing is making sure that when you put the film in, you don't just wind it once and close the back and call it a day. You wind it once, close the back, take a photo, advance, take a photo, advance until it's on the starting number because when it's on one or zero, you will know, there's film in here, there's a fresh roll. If it's at s, if it's before that zero, before that one, you know, there's no film in here, so I have to put film in the camera before I go use it. If it's at one, if it's at zero, if it's at a higher number than that, you know, there is film in here currently, do not open the back, don't play around with it, take some great photos. If you're ever really in doubt, find a completely black environment, pop open the back of the camera, and just feel to make sure there's film in there. Now, I don't always advise doing this and usually will release some of the tension from the film in there, but you can close it back up and your number reading will be off, so you'll have to go by feel for when that roll is finished. Don't try to force it because, again, you can tear that role right out of the canister. Just use this trick, make sure it's on the proper number when you start so you know this is your starting frame, you're good to use this roll. If it's anything less than that, there's no film in the camera, don't try and use it because you'll just be taking photos in your imagination. That might sound fine to some people, but you got a film camera to use it, not to take pictures with your imagination. So make sure that there is film in there. Now that I've shared how I humbled myself, hopefully you don't have to humble yourself in these same ways. Now that we've gone over these things, I think it's time for our scans to be ready and we can take a look at the different photos, analyze them, and edit the negatives a little bit. [MUSIC] 10. Sorting Your Photos: You get the notification and Christmas comes early, your film is ready, your scans are in, and it's time to unwrap that present. Depending on the lab that you went with, some will actually provide you feedback on your images, on the exposure and the overall camera itself. Not every lab does this, so if this is something you look for, make sure that you go with a lab that actually offers this. Or if you're going to an in-person lab in your local city, maybe ask them if this is something they provide or if it's an extra service. The lab I go with, they don't, but I can take a look through the photos and identify the different attributes and see if the light seals in the camera are intact and overall what the characteristics of it are. I briefly took a scan through a lot of these photos and the thing is, I am a portrait fashion, lifestyle photographer. I primarily take photos of people for companies for an advertising purpose. Going out and taking photos like this. This is something I'll do more so for fun and is a great way to test this camera. Another option I could do to test this would be using it in a full professional scenario, do a test shoot, get a model together and shoot something like that and if I'm happy with how the camera turns out from these, maybe that's something I'll do is a additional test. I say that because looking through these images, there are some that I like and some that I don't, and that's okay. This was a quick little adventure taking some photos to really test that the camera here and take some great photos on film. There are a couple of keepers in here, so you know what, that makes me happy and that should also be an additional lesson to you. Don't worry about always getting the perfect shot. Just think about improving as you go, having fun with it beyond anything else. Because especially if you're taking these cameras around to capture your daily life, they will lead to some of your favorite photos ever. Some of these I'm honestly pretty happy with, not all of them, but I think it's also important to mention that in the digital era we're used to taking 100 photos to get one good one. If you shoot a roll of film and have a couple keepers then by my standards, that's actually a pretty good ratio. Now, obviously when I'm on a professional shoot, I'm going to try and dial in each individual shot, and it really slows me down. But looking through these, there are some that I missed a couple of times and that's okay. I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I just know how to watch for certain things. Next time I'm out and about taking photos like this. Let's actually jump into some of these. I've given them a preliminary rating here, and we can look through and see. The main thing is some of these are a little blurry. That'll be because we were shooting at a lower ISO speed for our film stock and because we were starting to lose light, we had to have a slower shutter speed. We are shooting wide open on the aperture at 1.8, which led to a really nice depth of field, but I just had to hold that camera really steady and some photos like this, I didn't so much but that's okay. You live, and you learn and this is one of those situations where to take photos at this time, at night like this, it would be better if I used a higher ISO stock, but this was for more so a test purpose, test out the camera, see its characteristics. For that purpose, I think it worked really well. This is just a photo of the behind the camera. She was filming a bunch of this so big shoutout to her as well. Nice little Volkswagen bug there. I'm not really seeing any light leaks here, which is the main thing that I wanted to check for. The images have a decent degree of sharpness to them even with being handheld at about a 30th of a second. Yeah, I do like this photo here with the sidewalk closed in the foreground and then buddy in the background and the safety vest, it's a cool shot. The old buildings with more and so the new and the background with construction, I think it's a nice story there. You get some of the leaves and old houses I love, I love when cities preserve old houses like that, it's great. Get the sign in there, that's a cool shot. We can crop that and maybe a little bit, and that's cool too. There were some string lights hung up and this little statue of a deer, I thought it looked cool with those out-of-focus in the background. Some dude walking away and there's V behind the camera again, getting some B-roll to make this class look top-notch. One more big thank you to her. Now that we've actually gone through, I'm not really seeing any issues here with the camera, which is something that I really am pleased to see. I wasn't sure being gifted a camera, sometimes you can there's a bit of guesswork involved. Is this going to work out how I want it to? Am I going to get some good results out of this, or will this have to be repaired? After a quick cleaning, it seems that the images came out of this pretty well. But now that we know this, we're going to go ahead and start editing some of these negatives. 11. Editing Your Scans: [MUSIC] Some people say it's a sin to edit your negatives, that the films should come out the way you want. But different scanners handle photos differently and different operators for scanners handle photos differently. I usually like to give my photos a bit of a tweak even if it's just an overall tone and color adjustment, which is probably what I'll do here. We're just going to go through some of my highlighted images here, I rated a couple. We'll quickly go through and give those an overall edit just to show you what you can do with your negatives. I want to crop this a little bit, it's a little off kilter. It's not quite centered, but I like it how we're getting more so down to one lane here. I'll bring the highlights down maybe a bit. We can see we're getting still a decent amount of latitude from the scan, overall up the contrast a little bit. For quick edit, that's pretty good. I'm not going to spend too much time with these, I'm just going to polish them up a bit and carry on. Open up the shadows a bit, not too much. We can see that even at a slower shutter speed, overexposing did lead to these files being handled really well. I could have underexposed with it being a lower light situation, but then these would have came out really muddy and that's not really what I wanted at all. We're getting a decent amount of gray in there, but it's nothing atrocious, it's nothing offensive. It works really well for that film and quality. Maybe this one. Sometimes I'll convert them to black and white. Let's see what that looks like here. I'll do quick black and white conversion. I really want to up the contrast here, maybe drop the exposure. I really want that Volkswagen to pop here. I'll bring up the yellows a lot. There we go. Maybe the oranges. Then drop the exposure a little bit more. That looks pretty good. I especially like how this guy is blurred, but the beetle here is more in focus. Maybe I'll crop it in just a little bit, like so. I think that leads to a pretty good shot there. I'd like to this door just hanging out on. I'll straighten that up a bit and then throw some contrast in there, drop the highlights down. I want to warm this up a little, not too much, just about there is good. I want the whites to be brought down a little bit more, then I'll contrast it up a bit. That's a pretty solid shot. We can do a before and after. We can see how we just add a little more mood to the overall photo. I like this shot of the window painters here. I thought that was cool. Always keep your eyes open when you're taking photos because you never know what you can come across. I think maybe if we do in the lower third there. That looks pretty good. There's just something going on that adds a bit to the story. Open up on the shadows. Maybe you warm it up a bit. Now we don't want a lot of green in there. Maybe I'll take the saturation down too just a bit. That looks pretty good. I like this architectural shot. I'll blast the clarity on this one, make it look a little more powerful. I want to cut off the edge of that other building. There we go. That leads to a nicely framed up image there. Drop the highlights, maybe a little bit. Here we go, adding a little bit of cloud there. Almost looks monochrome, actually. I like this guy when he's just up there on the windows. Looks pretty sick. I like to black and white. Drop the shadows, add more contrast. I'd like to contrast the black and white like this, it's pretty good. Maybe we'll crop it in a little bit. That's pretty solid there, I'd say. Then this one, I like the perspective where the black buildings frame up that tan one. Crop it in a little bit there. Some people hate cropping, I don't mind it, especially the quality you get out of these scans is pretty solid so you can play with that a little bit. This one, I love the way it's framed and I'm not going to change that at all. Maybe we'll just warm it up a little bit. Bring the highlights down, shadows up, and then just to make it a little punchy. There we go. Add some mid-tone contrast in there. I like that. Maybe we'll throw an overall color grade on this, give it a nice warm glow. Sometimes I like a little bit of purple in the shadows, sometimes I like a little bit like cyan. I like the cyan in this just a little bit, not a lot. Luminance, we can pull that down a little bit. There we go. That's a pretty solid photo right there. I like it. Just gives it a bit more of that overall look and feel. Then we have the one with the buildings here. I don't want to make this desaturated and a little cool, which it is already. I'll just bring the contrast up a bit. I'd rather always add in my contrast in the edit versus beforehand. I don't really ask them to add too much contrast at all to it, which they can do, but I usually don't for this reason. We got that shot there, maybe I'll just crop it in just a little bit, take out something building there. Maybe just bring up the exposure just a bit. Here we go. This one, I will crop it a little bit, like so. That looks pretty good. It's a little hazy for my liking so I just want to up that contrast a little bit. Bring the highlights down. I think that's pretty good. You see all I'm doing here is just giving a quick more so color grade than anything here. Up that contrast. There we go. Maybe I want to just crop this a little bit so we're just getting part, we're not getting the other side of the tree. There we go. That's one of those moments where you should come in a little closer. But it was running around quick losing light so we just tried to bang off a couple of quick shots and I really like this one. Then lastly, we have [inaudible] again behind the camera. Up that contrast, maybe bring down the highlights, bring up the shadows a bit, warm it up. That looks pretty good. This is just a quick edit of a bunch of these scans that came through, show you that you can play around with the scans that you get back from your negatives and you can actually polish them up a little bit so you get a really nice look out of things. I'm really happy, actually, with how this camera turned out with these photos. I wasn't sure, it's always a bit of a guessing game when you get a new phone camera for the first time. You always like to shoot a test row just to see how that is going to look. I'm pretty pleased with the results here. I'm definitely going to start carrying around this one, add it into my regular rotation, it was actually really fun to use. Hopefully, whichever camera you have been using gave you similar results and that you're really happy with the scans that you get back, tweak them up a little bit and make sure to drop 3-5 of your favorites in the projects down below, I'll be sure to chime in and give some feedback. Also while you're at it, mention the camera and the film stock choice that you went with so I can go off of the different results that you got. I'm pretty happy with how some of these snapshots style photos came out. I thank you for spending your time with me in creating some great images on film. [MUSIC] 12. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] Thank you for following along this film journey with me, embarking on ultimately what reignited my love and passion for photography. I got to test out a new camera today. Hopefully, you did as well and got some great images along the way. Once you have your scans back, give them a little edit if you so choose to, and then post 3-5 of your favorites in the projects tab down below and share some of your thoughts on how the process was for you. What was it like shooting film for the first time? Make sure to note the different camera and the film stock that you used to create these images. You can shoot whatever you like. While I primarily am a fashion portrait lifestyle photographer, you don't need to follow that at all. Whatever your heart desires, photograph that and I can't wait to see what you guys create. I'd love it if you follow along on my journey with me as I'm continually uploading different classes teaching you everything: photography, lighting, film, and beyond. If you enjoy my content style, I'm also always uploading to YouTube as well a bunch of different film-related videos, photography-related videos, so I'd love it if you check those out as well. If you have any questions about this class, about film, photography, or just want to say what's up, feel free to jump down in the discussions down below, or reach out to me via email. I hope this class was really valuable for you and allows you to have the same love with film photography that I do. It's something that changed the way that I looked at photography as a whole. Now one last time, I want to thank you so much for sharing your time with me today and learning how to take some great photos on film. I look forward to seeing what all of you create. Happy shooting. As always, work hard, rest often, and have a super creative day.