I think analogue photography is better suited for artists and creatives. Digital pictures always felt soulless to me even though i started with it. Shooting film is a trend right now, but most people wont dig it deep for the reason you mentioned ; it takes times and effort. Your work (mostly seen on instagram) inspired me to print weekly in the darkroom. It was about time you get on youtube ! Looking forward to videos of you working under the safelight.
Absolutely. Digital photography seems more a means to an end, something to fill a space that needs something fast, cost efficient and more accessible than traditional photography. I see that it's been a long time since you commented this, but I've recently restarted my UA-cam page, so stay tuned for more content soon.
Years ago I used to carry both digital & analog bodies in my bag. Then I noticed that I would regret images I had shot solely on digital... and I would switch to analog when I felt a good shot was about to be. Soon I would only carry the analog camera.
Thank you for your video. I’ve recently watched a few videos where the presenter conveyed all sorts of misinformation on the subject of film vs digital and considered their subjective experiences to be objective and universal facts. Your approach of making film personal is much better, in my opinion. So, again, thank you. As to why film is important to me, the vast majority of it is subjective. Like, I prefer the sort of random smattering of grain in the emulsion to the uniform grid of pixels. The way that film tends to fail more gracefully at the ends of its dynamic range is another. But, more than that, there’s a richness and depth that I experience when working with analog. There’s also the element of producing a final image through calculation while editing on a computer as opposed to a sort of dance with the light in the darkroom. Dodging and burning is one of my favorite things to do in a darkroom. A lot of the rest is monotonous and just a task to make it through, but the dodging and burning is lively and playful in a sense. When working with film, I sort of make a pact with it where I commit to being more deliberate and patient rather than just going through the motions. That’s all mental though, so, while film helped me to rediscover that part of photography, I’ve carried it over to how I work with digital too. It’s still not exactly the same and there’s still a sort of laxness I have when shooting digital, a sort of lack of respect, but I’m better about it now than I used to be. I also appreciate how working with film has a feeling of working without a safety net, even though I know that feeling is all in my head since my exposures are generally right on, my chems are always mixed right, etc. That instant feedback from digital has made shooting film feel less safe and less predictable even though it’s perfectly safe and predictable with adequate experience and skill. You don’t get to second guess yourself with film as much as with digital. With film, you shoot a type of film and it’ll never be able to be anything else. I could colorize my B&W, but it’ll never be the same as if I had shot color film, for instance. I can’t make my HP5 negs look like Acros. I can’t make Fuji Superia look like Portra. If I develop film to make it look more contrasty and grainy, I can’t go back and do it over again to make it gentler. You make a decision and you move on. Paradox of choice stuff, partly.
Jonathan, thank you for your detailed answer. A lot of things you say certainly resonate with me. I like the idea of "not having a safety net" - it sort of embodies the principles of life for me. If we had a safety net for everything we did in life, we would be over-cautious and probably unsuccessful in nearly every way. It's the leap of faith and the trust that get us far.
I think with digital you can happily take images without thinking about it too much. With film you want to be careful you're not wasting it. So you think about what you're doing. You can do that with digital too of course. You cant snapchat film so you have to stop and think. Do I really want to take this image? No-one will see it on social media so what am I doing? What's my motivation? Digital is like making a telelphone call to catch up with people and say Hi. Film is art.
I make it simple. I am sure a lot of people will disagree with me . As a person who uses both digital and film, I only feel that I have made a photograph when I use my film cameras. The rest is just computer imagery of a sort of the other. The more I learned about sensor technology the more I realised that digital imagery is not photography.
Your first video is coming up as a kids video and comments are disabled. Can you get that fixed. Wanted to let you know that your examples are really superb and helps to build a better understanding because there's a real world example of the words you're saying. Not many people think as logically as you. Really appreciate it
I think analogue photography is better suited for artists and creatives. Digital pictures always felt soulless to me even though i started with it. Shooting film is a trend right now, but most people wont dig it deep for the reason you mentioned ; it takes times and effort. Your work (mostly seen on instagram) inspired me to print weekly in the darkroom. It was about time you get on youtube ! Looking forward to videos of you working under the safelight.
Absolutely. Digital photography seems more a means to an end, something to fill a space that needs something fast, cost efficient and more accessible than traditional photography. I see that it's been a long time since you commented this, but I've recently restarted my UA-cam page, so stay tuned for more content soon.
Years ago I used to carry both digital & analog bodies in my bag. Then I noticed that I would regret images I had shot solely on digital... and I would switch to analog when I felt a good shot was about to be. Soon I would only carry the analog camera.
A wise choice indeed!
Nice!! I switched to film also..
Thank you! Yeah, it just changes everything, doesn't it?
Thank you for your video. I’ve recently watched a few videos where the presenter conveyed all sorts of misinformation on the subject of film vs digital and considered their subjective experiences to be objective and universal facts. Your approach of making film personal is much better, in my opinion. So, again, thank you.
As to why film is important to me, the vast majority of it is subjective. Like, I prefer the sort of random smattering of grain in the emulsion to the uniform grid of pixels. The way that film tends to fail more gracefully at the ends of its dynamic range is another. But, more than that, there’s a richness and depth that I experience when working with analog. There’s also the element of producing a final image through calculation while editing on a computer as opposed to a sort of dance with the light in the darkroom. Dodging and burning is one of my favorite things to do in a darkroom. A lot of the rest is monotonous and just a task to make it through, but the dodging and burning is lively and playful in a sense.
When working with film, I sort of make a pact with it where I commit to being more deliberate and patient rather than just going through the motions. That’s all mental though, so, while film helped me to rediscover that part of photography, I’ve carried it over to how I work with digital too. It’s still not exactly the same and there’s still a sort of laxness I have when shooting digital, a sort of lack of respect, but I’m better about it now than I used to be.
I also appreciate how working with film has a feeling of working without a safety net, even though I know that feeling is all in my head since my exposures are generally right on, my chems are always mixed right, etc. That instant feedback from digital has made shooting film feel less safe and less predictable even though it’s perfectly safe and predictable with adequate experience and skill.
You don’t get to second guess yourself with film as much as with digital. With film, you shoot a type of film and it’ll never be able to be anything else. I could colorize my B&W, but it’ll never be the same as if I had shot color film, for instance. I can’t make my HP5 negs look like Acros. I can’t make Fuji Superia look like Portra. If I develop film to make it look more contrasty and grainy, I can’t go back and do it over again to make it gentler. You make a decision and you move on. Paradox of choice stuff, partly.
Jonathan, thank you for your detailed answer. A lot of things you say certainly resonate with me. I like the idea of "not having a safety net" - it sort of embodies the principles of life for me. If we had a safety net for everything we did in life, we would be over-cautious and probably unsuccessful in nearly every way. It's the leap of faith and the trust that get us far.
I think with digital you can happily take images without thinking about it too much. With film you want to be careful you're not wasting it. So you think about what you're doing. You can do that with digital too of course. You cant snapchat film so you have to stop and think. Do I really want to take this image? No-one will see it on social media so what am I doing? What's my motivation? Digital is like making a telelphone call to catch up with people and say Hi. Film is art.
Beautifully said!
@@doyoudevelop Thanks Jahan great video too.
I make it simple. I am sure a lot of people will disagree with me . As a person who uses both digital and film, I only feel that I have made a photograph when I use my film cameras. The rest is just computer imagery of a sort of the other. The more I learned about sensor technology the more I realised that digital imagery is not photography.
Hard to disagree with you! :D
Your first video is coming up as a kids video and comments are disabled. Can you get that fixed. Wanted to let you know that your examples are really superb and helps to build a better understanding because there's a real world example of the words you're saying. Not many people think as logically as you. Really appreciate it
Thanks so much for letting me know. Just fixed that. Very strange that that happened! Anyways, really appreciate your input! Happy that I can help!