Getting Over Film Anxiety

[Alan Klein]

Shoot color negative film rather than more exacting slide film. You'll have less issues with exposure.

 

[edcculus]

I'm 28, so I distinctly remember a good bit of my life before our family got their first digital camera. At this point, I shoot all family snapsot stuff on digital.

I remember going on family vacations and shooting tons of film only on my dads nikon. One trip in china it was so cheap to develop and get prints we processed it all there and actually got to see the prints before getting home! That was 20 or so years ago though. I remember on a later trip when we got a sony mavica to bring along with the film cameras which shot on floppys when it came out, we were worried about the digital storage! Haha wow if feel old.

I'm way too young to remember this, but I was talking with someone who was telling me that a lot of old hotels used to have darkrooms in them, so tourists could develop their film while on vacation.

 

[Truzi]

Here is a boring picture of a hole.

This was taken circa 2010 at the Ausable Chasm in the Adirondacks, New York. They call it "Jacob's Well." I believe the film was Kodak Gold 200 (or perhaps Fuji's equivalent - just a consumer film). The pro shop optically printed 4x6 snapshots, though the posting here is their negative scan.

It was difficult to see the bottom of the hole from the path, leaning over the railing yet holding onto it. My best friend and I decided we wanted a picture straight down; we had to hold the cameras out over the hole.
She used her Canon Powershot P&S on auto mode, and got nothing several times, as the camera helpfully thought for her and compensated exposure for the rock face - the hole was always completely dark. Manual mode on that P&S is menu-driven (a pain to get to), and we still would have had to experiment to get a decent exposure.

So, I set my 35mm for aperture priority, made a (fairly wrong) guess for focusing distance, wrapped the strap around my wrist so as to not lose the camera, reached out and snapped one picture. I wasn't concerned at all, and it was two weeks before we had the film developed and printed.

Surely a better photographer would have resulted in a much nicer photo regardless of film/digital. However, I'm just trying to illustrate a point - you don't have much to worry about.

 

[Pioneer]

To be completely honest, this is something you will have to work out for yourself. When my wife and I go on vacation we carry both film and digital.

I use film, usually black and white, and I love it.

My wife uses digital and firmly believes I am totally wasting my time.

I love the mystery and surprise that sometimes comes with film.

My wife wants to "know" she has the shot.

We both come home with good pictures.

I strongly recommend that you work with film and get comfortable. That should help with your anxiety. But...my wife would not agree.

BTW - I am pretty sure my wife has a much higher keeper rate but that has nothing to do with film vs digital. It is because she is an absolutely ruthless editor.

 

[Dali]

Sorry but I never felt any film anxiety. If using film makes you uncomfortable, shoot digital only.

 

[pbromaghin]

Take the training wheels off and go ruin a lot of film. You'll figure it out.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Having gotten my start in photography purely in the film era, but at the dawn of digital, I have no anxiety over shooting film. I put 30-some rolls of film through my Rolleiflex in Paris last October. I had some pleasant surprises but no nasty letdowns (some pictures turned out better - or even MUCH better - than I expected, but no turkeys or completely flubbed shots). I would rather travel and shoot with film than digital, because I don't have to bring along a separate computer that invites theft/damage/loss on the road. A thief is much more likely to target my laptop than they are my Rolleiflex. The laptop requires a stable power supply - the Rollei requires none. In the end, what it comes down to though is familiarity and comfort with the tools you have. If I were used to shooting with my Canon 5D all the time, and someone swapped it out for my Rollei, I'd be freaked out, insecure, nervous and excitable too.

 

[cliveh]

So this feels very weird and dumb to post on APUG, but I'd be interested to hear some thoughts on this. I shoot both film and digital, and typically when traveling (except, generally, a place I've covered heavily on previous trips) I will have at least one of each handy. One of my biggest struggles lately is that I am having a hard time getting past a nervousness to shoot ONLY film while on a trip. Just curious if anyone else has encountered this and how you powered through and got over it (if you even did)?

When you shoot with film you commit to the integrity of a chemical/physical image. That shouldn’t make you nervous, but certain of what you are doing.

 

[fresnel10]

Wow! Thanks for this wonderfully robust discussion. It is nice to hear others having or having had the same experience I am. I did forget to mention that, despite my younger age, I did start film, not moving to digital until I was in college. Hoffy absolutely pegged it...I am on a journey back to film and trying to take it more seriously than I ever have before. I keep telling myself that I used to shoot TONS of film on vacation before digital, so it's silly that it's a hang-up for me now, but it still is. Something to continue working on for sure.

And thanks for that link, trythis. I took a look through it and will dive in deeper when I have a chance.

 

[Soeren]

I have always shot film and mostly slides. In 2002 (I think) I was in Slovakia with some friends. One morning we were offered some Slivovich by the father of one of the particioants but had no glasses and since then I dont travel with less than 15 extra rolls of 135 film
Best regards

 

[Prest_400]

The laptop requires a stable power supply - the Rollei requires none. In the end, what it comes down to though is familiarity and comfort with the tools you have

These are a couple of nice points.
What I like of film is that you don't need the strict power management (traded for film management though). And you don't have to be tethered to the grid every day or X days for charging everything.
That is great for some locations where power isn't ubiquitous.

Ditto on the tools. Coming up below may be a bit of a personal rant.
I see that within our society, newer tools seem to just dismiss or question the older ones. Hype.
I noticed that when a friend changed his glasses. He seemed to dislike the older ones much more.

Film has been what it is for quite a while. Then there is the new set of challenges that digital has.
YMMV as they say. I'm a college student that has grown in the digital era and have a particular point of view.

I have to recognise that I have to do a trip completely on film. There is always some kind of digital for the snapshots and easy sharing. The "good stuff" (the body of photo work I want) is handled by film.
Frankly, this very phone I am writing in now has a decent enough camera for this funcition and that lets me concentrate further on film.

 

[fresnel10]

Soeren, slivo is probably the best argument yet to always have some film handy! [emoji1]

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

I'm way too young to remember this, but I was talking with someone who was telling me that a lot of old hotels used to have darkrooms in them, so tourists could develop their film while on vacation.

They still do! The bathroom sometimes it's the best way if you were shooting some pushed black and white and don't want xray fogging.