Mocking Bird » Film Photography

Why Shooting With Film Will Make You A Better Photographer

Amanda — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:00:00 +0000

All photographers are different. These days most of us shoot with digital cameras and some of us are falling back in love with film. I’m not going to tell you why I love film because I talk about that plenty. I want to talk about how shooting with film has made me a better photographer.

The Auto Settings and LCD are Holding You Back

If you never move out of auto mode, you will never have complete control over your photographs. Think about whether you want your images to look how you want them to look or how your camera wants them to look. That is the difference between shooting on auto mode and shooting manual. Your camera can only expose and focus where it thinks it should, not where you want it to. A good example of this is when you shoot a scene with a lot of light and dark. Your camera will instantly be drawn to the bright in the scene and expose accordingly. This of course, may be the opposite of what you intended for your photograph.

Over the weekend, food photographer extraordinaire Penny De Los Santos shared her knowledge and skills with the Creative Live audience (it was mind-blowing). One thing that really struck me was how she called her shots “film” and treated her Canon 5D mark 11 DSLR like a film camera. She kept saying to her students, “stop looking at the monitor, this is film. Use your camera’s exposure meter. Your settings are there. Keep shooting.” Some of them were concerned with looking at the back of the LCD screen and it made me realise that shooting with a digital camera can almost be a crutch. People are so reliant on checking the settings and checking the exposure that they lose sight of the goal, which is to take pictures. I loved that she encouraged her students to treat their DSLRs like film cameras and wanted them to trust that they were doing a good job so that they could get the pictures and not miss a moment.

Shooting with a Manual Film Camera Will Force You to Learn the Technical

Using a manual film camera will force you to learn all these technical things that digital cameras make easy for us. Sure, you can use a DSLR completely set on auto and take fine pictures but if you really want to know how to get the best out of your camera, understanding how aperture, shutter speed, and ISO relate will allow you to take your photography that step further. When you use a manual camera, you have to choose the ISO, shutter speed, aperture and focus all on your lonesome without the aid of your camera.

When I started shooting, I had my camera settings on auto for a good while before I realised that the camera was choosing the exposure and focus and in turn was giving me no control over how my photographs turned out.

Manual Focus, Baby

Manual cameras do not have an auto focus button as their lenses are all manual. Focusing manually gives you the freedom to choose your focus, not what your camera wants to focus on. Some beginning photographers freak out when their auto focus won’t focus on what they want it to.

“Read my mind, stupid camera!!”

Of course, cameras are computers and can’t read minds, so a simple solution is to shoot with manual focus.

You Will Slow Down

Shooting with film is more expensive than shooting digital and therefore the shots we do take are more “precious”. This enables you to really think about what you are shooting and makes you slow down and take your time. Slowing down allows you to tell a deeper story and make a better photograph.

Shooting with a manual camera can drag you out of your comfort zone and into a whole new world of creative expression. You’ll feel naked without a safety net, but imagine how much more confident you’ll be in your photography.

How do you feel about shooting manual? Do you shoot manually? Are you a better photographer for it? Does it make you nervous? Never tried it? I’d love to get some conversation going in the comments.

To find out more about how those manual settings work, stay tuned for my photography course, Shoot By Design: Refining Your Photography Style registration in the coming weeks.

The Pond

Amanda — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:00:39 +0000

The pond is grand and glamorous with a touch of country charm.

Swans glide about the water, while geese fly overhead.

Ducklings waddle in and out.

Fountains flow in fancy backyards.

I can’t even imagine living here.

*********

Have a lovely weekend. I plan on getting in some sunshine. Oh, yes.

Polaroid 680!

Wandering Neighbourhoods: Suburban Magnolias

Amanda — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:05:19 +0000

Rather than sharing a well known Vancouver area, this week I have been photographing a more suburban walk. I have been doing a lot of wandering around the streets gazing at the beautiful Springtime colours that have popped up in suburban gardens.

The cherry blossoms arrived early but right now the magnolia trees are blooming all over the place creating dotterings of pink and white. I love their floppy petals which seem to droop like bunny ears.

Finally some warm weather for this chilled to the bone Australian. Aren’t these lovely beginning days of a season just filled with joy and hope for a happy time ahead?

Magnolia prints in my etsy store.

Wandering Neighbourhoods: Broadway

Amanda — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:00:25 +0000

Wandering Neighbourhoods seems to be a recurring theme here on Mocking Bird and I quite love doing it with my camera so I think it’s going to be a regular feature.

Kitsilano is one area that I venture to quite a bit in my wanderings around town as it’s full of great restaurants and quirky shops. These shots were all taken on Broadway on a lazy Sunday afternoon walk with my Sean.

Taste testing coffee places, savouring the fresh bread smells wofting through the air and accidently focusing on your love and not the store front you were trying to, make for happy weekend strolls.

Have you been on any photo walks of late?

p.s. I think I subconsciously focused on him and not the globe. =D

Photographed with a manual Yashica FX3 camera and Fuji Pro400H film.

Guide to Buying a Film Camera

Amanda — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:27:54 +0000

If you hadn’t heard yet, I’m a bit of a film photography obsessive. I get a lot of emails and flickrmail from people asking me about my cameras, how I use them, which ones to buy, so I thought I would put up a little feature here on why I personally love film cameras and how you can too.

So you’ve decided you want to get into film photography for whatever reason. Maybe you took a photography class back in high school or at university and want to get back into it, maybe you’ve only ever used a digital camera and you’re intrigued by this weird thing called film (what do you mean I don’t plug it into the computer?) or maybe you just love the look of what film can produce.

To me film tells a story, it creates something that could be, may have been or quite possibly wasn’t there, it weaves magic that I still don’t think digital can do. Don’t get me wrong, I love digital (especially the time aspects) and I have used it to shoot my 52 weeks project mostly. However, film can spin that web, can create the magic of story telling, which to me, is what good photography is all about.

So what do you buy? 35mm? Medium format? Polaroid? Toy camera? So much choice.

I would recommend starting out with a 35mm if you just want a straight up film camera that is going to do the job. 35mm cameras are the kind that normal every day film goes into. All old school automatic cameras that our mums and dads used to use were 35mm point and shoots. I own quite a few different 35mm cameras.

35mm:

Pentax K1000

I don’t own one myself but lots of people in the photoblogging world and in my list of flickr contacts do use the Pentax K1000. You can pick one up on ebay for around $100. Perhaps I should buy myself one for my birthday in the coming weeks seeing as they were made in 1976 and so was I. The Pnetax K1000 is a very typical camera used by film students at photography school.

Nikon FM

My workhorse 35mm camera is the Nikon FM3A. It sits in the Nikon FM family which are some of the greatest manual cameras ever made. They are strong, sturdy and built to last. The Nikon FM2 is a very popular camera and produces some gorgeous results. The special thing about the FM3A is that it is fully manual but nowhere near as old as the other FM cameras and it has an auto setting for when I’m feeling less than artistic.

The FM3A is a lot pricier than the FM or FM2 cameras, but I hear the FM2 is just as good.

Canon AE1

My grandfather owns a Canon AE1 and I really need to get my hands on it to have a play. It’s one of those cameras that I’ve always wanted to own and in fact, I was tossing up between it and the Nikon FM3A before I got her. The Nikon won out on newness which meant I wouldn’t be inheriting someone else’s problems. My aunt has shot some really fabulous Black and White portraits with the Canon AE1. I really should go and steal it from her. I know Pia Jane Bijkerk uses one of these babies!

Yashica Electro and FX

The Yashica Electro 35 G series cameras are also popular. Abby from Abby Try Again shoots with one if that’s anything to go by. I don’t know much about them other than over the years lots of people have told me to buy one. I never really had the chance, until I stumbled across a used camera store in Seattle a few years back. They didn’t have any Electros but I did find a Yashica FX3 which I’d also had my eye on. I use this camera for many of the 35mm photographs you see on this blog.

Olympus OM2

The Olympus OM2 has a cult following, as do many of the cameras listed here. This is one camera I have always been intrigued by, along with the Olympus Pen cameras. The king, Tommy Oshima has one, so you know they must be good.

Just remember that a lot of these cameras are fully manual. You can pick up auto point and shoot cameras that were made later but they don’t offer as much oomph. Any of these cameras would be a good choice to start your way in film photography. None should be too pricey, apart from maybe the Nikon FM3A, all costing you between $100-$200. Try ebay for a bargain or the safer KEH or B&H photo. I have bought from both online stores and have been very pleased with the results. If I ever get around to buying myself a Hasselblad, I will most likely purchase from KEH.

I hope you have enjoyed my little 35mm film camera feature.