I think I can be convinced that shooting analogue B&W and scanning might be worthwhile ... to give a distinctive "look" to the final retro image, but surely there is less of a case for colour?
If you are going to digitally post-process colour photos (colour negatives or positives), why bother to shoot analogue rather than digital (RAW)?
I think lots of people have answered that exact question on here numerous times. It mostly boils down to they consider film to generate a preferable result to digital - a result they claim they cannot get a digital capture to have.
As the creator of the thread that motivated your post, I'd like to chime in.
When I first heard of the idea --- especially with DSLR scanning --- I thought it was really absurd. So you grab a film camera cause you don't want to shoot digital, and then grab your digital camera to take a photo of your photo. That's bananas!
Yet, that's what I am currently doing with color film.I can tell you why I'm doing it:
(1) Part of it is idle curiosity and novelty. --- The concept is still weird and new to me.
(2) Part of it is that the experience is totally different:
"Yes"... in theory I could take digital photos and use software to emulate the look of any film. But I don't want to do that.
Doing this kind of post-processing well requires effort, and requires skill that I neither have nor am interested in acquiring. I do not want to sit at a computer fiddling with app settings. I already sit at computer all day. One of the reasons I moved away from digital photography was that so much of it seemed to be about taking a zillion shots with reckless abandon, then hunching over a screen to painstakingly fiddle with knobs and dials to tune the image.
OMG! It made me want to tear my hair out!
I want to get out. I want to be up and about, walk around town, and when I get home I want to use my hands, pour chemistry in a tank, whoosh liquids in a tray, and just basically avoid the computer. Getting sunlight, and just the physicality of the whole process is both relaxing, and good for my mental health.
Film already looks like film. I am willing to hold my hose and do a small amount of digital editing to convert negatives into digital positives, but I very much want the film itself to play a large role in the final product, without a huge amount of editing. You can bet that if RA4 was easier and I has equipped to do it, I'd be doing that instead of digital scans. The digital scans are a compromise between what I'd like to do ideally and what I feel I can attain realistically.
Doing this kind of post-processing well requires effort, and requires skill that I neither have nor am interested in acquiring. I do not want to sit at a computer fiddling with app settings. I already sit at computer all day. One of the reasons I moved away from digital photography was that so much of it seemed to be about taking a zillion shots with reckless abandon, then hunching over a screen to painstakingly fiddle with knobs and dials to tune the image.
What's the advantage of this, though?Each new roll of film is the same as putting a new sensor into a digital camera.
A few more...
No worries about memory card failures.
Mechanical cameras are ready to shoot in an instant.
Long exposures are an uncomplicated thing to do, as are multiple exposures.
I like to see a little grain in an image.
Medium format is much less expensive.
There is nostalgia and emotion in the way film renders.
I don't want to look at screens, especially in bright sunlight or on dark streets.
Lenses are cheaper.
I learn more about the imaging process when there are more manual steps.
Digital cameras have less variation in their design.
A process that has less room for error is more sterile and less interesting.
Simplicity can be liberating.
I already tried digital cameras and nothing compelled me to keep taking photos with them, I threw the photos in a folder and forgot about them until the next hard drive crash.
If my budget tightened, I'd make each shot more important and take less of them. And I'd sell half of my lenses and cameras.
In addition to printing, there's also camera collecting, working on cameras, handling/fondling cameras, experimenting/playing with chemistry, exploring the theoretical aspects of photochemistry and related fields like sensitometry, the fun of shopping/buying stuff and collecting, trying out different materials, talking and arguing to/with people about what you like doing. And there's also photography. But that's of course just a minor aspect of the whole complex.For many people out there interested in this hobby in 2025, there is so much more about film photography than just making prints in a darkroom.
Absolutely, but I think OP was specifically asking for reasons to use colour negative film to generate pictures. Camera ergonomics and usability is a factor here for many.In addition to printing, there's also camera collecting, working on cameras, handling/fondling cameras, experimenting/playing with chemistry, exploring the theoretical aspects of photochemistry and related fields like sensitometry, the fun of shopping/buying stuff and collecting, trying out different materials,
What's the advantage of this, though?
I remember the problems with dust back when I used a canon 20d. On my already geriatric Canon 7D, I've never suffered from dust problems. Its auto-cleaning mechanism seems to avoid whatever problems I would encounter otherwise. Don't all contemporary cameras have a similar feature?Don't need to clean the sensor as you just replace it. Cleaning sensor is a difficult task to me.
Perhaps. I'm not a camera expert or a camera collector. I've not come across many cameras made in the past 4 decades or so that didn't work from a viewpoint of ergonomics, in the sense that they somehow impeded my ability to produce images with them. Having said that, I do find more modern cameras more pleasurable to use. It seems to me that a couple of decades of ergonomics R&D has been quite effective in ironing out quirks.Absolutely, but I think OP was specifically asking for reasons to use colour negative film to generate pictures. Camera ergonomics and usability plays a factor here.
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