Why Film Photography is popular again.
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- Опубліковано 8 тра 2021
- Film Photography is trending since a couple years now and today still more and more young people are beginning to shoot film. How come young people nowadays decide to shoot film, even though we are technically so much more advanced? In March of this year I completed my first of two bachelor thesis I need to write for my uni degree and the topic I chose for it is this phenomenon. So this video is a simplified video version of my bachelor thesis presenting the key points I found out, which could be the reasons for the current renaissance of analogue photography.
Incase you want to read the paper (it's written in German though): drive.google.com/file/d/1RSut...
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One aspect to mention still is the joy of using old film cameras and gear. The estatics, the mechanical nature of handling is far more tangible as pushing on a touchscreen. Finally one could always wonder what a particular old camera has been through, what moments it has captured etc. I guess it is also feeds back to nostalgia.
Gabor Dobrocsi. Sure, experiment with 19th century lenses, make your own emulsions and do sunprinting on artists papers... I use a large format camera which I bought NEW in 1990. And the price of those cameras is pretty stable, even today.
35mm cameras last for decades. Lucky if Digital lasts 5 years with no issues.
@@arricammarques1955 The shops push digital gimmicks of little value but large format analogue cameras are used by artists.
Lucky if digital camera lasts 10 years with no issues.
@@arricammarques1955 What happened to 5
Film, for me, has almost been like a rejection of digital life. I grew up in an analog world and entered adulthood as the digital revolution was taking hold. I started with a film camera and watched it become almost obsolete. I got sucked right in. Now 20 or so years later I'm starting to appreciate things I took for granted when they were common, film, typewriters, a telephone, a pen and paper.
Hmm love that - appreciation for these is important🤗
Cost of repairing a sensor? Not worth the aggro!
My thoughts exactly.
Some people are missing the ability to work with mechanical things. Film cameras are one way to get back some of that experience.
I agree with you 100 percent.
I found a Polaroid in my girlfriends closet in 2015 and went to a camera store to find film only to find out Polaroid went out of business a long time ago, all that was available was impossible project. So I ordered some and shot it. We felt like kids! The excitement of seeing the imperfections and distortions made us so happy and excited to shoot because we never knew what to expect!
Fast forward a few months and we were going broke buying so much film, the old man at the camera store told us it’d be cheaper to buy a 35mm and a few rolls. We bought a yashica electro 35, some superia and a strap. Every day was an adventure and we were both photographers, models and artists. After each outing we’d mail our film and wait excitedly like kids on Christmas Eve.
I own a digital camera now, but I still get way more excited to see my film photos than my digital. I still feel like I did 6 years ago.
It seems Polaroid is back on business, check it out and enjoy it!
Found a Polaroid Impulse AF that I got second hand 15+ years ago when I was a kid, last year I dug it out and was shocked to find it still worked! Even after kid me (notoriously curious and prone to disassembly that I couldn't undo) handling it, been feeding it new Polaroid 600 film since and it's such a wonderful camera.
Got a EOS Rebel Ti 35mm camera that uses the same EF lenses as my DSLRs since then which is rather nice to use casually, and a even weirder floppy disk loading Mavica FD75 which has been fun to get running as it's so entirely different from modern digital cameras
That comment gave me goosebumps!! So pure and magical....#shooton📸
waiting for my film scans to be emailed, and like you said I always feel like a kid waiting on Christmas Eve because I can’t wait to see the images :)
I bought my SLR film camera 2 years ago as my first camera since I couldn't afford a DSLR/mirrorless. Then I fell in love with it. Film photography made me learn so much about light, exposure, composition, and colors.
Ohh sweet, I'm so happy we still have access to the older technology from the analogue days🤗
@@teocrawford It's great to get our hands on and learn so much from the earlier technology and utilize it in the modern world. And I agree with your statement that the authenticity of film photography is irreplaceable.
I'm an early 90s Millennial that remembers my mom, aunts, and grandmother using film cameras and because we weren't the most well to do when I was very young, remember my family using film well into the early 2000s until there was something of a consumer grade digital camera. I had some experience shooting digital, when I was in middle school my mom got a nice Canon DSLR and, because I had a steadier hand, I was the shooter for the family. Tbh, I didn't really care for digital, it was fun to take pictures but something just wasn't that satisfying to me, which is probably why I didn't really bother with it for so many years; fast forward to the months leading into Christmas 2020, a lady friend of mine told me she wanted a Polaroid, so I got her one, did some test shots with it and thought, "Man, this is really fun!" and jumped off the deep end from there. I started with instant photography and moved into traditional photography. You hit nearly every reason why I enjoy film in your video: forcing yourself to slow down and plan the shot, the tangible aspect of having a negative, the imperfections of film that give it character; really the only things I would add on are how affordable film is to start with compared to digital and the fact that a manual film camera isn't going to short out in 10 years.
Ahh what a great story, thanks for sharing!🤗
And yes, indeed - in my paper I also added that point, however in the video I left it out to keep it at a decent length haha :D
I do miss my old Nikon FM. If you retro warriors don't drive the prices up too far I may pick one up again with a few nice primes. Hope you have many years of analogue Zen.
I'm gen Z but my story is essentially the same, I grew up with film all around me because my dad was a photo journalist in the early 2000s, and a bit of a gear hoarder. Then I started with instant, loved it and moved to film negitives. When I shoot digital its out of necessity, and I never enjoy it nearly as much.
As a digital immigrant with 35 years of experience with film before moving to digital in 2004, I have come back to explore film photography again, not so much for nostalgia. More to your last point, I approach shooting differently than digital. The stripped down simplicity of the process and the inability to check my work as I go introduces a level of care and discipline that improves my creativity. I’ve been able to carry these learnings back when shooting digitally improving my photography overall
Ahh I see, this is great to read - thank you for sharing this!🤗
Well said. It gives me a look with color palette I love or black and white with contrast range and grain I love. But most of all, because of 3 letters F U N. Using 35 mm vintage or modern film cameras, 645, 66, 67 each have their idiosyncrasies that are a challenge and fun in their own way. And my photos don't look like every ones shots.
As cheesy as it may sound, film does really ground me and I find myself thinking more about what I want to capture...I still love my a7RIII for night stuff tho haha
True! Well yes, digital has it's strengths haha🙌🏼
This is a wonderful video!! Thank you for putting in the time to research this topic and share your findings.
Very well said! I definitely relate to lots of what you said about the authenticity and wanting to bring back that nostalgia of my childhood. I hope you got a super good grade on that thesis!
I’m speechless. A million thank-yous for this wonderful breakdown and investigation of this phenomenon! Cheers!
Great research, and I concur with your assertions! Good job!
Love the editing in this video, the time and effort spent into making this should as well count for your thesis
This was fun to watch! I hope you got a good grade on your thesis! (I switched to film from digital about a year ago and shooting film makes we want to actually go and take photos because of the reasons you mentioned...you put words to the feelings people are having about film!)
this video is really really good! I love how in-depth it is
Excellent research and conclusions made here. You did a great job describing the various aspects of what brings me back to film photography.
I’m from the past (born in 63) and I have „learned“ photography with books from the 30th as I was 10 or 11 years old. In the 80th I sell cameras in a shop. In the end of the 90th I start with digital cameras again till today. And a few weeks ago I bought an analog 6x6 camera from Mamiya with a few lenses...a C220. I’m home again...
Greetings from a 5 year younger digital emigrant and ground glass viewer on a mamyia 645😉 back in analog time I found the C330 interesting too.
@@matneu27 So welcome... 😁 The 645 is an interesting camera that a classmate in 81 proudly had. In that time I was arrogant with a 35mm Yashica...🤣
Now I know better...
The level of quality in your videos are absolutely insane! Hopefully more people take note and your channel grows even further
Just got my first film camera, I've taken six photos so far, I got interested by it back in 2020, but instead I got a DSLR for my birthday, which now I think was fundamental for me to understand photography before going to a SLR. Anyways I think to me what makes it so appealing for people my age (16) is the fact that it's much more "human" as in easier to comprehend and be a part of, so us who grew up in digital have this need for analog. When you shoot digital you also have infinite shots, and having less makes each one very special.
What a great video! Thank you for sharing the knowledge
I definitely fall into the "authenticity" crowd. As much as I love digital, and use it 95% of the time, there is nothing quite like seeing your photos on a negative or a transparency, especially if you shoot medium or large format. Another reason I still shoot film is because I can't quite achieve the medium format look on a digital camera I can afford. Great video!
Shooting with Polaroid is also a lot of fun, you have an even more limited number of shots, limited controls, but that fun of the photo instantly getting printed and developing before your eyes.
The Polaroid Impulse AF I use also has a wonderful viewfinder, no feedback or alignment lines, just a big clear square view of what the camera will (roughly) see
One of the best videos i've seen in a really long time, thank you.
This video is such a fantastic analysis of analogue photography. I’m very impressed. I’m in my mid 40’s and very much grew up with film. I’m one of those diehard film users (never migrated to digital photography entirely). I was searching why I’m inclined toward analogue despite I am aware of obvious convenience and speed of digital. This video explains some of the “why” points even I was not conscious but somehow feeling all along. Great job. This is fantastic.
This video is gold. I started shooting film a few years ago but in the past year it's more or less taken over my digital photography. I think the reason it is so special for me is because it feels so much more special when I take a film frame vs a digital frame. Your point about comparison is great, the less you have to compare to, the better one single frame of a subject becomes. Plus it is much less manipulated and more authentic or truthful. GREAT, great, video!
this was an amazing video and content! congrats on this work!!!
I was personally born in an analog world, but really almost never shooted film, when I started working as a photographer was on digital cameras, now I'm going back to the roots and I recently started shooting film, I can't describe how happy that makes me! I relate the feeling of shooting film on an expression of freedom in a world of perfection, control, instant reward, and efficiency; shooting film embrace the mistake, the unknown, the craft, the time that you put on every exposure, the delay in the reward; it's kind of the opposite way to the actual world and its speed. Just kind of magical if we put some romance on it.
Thanks again for this video and the topic!
Nice job, dude. Very well done. I'd fall into that "transition" generational phase. I really feel that you hit on all the major reasons why I shoot in film and even more that I hadn't actually acknowledged.
Congratulations, Teo, I wish more and more students would follow your path. Great work, fantastic video :)
Ohh sweet, thank you!🥺🙇🏻♂️
It is definitely relatable. It's amazing how good photographers express their interpretation of film and digital. It gives meaningful sense to Photography as a whole. I love this video Teo, informative and motivating.
Ohh sweet, that's great - agree🙌🏼Thank you!🤗
Just read your thesis as research for an essay I'm writing on film photography. It was beautifully structured and captured every aspect so well! Rewatching this video now with a deeper understanding of the ideas :)
Great content! I'm not in the digital native category, (born 1976) but have grown a real passion for film photography over the last few years and very much relate to the conclusions you have come to in your research. Loved your video.
DICCCKA, DAAANKE! hab mir das als Hausarbeiten Thema rausgesucht und bin jetzt über dein Video gestolpert... es ist sehr viel dabei was ich mir schon notiert hatte... perfekt noch mal zusammen gefasst und deine Bachelorarbeit wird mit safe noch einiges an Input geben! TOP VIDEO BTW!! Keep Them Coming!
This is a well done video. And great writing! Thank you for making this.
Aww thank you!🙇🏻♂️
My buddy Fletcher Eidum shared this video with me. As analog photographers, we nerd out on stuff like this constantly. We’re going to reference this video in the next episode, so I’ll link it in the show notes. I’ll let you know when it’s uploaded. Great work, I’m going to look for other shows of yours to watch.
Shooting film adds additional pressure on you to ensure your shots have more thought to them, as a result errors in the shot such as out of focus or under/overexposure can to a point be ignored depending on the story you are attempting to convey. Best way to shoot film is to remember each photo you shoot will cost $1, you’ll immediately put more thought into each shot and thats magic!
True! It makes me much more careful🙏🏼
That wasn’t always the case, only now that the costs are so high.
@@tamDOTaudio Cost of film has always been the same. 20 bucks for 3 rolls of consumer grade film is the same cost as 8.99 back in the 1988.
@@tamDOTaudio 35mm worth the investment. Digital easier, prone to breakdown.
Film is natural. Digital is artificial. With literally everything in society being digitized, and the fact that compared with an analog photo, digital just looks - *fake* - Film cameras offer a different and more naturalistic format to capture life's moments. Analog photos have a more satisfying gratification to them.
Thank you for making this video man, I had been making a video on my experiences shooting on film so far as a noob and this video really inspired me! Ended up using the Matthew Biro quote in my video too(credited you of course)
I think this is great! Really interesting theory. I have been dabbling with film for the last year or so and I find it so enjoyable! I have recently started shooting Jpeg only and using Fujifilm film recipes just so its closer to film and no editing at the computer. I find it slows me down and helps with getting the result I want all in camera. Great video :)
Great video and very nice explanation of your thesis. 👏👏👏👏👏👏
My goodness. This is one of the best researched, analyzed and narrated video on photography UA-cam has. I am glad I didn't write it off as another gimmicky attempt to get views.
I love the philosophical aspect of it and indeed do agree with the findings. Wish there were more productions like this. As a matter of fact let me rummage through your channel!
I just started and I am all about the "photographic gaze"! Its very meditative. I always come back to life a better and happier person after shooting film.
This is the most in-depth, well presented video about the topic, that I've seen. Such a great job - well done!
Aww thank you!🙇🏻♂️🤗
Fascinating analysis. I'm prehistoric by comparison (63 years old), and I grew up with a box camera, then a Kodak Instamatic, followed by my dad's Leica M3. I didn't own an SLR until I saved my money and bought a Canon FTb in high school. I also finally went to digital in the early 2000s, but mostly for the autofocus. Now I'm back to shooting film almost exclusively. The reason for this is exactly what you describe in your video. Namely, it forces me to slow down, think, and stay focused and in the zone (or Zen, if you prefer). Instead of taking 1000 digital shots and culling through them to find one decent one. Ultimately, though, there is a very apt saying, that states that the difference between analogue and digital photography is that with film, you have to wait 2 weeks to be disappointed.
Enjoyed the deep dive on this man 👌🏽 being more selective and more present is why I shoot film. I don't have to look through 10 shots of the same moment to make sure I got 'the shot' which allows me to appreciate what I'm looking at and be more present.
So glad to hear your words and your perspective, I did my master's thesis on photography about urban tribes and how photography preserves these identities and spaces. The term of "Aura" was one of the most important bases of my work. Thanks for sharing! Sorry for bad English :(
This is a subject that I wonder about all the time and I think your approach was on point! Great video!
Ohh sweet, thank you!🙇🏻♂️
Great video! I had a brief encounter with film photography as a child and when starting to use digital cameras, nothing had the same tactile nature as using a mechanical camera, and so eventually I started experimenting with film and now hooked. There is appeal of the organic nature of the output of film, but I think the main driver to keep using it is the experience when taking photos...you have to think ahead of what settings to use, you don't plan to edit later, it's all in the moment, and there is no chimping, no worrying about getting satisfaction from an immediate result...the result is delayed, and that re-experience of the original experience when film is developed is an added bonus digital doesn't quite provide. Keep up the great work!
Excellent work!! congrats!
I swear, this is my comfort video. Your voice has a remarkably soothing tone and the subject of this video-essay is something I love hearing about. And I think I talk on the behalf of all by saying, pleeease release more video-essays like this :)
Whaaa thank you!🙇🏻♂️ I'm so happy to read such positive feedback!🤗
Very good, thoughtful video. I love young people's curiosity and adventurous spirit. Long live film!
Hei Teo, one of the best and most detailed essays about film vs digital there is on the web. Well done!
Also: Maybe you should read about Wabi-sabi. It's the japenese concept for beauty in imperfection. Maybe it's interesting to you!
You explained everything so good and somehow very passionate
Amazing video!🤩
This was so interesting! I recently started shooting film after years of shooting digital because I want to fully understand how the camera works. I shoot in full manual when I'm shooting digital, but I don't completely understand how it all works, so for me it's about really understanding my craft and taking it to the next level. I also love how intentional I have to be with it.
Congrats my man! Well said. I like your approach. And to study is a good way to address the matter. There would be a lot to talk. I myself made research and wrote an article for a project I am shooting. I am not satisfied with what I wrote, still I I loved the feeling of discovery that came with study and research. It really widened my perception of reality. Thank you for sharing this with youtube!
Thanks for theses thoughts ! I was reaching similar conclusions with Matthew Biro’s reflexions. It’s a great help to know about it now !
Ahh nice! Thank you🤗
You give very interesting points. My wife used to work with old film and love the processing, I work with mirrorless digital with Sony a7r iv, we are both in our 50's, but now my wife who learns quickly with computer software, loves processing the digital photography using Lightrooms and Photoshop and now the images can become a cross between art and photography. Another dimension!
fantastic video essay, very well done
Your video is really interesting and well made! Congratulations :)
This is a really cool phenomenon occurring with the younger generation (myself included). although not necessarily photography related, I recently got hired as a digitizing technician for the archives at my local museum, after receiving a week of training - of course. My instructor said I was one of his most proficient students, and so this introduction into working with all types of film has surged my interest in this medium (and subsequently film photography).
I am beyond happy to see this resurgence! It's very exciting
Great work and very informative.
Great Video! I recently switched to film photography but I've had a pretty hard time explaining to others "why", - The "It has a certain feel that you just don't get with digital" argument doesn't always cut it. So whenever someone asks why I shoot film in the future I'll just show them this video, then they'll understand ;) I'm 19 BTW so your theses is absolutely correct.
Thank you for sharing your research. I, too, have been caught up with analog film photography. Among many things, I find it very interesting that 36 shots in an 35mm analog camera has made me more thoughtful, more intentional of what I shoot. It is even more pronounced when I shoot a 6X6 medium format with its 12 shots only.
The biggest problem for some people is not buying or getting the equipment, but getting the photos developed in a serious lab that does quality work
I live in the countryside, very far from a big city because it's my way of life, so it's much more complicated to get the photos developed
Great video and thoughts captured here!
Great video. Keep it up. BTW, during the first lockdown, analogue photography really thrived.
This was the most interesting video I’ve watched in a while. Glad to see that there are still people out there who reflect in such a way!
I think there‘s one more factor worth investigating. It‘s the role of subject matter trends in photography. Street photography has gotten incredibly popular recently. What people tend to do is look at the best (or let’s say most popular) bodies of work of a genre. Which in this case was shot in the last century and hence on film. Since amateurs have the tendency to try to reproduce what they like, and since the easiest first step is to replicate the gear used (we’re all gear heads, let’s admit it), they will buy a film camera and shoot film. I personally think that this plays a huge role in why film has gotten so popular. And it might also create a threat to the film industry, because, if I’m correct, this means that once the street photography trend passes and is replaced by something else, film sales could drop again.
Of course this is just an observation and hypothesis of mine, not judging anyone (I shoot film myself). What do you think about this?
Great video! I am sharing this for sure.
Thanks a lot for this excellent and interesting walkthrough of your paper. I'll see if I can read it (we learn German in Danish schools :D )
Very nicely done!
This video is amazing! Great job!
Aww thank you!🙇🏻♂️
That was an interesting and well-presented analysis. You went much deeper than most in explaining this phenomenon. As an older photographer, who has no desire to return to film, I find that the one factor that's noticeably missing from this resurgence is the almost complete absence of an analogue final product - the print. Pre-internet we showed our work in prints that we usually spent a great deal of time (and money) perfecting. Now when a film photographer shows me their work it's invariably on a phone and the visual analogue effect is lost. But I don't see that ever being revived since people are used to much larger audiences than the few associates who would get to see your prints in person. Thanks for making this video.
Thank you Teo for the amazing video! I am actually myself writing a paper on analog photography, and also analog revival in general and I see many common points with your insights. I am also an amateur photographer of both digital and analog mediums. Not only do i feel different when shooting with one or the other, I have also found out that I cannot mix them. So when I want to go out and shoot digital, bringing an analogue camera with me is often useless, since i wont use it. And its the same, when I go out with my film camera and also take a spare digital with me.
Edit: By the way, being born in 1983 I'm in the transit zone.
i always am taking photos of cool places and fun moments in life, so surprisingly when one of my classes was photography this year I wasn’t really excited. my parents said i really should take it since like i said, I am always taking pictures and think other people are crazy for not taking a bunch of photos while traveling and going cool places. my photography class is film photography, which I didn’t really know much about it at the beginning. the teacher i have is the sweetest teacher and i don’t know if I would like it this much without her being the teacher. since the film we use in class is b&w, i started researching more about color film, since i love to capture the real colors in the photo, even though photos can still look good with b&w it just doesn’t always capture the whole moment. my grampy had his old minolta srt-102 and a few lenses and gave it to me. when i tell you i was beyond excited i really was, I was dancing around my room with excitement. I finally know I’m going to major in photography in college and continue shooting on film because it is so much more fun to get your photos back a bit later than when you shot them instead of saying “ew i don’t like how I look in this, take another one”. so basically this year i found what i love and can’t wait to take more photos and see where life takes me :)
my parents are also always like “don’t waste your film on that!” in reality im not wasting it because i wouldn’t be taking a photo of a certain scene if I didn’t like that scene. im the only photographer out of my parents and siblings, so i kinda see the world in a different way than them.
Loved this video! Very good information and enjoyable presentation style! Subbing to see more from you!
That is a brilliant video with content not found on any other photo related site. For those of us that are older, with feet in both the digital and analogue worlds ,what is said here hits all the experiential points.
Ohh that's great to read, thank you!🙇🏻♂️🤗
I been using film since 1999 then went to digital in 2006 then back to film in 2014. Film is such an experience. I enjoy it and appreciate it.
Superb video! It really connects with me. I too have returned to film photography this year, using the little Konica TC-X that my parents bought me for going to Greece in 1992. There are so many good quality lenses available now from that era for a lot less money too. This video was a great view of the subject - really enjoyed it! Thanks.
Sweet, glad you enjoyed it!
I love that these film cameras are all relatively old and carry an amount of history🤗
Very good thesis my brother. Myself I shoot film and digital photography. Your points are well taken and very educational. This is a very satisfying video to and lesson. Good stuff man, I subscribed to your channel as well.👍🏾😎
Ahh thank you so much!🙇🏻♂️🙇🏻♂️
Such interesting findings. What is even more amazing that a digital native is doing this vid. Keep it up!
It was during my uni days that I wss into film photography. And due to the pandemic, i got into instant photography in late 2020 bcos i felt the need to take more pixs that matter, instead of pixs of food and pixs to fulfil the needs of social media. As film for instant photography is expensive, I am selective and careful to the pixs i take, which results in pixs that are more memorable. Now im very much keen into film photography all over again. And i found this vid -which somehow sums up how i feel abt film photography. Nostalgic and authencity 🤩 it is satisfying to see thru the process of phototaking and get tangible pixs rite in front of you.
Love the video. Great job!
Sweet, thank you!🙇🏻♂️🤗
I love Mateusz Urbanowicz! I got so excited when I saw you put his work in this video. There are so many other great things about this piece, it’s such a good deep dive, great work.
Ohh yes, he's amazing!😍
Aww thank you!🙇🏻♂️
After 10 years of digital photography, working with the cameras themselves has become so boring. Everything that made photography difficult has been taken away, but also the fun and the feeling of taking pictures.
Analog cameras and the analog workflow are just so much more exciting.
Wonderful video! 👌I wish you all the best for your university work. I'm just mad at youtube not to have suggested you earlier. 😁
Aww thank you!🙇🏻♂️
And yes, indeed - film is simply so much fun🤩
Hallo, The Big Negative! I’m the brother of the guy how is admiring your work. Did you get his pdf thesis and if so can you share the link, PLEASE ? Best wishes from the Adriatic Coast / Croatia ! My brother is stunned the way you approach photography. He is spreading to the world your channel. Best wishes to our BEST FRIENDS, THE GERMANS.
I really appreciate your mature and analytical treatment of this subject. Being an "immigrant" I tend to agree with all of your conclusions and assertions. While I have always strived to reduce as much as possible the imperfections that come with film, for me the key reasons are the permanence/authenticity and the value of each frame forcing one to slow down and be more deliberate. When I had a seasonal pro gig I looked at my digital gear as go-tools for the job, but my analog gear and processes were for my personal consumption and enjoyment. Nice job.
I grew up in a very rural part of West Virginia in the mid 90s. My dad was fond of telling me they had just gotten running water about the time I was born, and until my early teen years in the mid 2000s I had never actually seen a computer, let alone have any knowledge of the internet. Slide projectors and chalk boards were the norm in my childhood, as were film cameras and spring typewriters. All of this rapidly changed from around 2008 to 2013 by the time I graduated High School when I saw my first cell phones, smart boards, and home computers becoming common in my area. What amazed me, however, was coming into these technologies as an adult, with the technology already in an advanced state, and finding that I really did not care for many of them. They lacked a kinesthesis that the analogue provided, and whats more they often did not work without an expanded support network. When a series of power outages hit my college, my dad's method to help me finish my papers was to provide a mechanical typewriter he had repaired by hand using a few springs and a bit of ingenuity, further proving the durability of the manual over the capricious digital.
When coming to photography, through your work Teo, I found that simple, kinesthetic, self reliant technology I had grown up with to welcome me into this new and fascinating hobby. My wife may have taken after your digital work, but for me a simple Pentax K1000 I found at an estate sale has more than sufficed to stoke the fire of my soul. May such fire also be blessed to any who try the joys of film photography..
I honestly only started filmography because I had nothing else. I got a bunch of old cameras from my great-grandfather and my dad and just started using them because I couldn't afford a digital camera. And I think it's the best way to start! Actually having to think about what you are doing before doing it. I found for me I only really developed my photographic gaze through analogue photography.
I’m enjoying your videos about film photography first of all. My reason for returning to film, in spite of owning a very expensive capable digital Nikon camera, is nostalgia. I am one of the “Digital Immigrants.” You spoke about. I recall using a film camera taking photos and taking them to be developed. I was always excited about waiting to see how they turned out. It puts me in touch with happier times of my past when I used a film camera. I am also returning to film to get a true understanding of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO using my Pentax K1000. Long live Film Photography.
This video is so good that I doubt you'll be able to consistently put out content of such quality. Please prove me wrong.
As you said, there is a sense of tactile-ness that comes with film photography, choosing a film stock, receiving the negatives and the vast choice of old cameras. Ironically, it is a completely new and exiting experience for the younger generation (like me). I also think analog photography forces us to focus on the fundamentals of photography, without the bells and whistles of digital cameras and the ability to transform images during the editing process, we must be more focused. Really thoughtful and thought invoking video
So true! I guess that's why we are so drawn to it :)
Glad you enjoyed it!🙇🏻♂️
Glad to see others wrote their bachelorthesis about analog film too! For me it's the tangible aspects, as i love mechanical cameras and want dedicated buttons for a function and see a direct physical result (e.g. the aperture changes when rotating the ring) which many digital cameras don't offer. On the other side with analog equipment it's possible to try out a lot of stuff. It's a whole new world to me to discover new. With my digital camera a Body with a wideangle, tele and standard zoom left me with 3-4K. In Analog i could get the same for under 100-200 bucks. I currently actively shoot around 10 cameras, which would never be possible with digital cameras as they are more expensive if not so old or feel not so long living as analog cameras. Also i totally feel the aspect you mentioned of the concentration. Digital to me feels like work, analog is more of a kind of meditation. I think about the scene, meter it and press the shutter and forget about the shot until the roll is developed. With analog i learned that the story and feeling of the image is more worth than a perfect exposure or sharpness (especially when you look up people like Daido Moriyama). Anyways, thank you for the video, it was really informative!
this was great!
Mal ganz generell, ich finde den Stil deiner Videos richtig toll, du vermittelst genau diesen richtigen Analog-Fotografie-Vibe! Und mit genau dieser Frage, warum Filmfotografie wieder (oder immer noch) so populär ist, habe ich mich auch schon in Essays für die Uni auseinandergesetzt :)
I also have a Pentax k1000 but have yet to shoot my first roll of film. this video makes me want to go out this weekend and shoot
I am finding these videos of yours two years after you posted them, but right off the bat I need to tell you that this particular vid addresses many of the quandaries I’ve had as I contemplate going back to my 1972 Canon F-1, which still seems to function well. The advent of digital photography took me out of the darkroom and into the Lightroom. I have a high-resolution mirrorless camera body that I have taken from Iceland to Bulgaria, and the ease of capturing landscapes in any kind of light without worrying about running out of film (just batteries) speaks for itself. Yet there is something about both negative and transparency film - and it’s not just grain - that seems to capture the equivalent of “harmonics” in music. The analogue signal captures a true continuum of light on the medium, but is subject to information loss in reproduction or age. Digital images, meanwhile, capture an increasingly close approximation of an analogue signal, with the benefit that there does not need to be information loss during transfer or realization (e.g. printing). Even so, my own feeling is that my eyes can tell the difference, in the same way that my ears can often tell the difference between LPs and CDs. And that difference does indeed translate into serendipity and feeling sometimes. So, blah blah. I just wanted to tell you how amazed and impressed I am by the insights from your investigation. I have now subscribed to your channel so an old dog can learn some new tricks.
Great video. I shot film as a boy because that's all there was. I remember that the Nikon D50 I received as a gift was the first digital camera with nice enough colors (and compatibility with my Nikon film lenses) that I pretty much switched 100% to digital. Something you didn't mention here, is the power of a community. With over a year of straight pandemic lock-downs and working at home, I found a real community of film photographers producing fascinating content on You Tube, almost all much younger than I am. They have formed a film community that takes seriously photography as both an art as a hobby. I have met a some really fascinating friends through that community who have really inspired my interest in photography overall the past year. I'm surprised that you didn't make an analogy to the vinyl record resurgence, which also often refers to itself as the "Vinyl Community" on social media. Keep it up, your thoughts on this really are interesting! Cheers!
Great video! I’m 65. When I was a kid in the mid 1960s we used the Kodak Instamatics. Late bloomer here. Got into photography around 2000, shooting digital. I still shoot digital but about a year and a half ago I discovered my passion for film photography. I love everything about it! Now I shoot primarily with 35mm film SLRs. It’s my newfound hobby!
My collection, which I use in rotation are my:
Nikon F (Photomic FTn prism head)
Canon FTb QL
Canon AE-1
Minolta SRT-303
Olympus OM-2 SP
Nikon FA
Excellent video Teo, I really congratulate you. Why do I use analog photography? Well I think that in my personal case there are several reasons. As someone born in the 60s, there is a mixture of nostalgia, a search for authenticity, the need to isolate a bit from this troubled digital world we live in. And maybe the desire to use the Minolta Uniomat with a rangefinder that my Dad has preserved so carefully for almost 60 years. It is simply that.
Great analysis. I shot BW back in the analog days and did my own developing and enlarging. Enlarging my photos on photographic paper often the same day I took the shots was immensely satisfying. So I think if your shooting BW and not developing and enlarging your film yourself you’re missing out on a very rewarding part of the whole experience.
This was exactly my original motivation to pick up an SLR again....reviving my college skills+joy.
3-4 months and 100s of YTvids later and I dove in on C-41, E-6, curious about ECN-2, X-PRO and have a ImpulseAF I have yet to feed!!
Oh ya, and I got that enlarger as I couldn't find a community-open darkroom near and available enough for me. *ITS AN ARTISINAL PROCESS*
Great analysis. I'm 40, so I used film through my undergraduate years. At that point I was mostly using the camera as an automatic point and shoot, even during a brief period when I had a consumer SLR. I didn't know anything about different emulsions or think to use an older mechanical camera with a better lens. A few years later an early dslr made it a lot easier to learn photography and manual camera controls and the low dynamic range forced us to be careful. I briefly get back into film in 2011, but the results we not great. I think I under exposed the film and ended up with crap photos. All of this is to say, UA-cam is a game changer. I've learned more about film photography in 6 months than I learned in years of shooting with film growing up. If you want to develop film at home, you can see how easy it is on a 15 minute video. You can watch videos about how to shoot porta vs ektar vs provia. Before you either needed a friend to teach you or you could take a class or read a dry book.
Nice work man ❤❤❤❤❤
Wow, this video is wonderful, it catch the gist behind all this matter about film, I am glad that UA-cam's Algorithm show this video as recomendation.
What a video 👏🏼👏🏼 couldn't stop watch it
Aww thank you!🙇🏻♂️
Excellent analysis and video, dear Teo. As a full-hearted Digital Immigrant (I picked up working with the Macintosh in 1989 but kept shooting analog till 2001) I have to admit that Nostalgia was part of what drove me back to analog in2019. While the topic, 75 years of D-Day in Normandy, suggested itself for shooting film, the hard part was not the shooting with only 36 exposures on the roll, but the time it took to get good prints of them in the darkroom. Three years on I shoot my regular work digital, pet projects with my analog Nikons, and started analog Large Format with 9x12 sheet film. The dirt on my negatives, enhanced by a fifty years old condenser enlargers harsh light, I accept like the hiss and pops on my favorite vynil.
Ahh interesting! I guess a mix of both is a great midground for today🤗
Excellent, excellent, and excellent!!