Preparing a film 101 presentation for a student run photography society.

Rainbow · Oct 26, 2019

Hi all!

I'm currently preparing a "film 101" presentation that I'll be giving to a university society, and just thought I'd throw what I've covered in it up here to check if anyone can spot any obvious gaps in the content.

I'm expecting a range of abilities here from roughly "I opened my camera back and there are no pictures what did I do wrong" to "last week I took this awesome 20x24" wet plate of my pet cat, Sooty".

It currently covers, in order:

An quick overview of the various types of film cameras you're likely to come across.
An overview of most of the film formats available today.
Metering with older cameras (using exposure compensation, or getting an incident meter).
The fact that different films need different processing (someone's turned up with XP2 to our B&W only darkroom at least once this year already!).
That the ISOs you can use are intrinsic to the film + developer combo you're using.
Push/pull processing.
Granularity & sharpness.
Spectral sensitivity in B&W films (mentioning of panchromatic, orthochromatic and infrared films).
Colour filtration for B&W (why you'd use yellow, orange, red, green, blue filters).
Reciprocity failure (so hopefully I won't get anyone coming to me with a bunch of underexposed landscapes in a few months' time).
B&W characteristic curves, including what base+fog, latitude, contrast and d-max are.

Ta!

Kino · Oct 26, 2019

Scanning to digital files Vs Printing traditional prints
Basic photo chemical safety and hazmat considerations
Alternative Developers (Cafinol, Monobath and Pyro)

jim10219 · Oct 27, 2019

That's sounds like a good mix. A little something for everyone. I'd probably add a "where to buy film And have it developed". Not necessarily a recommendation of your favorite places, just a quick list of places locally and a maybe few online that sell film and offer development. Just to let them know that it's something anyone can do, and you don't have to go to crazy lengths to dip your toes in it. That's the question I get asked most by people who are film curious.

CMoore · Oct 27, 2019

Rainbow said:
I'm expecting a range of abilities here from roughly "I opened my camera back and there are no pictures what did I do wrong"!

Strange..... i just opened the back of my Pentax K1000, and i have the same problem.

Good Luck with you class BTW.
You are to be commended.

markbau · Oct 27, 2019

Kino said:
Scanning to digital files Vs Printing traditional prints

Basic photo chemical safety and hazmat considerations

Alternative Developers (Cafinol, Monobath and Pyro)

Not sure I'd include exotic developers like those you mention in a photography 101 course.

foc · Oct 27, 2019

How many sessions are you planning to give?
I think you have a very comprehensive list of topics. My only fear would be keeping their attention if it gets too technical.
Are you planning to use plenty of visual aids, like digital slides & examples (traditional slide presentation would be great but may not be practical)?
Best of luck with it and I would love to hear how you got on, afterwards.

pentaxuser · Oct 27, 2019

CMoore said:
Strange..... i just opened the back of my Pentax K1000, and i have the same problem.

I have given this a lot of thought and considered all possible options and there is only one conclusion; ditch Pentax and move on to Nikon where these kind of problems never arise, world is a better place and life in general gets rosier

Whatever you do, OP, in your lecture, try and identify those in your audience whom you feel might have a tendency for the above kind of replies and steer them onto any sites except Photrio

pentaxuser

Kino · Oct 27, 2019

markbau said:
Not sure I'd include exotic developers like those you mention in a photography 101 course.

If it is simply an overview, those can be mentioned as an advanced topic to be explored when the user has gained more experience and confidence.

David Brown · Oct 27, 2019

foc said:
How many sessions are you planning to give?

My thought, as well. It is hard to give advice when we are really unsure of the context of your "presentation".

I teach basic and "intermediate" (for lack of a better term) darkroom one-day workshops. I refer to it as cramming half of a university semester into 7 hours. In the beginning workshop, the goal is to get a roll of film developed, a contact sheet made and at least one print (with no manipulation, just a straight print.) In a single day, everyone manages this, and a few of the sharper students make multiple prints. But, I cannot go into any more detailed topics in the darkroom, there's no time, and cover nothing about cameras or shooting - those are other workshops.

No need to reinvent the wheel. There are excellent university level textbooks still available on the used book market that lay all of this out in a programmed manor, and could help you with both content and timing. As others have said, beware of over-loading your audience with tech detail upfront.

Cheers,

Rainbow · Oct 27, 2019

foc said:
How many sessions are you planning to give?
I think you have a very comprehensive list of topics. My only fear would be keeping their attention if it gets too technical.
Are you planning to use plenty of visual aids, like digital slides & examples (traditional slide presentation would be great but may not be practical)?
Best of luck with it and I would love to hear how you got on, afterwards.

I'm throwing things together in a google slides presentation, I've got enough of my own photographs to give examples of the effects of most things. Besides that I'm thinking of bringing along some 8x10 prints, some printouts of some of Ilford's technical datasheets, and maybe using a bit of desmos. I'm currently taking a machine learning module (computer scientist by day, photography enthusiast by night) and I'm aware things can get incredibly dry and hard to follow without visual aid... it's too easy to fall asleep counting matrices like sleep in some of those lectures!

I only want to have to cover this in a single session as not everyone in the society will be wanting to get involved with film, I'd be able to split it out into another session if I wanted to, but the practicalities of developing your own film and making prints is something I teach 1 on 1 in our darkroom anyway.

Ideally I just want people to walk away from it knowing how to pick a film that'll suit them, ie:

If they want to develop it in our darkroom, it's got to be B&W process.
It needs to be able to be shot at a manageable speed for their environment.
If they're wanting to do some longer exposures, it needs to be suited for that.
It should have appropriate latitude for the environment (they could also consider why you would push/pull a film)

...and hopefully they'll have some appreciation for the textural aspects of the films they have to choose from, too.

Having an idea of colours factor into B&W (using colour filtration, or non-panchromatic films) is a bonus.

The presentation opens with some reasons why you'd actually want to use film in the first place, one of those mentioned is the fact it opens you to all sorts of different processes that you could use as a conceptual aspect to your photos (e.g. there's plenty of VICE and Wired articles of people throwing their film in the washing machine and finding some DEEPER MEANING in it - I could swear there's some nicer things people have done like this, like taking portraits of trees then burying them under the tree for a while and coming back to dig them up again after a few weeks... for the life of me I can't find them). I could perhaps expand this and mention some alternate developers and stuff like reticulation, perhaps present it as the rabbit hole that using film really can be.

jim10219 said:
I'd probably add a "where to buy film And have it developed".

We're sponsored by a local camera shop!

removed account4 · Oct 27, 2019

how about bring a nesting cardboard box with a lens on it and a sheet of waxed paper on the back and show them what a camera actually is.
then show a 30 second cellphone video of you developing a print and it coming up in the developer.
not saying what you have planned doesn't sound fantastic but too much information makes people drowsy. short and sweet... and show them some magic.

Rainbow · Oct 27, 2019

jnantz said:
how about bring a nesting cardboard box with a lens on it and a sheet of waxed paper on the back and show them what a camera actually is.
then show a 30 second cellphone video of you developing a print and it coming up in the developer.
not saying what you have planned doesn't sound fantastic but too much information makes people drowsy. short and sweet... and show them some magic.

I've added a link to one of the YouTube videos of the 20x24" polaroid camera to the section about film formats, and a link to a video of a wet plate of Thunberg in the fixer bath (there's a slide with a list of alt processes at the beginning as a little reminder that there's plenty of other analogue processes besides just film). Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If only I could get my hands on some of Ilford's ortho plus in the new 120 format I'd get a video of that developing under safelight, but alas... out of stock!

eddie · Oct 27, 2019

If it’s an intro course, I’d simplify the presentation. Characteristic curves, film base + fog, 20x24 Polaroid, etc. are things best learned in more advanced classes. Show them the magic so they’ll want to continue (cyanotype photograms?). I think you need to stick to the basics so you’ll whet their appetites to pursue film photography.

Luckless · Oct 27, 2019

May I suggest bumping

"8 - Spectral sensitivity in B&W films (mentioning of panchromatic, orthochromatic and infrared films)"

Up to the very front, as part of a "What is film?" introduction, and expand on it a bit with a quick talk on safelights, and under what conditions the film will survive what kind of light exposure? TV and Movies have given a lot of people some 'slightly questionable' impressions on reality of film and darkroom work. And I can't really blame shows and movies for it, as I'll admit it is difficult to film a scene in a proper modern darkroom...

removed account4 · Oct 28, 2019

eddie said:
If it’s an intro course, I’d simplify the presentation. Characteristic curves, film base + fog, 20x24 Polaroid, etc. are things best learned in more advanced classes. Show them the magic so they’ll want to continue (cyanotype photograms?). I think you need to stick to the basics so you’ll whet their appetites to pursue film photography.

Exactly hands on and magical
Heck I’ve been using a camera for nearly 50 years and never learned about spectral sensitivity or curves &c no clue why an intro photo lecture would even mention anything like that...

Rainbow · Oct 28, 2019

eddie said:
If it’s an intro course, I’d simplify the presentation. Characteristic curves, film base + fog, 20x24 Polaroid, etc. are things best learned in more advanced classes. Show them the magic so they’ll want to continue (cyanotype photograms?). I think you need to stick to the basics so you’ll whet their appetites to pursue film photography.

The thing is it's going to be an intro talk for some people, while others will be more experienced so I'm trying to put a bit in for everyone.
The way I'm thinking of handling this is by having the "super important" bits written in a different colour/highlighted, so people who are completely new don't have to be worried if stuff goes over their heads.

Luckless said:
May I suggest bumping

"8 - Spectral sensitivity in B&W films (mentioning of panchromatic, orthochromatic and infrared films)"

Up to the very front, as part of a "What is film?" introduction, and expand on it a bit with a quick talk on safelights, and under what conditions the film will survive what kind of light exposure? TV and Movies have given a lot of people some 'slightly questionable' impressions on reality of film and darkroom work. And I can't really blame shows and movies for it, as I'll admit it is difficult to film a scene in a proper modern darkroom...

Fantastic! Done

John51 · Oct 29, 2019

On screen, I've seen under/over exposed and developed examples like this:

https://severnschoolkapsos.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/download.jpeg

Would be cool to see nine 8x10s in real life.

jtk · Nov 1, 2019

jnantz said:
Heck I’ve been using a camera for nearly 50 years and never learned about spectral sensitivity or curves &c no clue why an intro photo lecture would even mention anything like that...

Because some people are tech geeks and others are into images (ie "photographers"...

Bill Burk · Nov 2, 2019

... Metering with older cameras (using exposure compensation, or getting an incident meter) ...
One trick I have used with Pentax Spotmatic averaging metering, is to meter the palm of my hand and open one stop (as if to "place" the value on Zone VI).
... Oh, you'll have to tell them about the Zone System so they'll know what that means.

markbau · Nov 2, 2019

Bill Burk said:
... Metering with older cameras (using exposure compensation, or getting an incident meter) ...
One trick I have used with Pentax Spotmatic averaging metering, is to meter the palm of my hand and open one stop (as if to "place" the value on Zone VI).
... Oh, you'll have to tell them about the Zone System so they'll know what that means.

OMG, the LAST thing I would attempt to explain in a photo 101 course would be the zone system. Of much more use to newbies would be a good explanation of the relationship between f stops, shutter speeds and ISO. They only need to know what time it is, not how the clock was made!

runswithsizzers · Nov 2, 2019

What kind of a "university society" ?

If your audience is limited to those known to have a genuine interest in photograrphy, I think you are on the right track.

If, however, the audience is a more-or-less random assortment of the general public, then I imagine many of your topics are going to be too technical to hold their attention.

How long is your presentation? And by 'presentation' - I assume you mean standing up in front of a group of people and presenting a lecture, right? For a lecture of less than one hour, your range of topics may be too ambitious. If it's more like a workshop, where you can mix with the audience, pass around prints, project video / slides on a screen, it sounds about right, assuming you have enough time.

If the time frame is open-ended, you could present the topics of more general interest first - and then save the more technical topics until "after the break" for the more advanced members of your audience.

jtk · Nov 26, 2019

What about photographers and their images? Why do they photograph? What about art or memory/family or journalism? Or technical/medical illustration? Or phones?

jtk · Nov 26, 2019

I taught a course like that. Asked all students to bring snapshot and family prints/slides. They did. Eye opener.

jvo · Nov 26, 2019

jnantz said:
Exactly hands on and magical
Heck I’ve been using a camera for nearly 50 years and never learned about spectral sensitivity or curves &c no clue why an intro photo lecture would even mention anything like that...

+1 - magical+++++, and fun

show lotsa pix, amke it interactive, especially since it's "student-run" - some of the student run a portion of the program; or research a topic for you to guide them through explaining.

good luck, you'll do wonderfully!

pentaxuser · Nov 26, 2019

How did it all go assuming it has happened? I don't think I ever spotted a date for the presentation

pentaxuser

Preparing a film 101 presentation for a student run photography society.

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