How many are doing paid product/studio work with film?

[faberryman]

If you intend to do commercial work with film, you will need two bodies in case one breaks in the middle of an assignment. Your clients are not going to accept "my camera broke" as an excuse for not being able to deliver the assignment in a timely manner.

 

[Rob Skeoch]

Buy the camera for your wife, then borrow it.

Can't go wrong with advice like that. I hear she's also interested in the 180mm.

 

[Despite_it_all]

Can't go wrong with advice like that. I hear she's also interested in the 180mm.

You're right, Rob. She likes a wide lens variety. That's important to her.

 

[Pieter12]

If you intend to do commercial work with film, you will need two bodies in case one breaks in the middle of an assignment. Your clients are not going to accept "my camera broke" as an excuse for not being able to deliver the assignment in a timely manner.

That goes for digital, too. And motion.

 

[GregY]

That goes for digital, too. And motion.

.....any kind of pro work. Back up gear is common.

 

[Don_ih]

you will need two bodies in case one breaks i

If it's Hasselblad, it might be an idea to have three in case two of them break.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

This wisdom is from a man who has clearly been married for longer than I have!

Twice.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I had a feeling there was a swap that occurred. The top image is so incredibly razor sharp that one can actually see silhouettes of people in the individual windows. Or, at least, I think I can.

It was sharper before I added the film sim

The Canon EF35 f2 IS is a really underrated lens which I take everywhere

I'll put the photo merged Pano in the gallery later tonight.

 

[gbroadbridge]

You're right, Rob. She likes a wide lens variety. That's important to her.

As women mature they tend to need wider lenses, and the husband needs a wider wallet.

I didn't say that.

 

[MarkS]

I can't imagine a 21st century client A) paying for film and processing, A) paying for scans, or C) waiting for all that get done. The last job I shot on film was in 2009, and I will never go back to film for professional work. The immediate feedback on the camera screen (or the tethered computer) is an enormous help on the job. And the fast turnaround of digital is usually very important to the client. Add in the easier lighting (and less to carry on location) and it's a complete no-brainer.
OTOH, if you want a Hasselblad, buy it. They are still holding their value so if you don't want to keep it, you won't lose much money on the experiment.

 

[Don_ih]

I can't imagine a 21st century client A) paying for film and processing, A) paying for scans, or C) waiting for all that get done.

If you don't tell them it's film, and you develop it (it takes a a the most a couple of hours after shooting) and scan it (takes another half hour), how would they know? Film is not slow. People are slow.

 

[Pieter12]

If you don't tell them it's film, and you develop it (it takes a a the most a couple of hours after shooting) and scan it (takes another half hour), how would they know? Film is not slow. People are slow.

Not when the client is standing there, looking for a tethered monitor or to see the camera screen and expecting to take away at least a flash drive with some jpegs. That’s how it works in today’s system.

 

[Dusty Negative]

So far, looks like the answer to OP's question is "very, very few." I've toyed with the idea myself, but haven't done the research to see if it's viable. I would think it would only make sense if you offered wet prints as the final product. There's GOT to be a market for folks with disposable income to show off their "red room" portrait hanging on the wall........??

 

[Despite_it_all]

So far, looks like the answer to OP's question is "very, very few." I've toyed with the idea myself, but haven't done the research to see if it's viable. I would think it would only make sense if you offered wet prints as the final product. There's GOT to be a market for folks with disposable income to show off their "red room" portrait hanging on the wall........??

I have to agree with you, @Dusty Negative. There are people out there spending big money for bow ties for their cats. There has to be those who want an upper echelon print for their chosen subject, shot through film for an extra layer of depth and aura. Getting there, and finding that market, is where the challenge is.

 

[henryvk]

I skimmed the German Google results for "analog wedding photography" and there a more than just a few results. My guess would be that there is a niche market for film photography and probably 8mm or Super 8 films for weddings and things like that. Anything non-sentimental like product photography, I can't think why anyone would prefer film; I imagine all the relevant processes and standards have been digital for more than a decade.

 

[Don_ih]

There has to be those who want an upper echelon print for their chosen subject, shot through film for an extra layer of depth and aura.

You'd have to search pretty hard to find someone who believes an enlargement from film is superior to a high-quality print from digital. And when you find him, he'll probably own an enlarger.

 

[reddesert]

There is a niche market, probably growing, for film photography of weddings. I read an article about this in the NY Times just a couple weeks ago https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/...edding-film-photography-has-a-resurgence.html - but you don't need an article to know this. Just go look at the websites of current film labs, and see what they are showing as examples of their work, for ex https://thefindlab.com/ , or Richard Photo Lab or Indie film lab. There's wedding and portrait film photography all over it. Now, that's a generally different market from what the OP asked about for product / studio photography, and I'm sure wedding / portrait clients have a very different set of needs from art directors or other commercial photography clients, that may tend to support film as a viable niche.

 

[Pieter12]

There is a niche market, probably growing, for film photography of weddings. I read an article about this in the NY Times just a couple weeks ago https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/...edding-film-photography-has-a-resurgence.html - but you don't need an article to know this. Just go look at the websites of current film labs, and see what they are showing as examples of their work, for ex https://thefindlab.com/ , or Richard Photo Lab or Indie film lab. There's wedding and portrait film photography all over it. Now, that's a generally different market from what the OP asked about for product / studio photography, and I'm sure wedding / portrait clients have a very different set of needs from art directors or other commercial photography clients, that may tend to support film as a viable niche.

There are many "retro" fads going on today. Unfortunately, I believe film photography for weddings is one of them. Vinyl records for the masses is another. I recently stayed at a hotel that had an analog alarm clock and a boom box with cassette tapes on the nightstand. The clock never had its battery installed.

 

[Sirius Glass]

There are many "retro" fads going on today. Unfortunately, I believe film photography for weddings is one of them. Vinyl records for the masses is another. I recently stayed at a hotel that had an analog alarm clock and a boom box with cassette tapes on the nightstand. The clock never had its battery installed.

So the clock did not have battery backup for power outages, but as long as the power was on the clock would run, if it were plugged in.

 

[Pieter12]

So the clock did not have battery backup for power outages, but as long as the power was on the clock would run, if it were plugged in.

No, it was a battery-operated clock. And pretty much just a prop to appeal to the hip, boho crowd. The boom box might not have even been operable for all I know. I do know the cassettes did not seem to be in their original cases, they had what looked like generic, plain-wrappers with a title on it. There might not even have been tapes inside.

 

[Sirius Glass]

No, it was a battery-operated clock. And pretty much just a prop to appeal to the hip, boho crowd. The boom box might not have even been operable for all I know. I do know the cassettes were not in their original cases, they had generic, plain-wrappers with a title on it, all matching. There might not even have been tapes inside.

So the clock was not even correct twice a day.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Vinyl records for the masses is another. I recently stayed at a hotel that had an analog alarm clock and a boom box with cassette tapes on the nightstand.

No recent movie has done more to make the cassette trendy than the Guardians of the Galaxy set.

The cassette resurgence—Rolling Stones says there is one and who am I to argue with Rolling Stones—points to another weird phenomenon of our time: young people being nostalgic about an era they never knew.

NDAs, Obsessive Buyers, and $400 for Sublime: Inside the Baffling Revival of the Cassette Tape

Thanks to major pop acts like Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga, the nearly extinct format is on an unexpected comeback tour. But who’s buying and playing the 20th-century relics?

www.rollingstone.com

 

[reddesert]

Maybe the previous occupant of the room stole the battery from the clock to put it in their transistor radio.

I have news, vinyl LPs have been "trendy" among music fans for over a decade now. An amusing thing is that people hardly care about CDs anymore: not modern enough and not retro enough. Younger (and middle aged) people who don't care about the physical media just stream their music or buy it digitally, and those who want to buy physical objects in a record store are often more interested in the vinyl than the CDs. And the vinyl costs more. It is sort of like the way that a segment of people are interested in (certain in-high-demand) film cameras, while outdated DSLRs have little appeal and a lot of depreciation, even though they can still take the same quality of photos as they did when new.

At some point it becomes hard to differentiate the hard core film user or vinyl lover from the shallow hipster fad film user or vinyl lover. I don't think the roll of film knows whether the motivations of the person exposing it are genuine or a put-on.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Pretty soon gasoline powered cars will be a fad again.

 

[MattKing]

—Rolling Stones says there is one and who am I to argue with Rolling Stones—

It is probably important to point out that that is the name of the band - not the slightly shorter name of the publication, or the inspirational line from a Bob Dylan song .