Category: For Beginners
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Hand-held Double Exposure Creates Artistic Motion This is a fun image created with a double exposure, but there is another few tricks involved beyond just doing an additional exposure. After coming up the sidewalk in Chicago to Miller’s Pub, I knew this needed to be a picture, so I stopped and contemplated for a short…
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Macro photography opens up an entire new world. I have often found inspiration to be lacking as I think of going on my next photo jaunt. I read the same in Reddit post of photographers experiencing the equivalent of writer’s block. My favorite shooting is of architecture and landscapes. Unless I am visiting a new…
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Film Camera Light Meters Aren’t Always the Best Way. Through the lens (TTL) light meters are by far the easiest way to meter for a shot, but can often be fooled by bright backgrounds or predominantly dark or light areas in the subject being photographed. That shot at the beach didn’t quite come out right,…
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A simple way to know your temperature is right on the mark. I have read many posts in film photography subreddits about “what is wrong with my film”, the user getting unexpected results that look like underexposure or strange color shift. While most of these can be racked up to human error during the shooting…
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The 35mm film canister foibles and how to avoid them. I have read many posts on Reddit analog community subreddits with photographers showing canisters of 35mm film with the leader still coming out, and asking if anyone can tell if this film has been exposed or not. Ahh, the foible of not marking the film!…
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How to avoid that snake-skin grain. Reticulate (adj.) – : resembling a net or network; especially : having veins, fibers, or lines crossing (Merriam Webster). Reticulations are found commonly in nature, like the snake’s skin and giraffe’s hide shown above. Film is no exception, with the top image showing what you naturally want to avoid in film photography.…
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Unmasking that sometimes confusing setting on your film camera. Aspiring film photographers coming from a digital camera environment understand that the apparent sensitivity (ASA/ISO) of the digital camera can be changed “on the fly” depending on what the circumstances are. Changing that setting varies the sensitivity of the sensor. This is a question I often…
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Something to pay attention to when cropping photos. I love perusing the r/analog community on Reddit where there are some really nice photos from film photography enthusiasts. I quite often pick up some good ideas in this forum, but its also just fun to see what a new generation of photographers is doing with old…
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For Beginners – Slow down and just shoot manufacturer recommended speed. I regularly come across photos on https://www.reddit.com/r/analog/ where the tech notes include something like “Portra 400 shot at ISO 800”. Pushing (under-exposing) or pulling (over-exposing) film certainly has their roles in photography, but usually under more extreme circumstances. Trying to get a “look” from…
One-Minute Reads about Film Photography 