In the late years, I developed a taste for and enjoy taking photographs with film cameras that are helping me in getting a decent image, with the minimal effort from my part; I am talking here about the AF feature (my eyes are not what they used to be), internal light meter (getting a bit lazy, comes with the age I guess), film winder lever instead of the classic knob, various focal options, better glass and high shutter speeds many of the good lenses are providing, AE lock, and so forth. You know what I am speaking of here. All these and more are to be found on our film cameras of a newer production (usually post 80’s).
But every now and then I feel like I’m cheating, sort of. I cannot put this feeling in proper wording, it’s more like a inner thought which, at times, says: “well, of course you take decent images, the camera and film are doing most of the work; what are YOU doing to get a good photograph?”. Indeed, what do I personally add to the combination of camera + film + processing, in order to obtain something half decent? Just the scene, the framing of it. What else? This is all there is there is, regarding my personal input ? Surely there has to be more than that.
And to be fair, there are times when one feels that one has stopped thinking on the entire process of taking photographs, because one is just simply loading a modern film roll in a, say, Nikon F4 and shoots away, only composing and whatnot. Obviously, there is much more than that when it comes to film photography and using a film camera (whatever the type or model), but you probably understand the idea expressed here. I just feel there is something which makes me less contributory to the entire process and results thereof, good or bad. I feel like I am cheating my role into the final result, letting the AF this or AE that function of the camera doing all the work.
On one hand it is so: no matter what we do, no matter where we aim at or shoot with, it always depend on our own skills to tell the camera what we want and how we want it. Some cameras understand our commands better than others, but they all do what we tell them to do. And most of the times, results are illustrative of our understanding of what the camera needs to be told. It is something like this: we want an apple, the brain tells the hand to pick it, and bring it to our mouth. I guess the camera is the hand here, with our eye and knowledge being the command of the brain on what we want. The taste of the apple is the result of our endeavour, as is the photograph resulted from the action of eye/camera/frame resulted.
On the other hand though, it becomes pretty clear to me that my brain gets lazy if I subject it continuously to easier targets. Not enough challenge occurs, I’d say. Take the AF function in a such camera: it was meant to make our lives easier, and indeed, it does that. But in doing so, we tend to forget the zone or distance focusing (for instance), because well, we do not using it anymore. Such is the nature of human functions, and it’s only natural to forget stuff which we do not practice on a regular basis. Sunny 16 rule? Best there is, time and again providing consistent results, if you learn it and applied properly; however, because of the internal metering of our cameras, or phone apps, or handhelds, we are less attentive to the basics that form the film photography.
And so we come to the crux of the matter: do we need to get back to basics in order to remind ourselves the simple rules of film photography? Perhaps in certain cases, for certain people, this might be a solution. You know, those rules, primary rules from the film photography early days of yore: the simple joy of putting your brain in motion, learn and understand things, look at and see/understand the light, shadows, tones, imagine how the frame will look like once processed, take into the consideration the film sensitivity, all converging to that “moment decisif”. And do all these by working your brain and arse off, not by employing the use of a silicon chip to do it for you.
Do we need to take a step back in film photography ? I believe some of us, like me, should. It would be a refreshing journey, one that will put us back on the track we started long ago. Take a simple camera, load a simple/no fancy film, no light meter, and go out. Try to remember the Sunny 16, try to see a scene, not just look at it. Weigh in the tones, try to figure the light, the shadows, the scene. Be the light, be the shutter, be the film. Look, see and understand This could be similar to undergoing a serious diet; you’ll go back to your usual equipment with much more zen.
So, my rant shall stop here; all of the above and much more was already said, by some of those who understand (film) photography better than I do. I just wanted to throw in my two cents, for what is worth. Btw, the images shown here are random ones, nothing (or not necessarily) related to the matter discussed.