4 Great Beginner DSLR Cameras for Any Aspiring Photographer

Shooting photos on a phone can only take you so far. If you’re looking to get started with a higher-quality camera, a DSLR may be the way to go

 

 Tags:  Photography for Beginners, DSLR, Phone Cameras, Photography 

 

 by Joshua Kanter

 

 

If you’re looking to take your photography to the next level, a DSLR camera is a huge step up from a smartphone.

Phone cameras are convenient, but difficult to control specific settings and options like you’d be able to on a real camera. With a DSLR, you’ll have the ability to do things like swap lenses, shoot in higher quality, and make more minor adjustments in order to get that perfect final photo or video.

DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. When light enters a DSLR through the lens, it immediately bounces off the mirror inside, up through a prism and into the view finder. When you’re ready to take your shot and hit the shutter button, that mirror flips up, creating that satisfyingly familiar photo click. This allows light to directly hit the camera’s sensor (or film), blacking out the optical viewfinder until the exposure is complete.

What Are the Best DSLR Camera Brands?

There are a lot of choices out there, but the big DSLR brands are typically Nikon, Canon, Panasonic and Sony. All take great photos, but have varying controls, commands, and settings. It’s all about what you’re looking to shoot most (photography, video, and the endless sub-categories within them) and what makes you most comfortable while behind (or in front of) the lens. Here’s what else to keep in mind when shopping for the best DSLR camera.

Camera Modes: These are vitally important for versatility in your shots, and allow you to expand your options to shoot almost anywhere. Things like HDR, portrait, night mode, a built-in flash, and even editing features right on the LCD screen can be enormously helpful in creating the final quality photo. For videography, things like resolution and frame rate are important for crisp and smooth movies.

Sensor: Don’t overlook the sensor in your new DSLR, especially as a beginner. As a general rule, the larger the sensor, the more data it can take in, and the clearer your photo will be. There are a few different types of sensors varying in size and cropping different amounts of the image that you see through the viewfinder. Some, like a four-thirds sensor, tend to be better for videographers, while others like a full-frame sensor, are better for photographers, and offer stunning clarity and range.

Body Design: Searching through multiple models and brands of cameras can eventually all blend together, and seem to be pretty similar. But the ergonomics of a camera play a huge role, both in the act of actual shooting as well as connecting up to your workstation afterwards. Things like an LCD screen with touch capability, a well-placed port, and a display that flips outwards can be everything from a minor convenience, to help avoiding a huge headache.

Lenses: A standard lens is usually 18-35mm, but that’s just the beginning. A DSLR lets you switch out lenses, depending on everything from lighting to angle, to make sure you’re getting the best picture possible. Telephoto and prime lenses open up whole new ways to set up your shot, with higher quality than most phone cameras can offer.

Lighting: With lighting when using a DSLR, what you see is what you’ll most likely get – if a scene looks dark and muddy through the viewfinder, that’s probably how it’s going to look on the final photo. A powerful flash can help, and you can often even add a speedlight to really brighten things up.

Megapixels: Don’t just go for the highest megapixel count. Yes, they’re important, but this isn’t what makes or breaks an image’s quality – a good sensor and lens matter more. 24MP is pretty standard, but at minimum, most DSLRs will have around 15MP, and even 10MP or less should be enough for those just starting out.

Dual-Pixel Auto Focus: This helpful feature lets you achieve beautifully smooth auto-focus fast, whether in photo or video mode.

Flip Screen: It might seem obvious, but a flip screen can open up a wider world of shots to any photographer. A flexible display allows you to contort it to most any angle, without having to crane your neck into awkward positions to get the perfect view – even when filming yourself.

Mirrorless Cameras: As you’re searching, you’ll most likely see mirrored vs. mirrorless in different cameras. In a mirrorless camera, you won’t have to worry about an inner mirror, as the light passes right through the lens and hits the sensor directly, where you’ll see it either on the EVF (electronic viewfinder) or the digital screen.

Mirrorless cameras are generally smaller than DSLRs, but have come a long way, and caught up with DSLRs in terms of sensor size and accuracy of photo effects. With battery life, however, a smaller camera means less room for batteries, and these can run out of juice up to 50% faster than traditional DSLRs. A few brands nowadays have started to manufacture their cameras to be compatible with smartphone chargers, making it infinitely easier to power it back up without searching for a separate adapter in your pack. Bottom line: there’s nothing wrong with mirrorless, but a true DSLR with its interchangeable lenses and optical viewfinder can feel more natural to shoot on.

Finally, treat a DSLR like an investment – because it is. While some models are cheaper than others, a quality camera requires dropping some cash, so make sure it’s got capabilities that can keep up with your career. A camera that’s scaled down and simple might be good at first, but as you learn more and master the skillset, you’ll most likely outgrow it. The right camera can last you years, even a lifetime.

1. Nikon D3400

Talk to any lifelong photographers, and chances are that you’ll find at least a few who still use the Nikon they got years ago. The brand has been around since 1917, and trusted for decades by those who use it.

This D3400 carries on that tradition of reliability, with a modern flair. It’s light with a long-lasting battery, and a sharp 24.3-megapixel sensor that lets you shoot in RAW format, if you plan to be editing your images in a software program later.

The main lenses are an 18-55mm and a 70-300mm, and the unit features Nikon’s Vibration Reduction for better stabilization, with 11 different focal points. It also shoots HD video up to 60p.

Photos and videos are stored on an SD memory card. There’s no WiFi connectivity, but it does sync to Bluetooth, where you can use Nikon’s SnapBridge app to transfer files and upload or edit them.

This is a camera that will grow with you from your first photo on up, and it’s ready whenever you decide to add things like a speedlight and higher quality lenses. The LCD screen offers a helpful “Guide Mode” for beginners to learn what settings are going to work best for what they’re shooting. There are also 10 different effects modes, and PASM exposure modes for when you’ve got the hang of it and want full control over the auto-focus.

Amazon

Buy: Nikon D3400 $699.00

Buy it

2. Canon EOS 4000D

The Canon Rebel 4000D is lightweight and loaded up. At just under a pound, the lenses are interchangeable, there’s an 18-megapixel sensor for shooting in low light, a 3x optical zoom, as well as full HD video recording at about 30fps.

While it’s compatible with the Canon app, allowing you to shoot remotely, it lacks some of the features of the higher end models, like a flip screen or touchscreen capability. But it’s a solid option for the newbie photographers who want to experiment with different photos and videos.

This comes in a kit with a ton of extra gear for shooting, filming and cleaning, but is available with just the DSLR unit too. There’s also the Canon T7, the next generation up from the popular T6, which features attributes like 24 megapixels, a bigger screen, more specific settings, and the ability to shoot video with upgraded auto-focus.

Amazon

Buy: Canon EOS 4000D $519.00

Buy it

3. Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera

As a mirrorless DSLR camera, this features a super-fast auto-focus to capture subjects in motion, and crisp 24.3-megapixel detail, along with fast shooting – up to 11 photos in one second. Changing lenses is easy and switching up settings is convenient and quick with two well-placed dials and a directional control in back, along with seven customizable buttons that can be programmed to handle up to 474 different tasks.

But don’t let that intimidate you. The settings, options, combinations and possibilities with this camera are literally endless, and is the best way to learn the ropes.

It’s WiFi-ready, controllable from afar with the PlayMemories app, and connects up with local devices for fast file transferring.

Amazon

Buy: Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera $648.00

Buy it

4. Panasonic LUMIX FZ80 4K Digital Camera

While this may not be a true DSLR camera, it certainly behaves like one, and is a perfect transition for those looking to make the jump into shooting with a real camera without diving right into the deep end.

The zoom is an outstanding feature for its class, at 60X. It’s also fast, snapping the photo you want with little to no lag on the shutter release.

This can handle 4K video in 8MP at 30fps, and even with a limited internal memory of 200mb, movies still end up looking way better than we expected.

Its selection wheel is a little limiting, and the controls may take some getting used to. Plus the aperture only goes to F8, which can be a constraint to some photographers. All this can leave you fumbling through the options and settings when time is limited to take the perfect pic. But once you get the hang of it, the resulting images can be sharp and pop with color, and you can even shoot in RAW format just like with a regular DSLR.

Amazon

Buy: Panasonic LUMIX FZ80 4K Digital Camera $297.99

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So, am I a film shooter now? Part 1: Finding what works for me – by Paul Turner 

Tags:  Photography for beginners, Camera, Photographers, Hasselblad, Carl Zeiss 

by Paul Turner

The decision as to which camera, which lens, how much can I fit in my bag, which bag shall I use, and can I carry it all day comfortably, will be familiar, I am sure, to a lot of photographers. I mean it’s a complicated game we are playing. To capture any potential scene that we might encounter! I wanted to go through my take on it, to present day anyway, and talk about where I have ended up.

I am old enough to remember a time when, if you took a picture, it was on film. That’s it, no other options. I also remember borrowing a medium format film camera way back and marveling at the depth of the images compared to my 35mm SLR shots. This was another level. I discounted ever owning one of these exotic beasts as they were the preserve of the wealthy or professional.

The digital age happened and I gave away my SLR to the local charity shop when sorting through things for a house move. I had no use for this obsolete lump of metal, glass and cogs. Digital is the new age after all. When I could afford I went feet first into digital, eventually owning what was my dream camera, a Nikon D610 with a Sigma Art 24-35, f2 zoom. This was the answer. I had all the tools I needed to record any scene. Bags of dynamic range, a lens to cover all the bases. I could store almost 1000 images in RAW if I wanted to. Auto everything… That’s it!

Then… in late 2017 I decided on a whim to buy a Hasselblad 500C/M with the classic Carl Zeiss Planar CF 80mm f/2.8 lens. It was simply a curiosity after looking at the work and working process of a good friend that owned one. He had been shooting with one for many years. It sparked a little question in my head, “Might it be kind of fun to go out and shoot film as a different look occasionally? Why not?”

After all I remember lusting after that medium format kit from my younger days. To think I can buy one now was intriguing. I mean, why not buy the one that was supposed to be the Porsche of medium format cameras, a Hasselblad? It was exciting to me. That was the start of my ‘which camera, which lens, which bag’ conundrum from the introduction.

I went through a period of indecision and hesitation now. I had made my life more complicated… The photo trips now consisted of a series of questions as to what should I carry and what am I doing? You can easily imagine the amount of space I needed in my shoulder bag to accommodate a full frame DSLR and a Hasselblad. It fitted, just. It was awkward to get them in and out of the bag.

I would find myself spending most of the time using the digital and then coming to a snap decision to make a film image of the same scene to take advantage of the square frame that the 6×6 afforded. I was basically using the medium format film camera as a novelty. In my mind I already had the shot on digital but what the heck, I have been lugging this Hasselblad round. Why not do a shot with it in order to justify carrying the extra weight? Ridiculous isn’t it? I was making my photography cluttered, too many choices.

The crunch came, I think, when I was out with friends on a shoot. It was a weekend event and there was a particular shot that I had already shot on my DSLR that I thought worked, but my friend coerced me to shoot it on the Hasselblad. As soon as the frame was set on the viewfinder it was clear that the 6×6 had everything there that was needed, with a little extra height for balance. I was intrigued. Perhaps this square frame might make me look at things differently…

Things didn’t immediately change but I think that was a catalyst. It was further cemented once I started home developing my film. I no longer had to wait several days for the negs. I could have them in my sticky mitts in less than an hour. Big bonus.

After a while I was happy just setting out with the Hasselblad. I mean it was a wrench at first, felt like I was leaving my comfort blanket at home. It was unquestionably easier on my shoulder. The freedom to just see what worked with what I had was a different experience from the Sigma zoom lens that I used on the digital. It was in theory a constriction but the challenge is only perceived, in fact I have learned to just walk past things that don’t frame or work. Mostly…

See you again soon.

~ Paul

Note: This article originally appeared on Paul’s blog on October 19th 2020

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Kodak smartphone mobile film scanner now down at $24 Prime shipped (Reg. $35+)

 Tags:  Kodak, Film, Mobile Film Scanner 

 

By: Justin Kahn

Today only, Woot is offering the Kodak Mobile Film Scanner for smartphones at $23.99 with free shipping for Prime members. Otherwise, a $6 delivery fee will apply. Originally $50 and fetching closer to $35 at Amazon these days, this is the lowest price we can find and about 30% in savings. While hardcore photographers might not find much use with this, casual users looking to digitize old photos for fun might. You can view and share old 35mm color film negatives, 35mm black and white film negatives, as well as 35mm color slides. It includes a platform and fold out tray for your phone and negatives/positives along with a battery-powered led backlight for subtle illumination. Ships with a 1-year warranty and carries a 4+ star rating from over 1,100 Amazon customers. More details below. 

Now, you could just as well use one of the many scanner apps out there to attempt to achieve a similar result as the Kodak film scanner, but it will be tough to pull images from negatives and the like. Either way, give the highly-rated ScanPro App a closer look for a software solution that’s even less expensive. 

For more deals on connected accessories, be sure to check out these DYMO label maker offers from $25 as well as Brother’s smartphone-powered model while it’s down at $40. Then dive into the new HP printers with native in-OS printing and the rest of today’s best smartphone accessory deals right here. 

More on the Kodak Mobile Film Scanner:

• SEE YOUR OLD MEMORIES COME TO LIFE | Cool Tabletop Film Scanner Lets You View Old Negatives & Slide Positives with Your Smartphone | Just Scan & Save to Share with Friends! | Includes Collapsible Cardboard Platform/Film Tray & Battery- Powered LED Backlight for Subtle Illumination & Eco-Friendly Functionality
• ALL YOUR OLD PHOTO TYPES | No More Complicated Scanning Devices or Expensive Digitization Services! | Fun, Cutesie Little Box Lets You Play Around for Hours Without the Headache of Professional Conversion | Compatible with 35mm Color Film Negatives, 35mm Black & White Film Negatives & 35mm Color Slides

 

This small town Kansas photography shop will develop archaic film formats no other photography processor will touch

Tags:  Process C-22, Film, Film Processing, Ektachrome, Kodachrome

 

By: Izzy Curry

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

In 1956, Dwayne Steinle opened a small film processing facility in Parsons, a town of 10,500 west of Joplin, Missouri. At the store’s peak—before digital photography led to the steep decline in film processing—they were working nearly ’round the clock, and one of the biggest processors in the nation.

“The first year I was here, we worked every weekend all summer long,” says employee Melissa Alloway. “We were working ten-hour shifts Monday through Friday and coming in and working two shifts on Saturday. A few Sundays thrown in so that we could keep it going.”

Steinle passed away in February, at the age of eighty-eight. During his lifetime, his shop, Dwayne’s Photo, became legendary among photography geeks around the world for the fact that the shop would still process archaic film formats like Kodak’s disc film and rolls of Process C-22. The shop

came to international notoriety in 2010 when it processed the last-ever rolls of Kodachrome, a format favored by professional photographers—and, famously, folk singer Paul Simon.

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

The end of the Kodachrome era drew reporters and photographers from around the world to Parsons, with some camping in the shop’s parking lot. The attention, which also inspired an indie film starring Overland Park native Jason Sudeikis, was something of an accident of history, as Dwayne’s had only started developing Kodachrome after the company’s flagship lab in New Jersey stopped accepting the film, which relies on a proprietary chemical blend to develop. Kodak was at first hesitant to entrust the famed format to “a little lab in Kansas.” But Steinle persisted. In order to become the world’s last processor, Steinle had a machine custom-built in Yuma, Arizona. Kodak sent out a chemist to set up a laboratory. Kodak eventually stopped making the chemicals required to develop the film after demand dwindled—but not before one last explosion of interest.

“It was crazy,” Alloway says. “It almost had its own paparazzi. We had stacks and stacks of work, and we just slapped dates on it when it came in. We quit processing on December 30 and it took us around three more weeks to get all the film processed when we stopped accepting it.”

Dwayne’s developed five hundred rolls of Kodachrome on the last day. “We kept thinking we’re not going to have enough chemicals to last,” says Greg Fincher, a good friend of Steinle who maintains most of the shop’s processing machines. “They had a lot of film left over, huge master rolls in a salt mine, and they destroyed it. They wanted to make sure that when it was done, it was done. And that’s just business.”

In the post-Kodachrome era, Dwayne’s has actually been growing, especially as gen-Z hobbyists gravitate to film. Dwayne’s is now in the hands of his grandsons Derek and Josh Carter, who lured Fincher out of semi-retirement and have invested in the infrastructure to develop archaic formats like the recently resurrected Ektachrome.

The pandemic has brought a resurgence in film processing orders, says Derek Carter, with the shop’s volume more than quadrupling.

“Last year, a good day was receiving a full mailbag and maybe a couple of boxes of film,” he says. “Today we are regularly getting five bags and seven big boxes of film in a single day. I really think the growth has been a combination of people who are stuck at home and using film photography as a way to get through quarantine and another group of people who are finding old film as they are cleaning out the house. I don’t think we’ve been this excited about film processing in a long time.”

Although Steinle built his livelihood on film processing, his grandsons say he harbored no resentment toward digital photography—he liked to shoot digital, too.

“He liked just going out and shooting photos,” says Josh Carter.

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

As other processors closed, Steinle found a niche as an eager developer of legacy formats, which customers might find in an old box, undeveloped, and decided to send away to small-town Kansas.

“Even when everyone else is shutting down or saying ‘Film is done,’ [Dwayne] was like, ‘Well, you know, I’ll keep going,’” Derek says. “He was never driven by the prevailing winds of what everyone else was doing.”

Steinle was also a dedicated family man—he helped raise Derek and Josh Carter, who now run the business. “He took Derek and I to and from school, made us lunch and dinner—basically raised us for a couple years,” says Josh Carter.

Part of the reason that the Carters are bullish about the business is that technological advancements have made it easier to develop film.

“We had the old optical printers,” Alloway says of the old days. “Everything had to be printed and then backed up and taken to a separate paper processor, then put on that processor and ran. We had to go through it and check it for quality. And if it needed color, you needed to sit there and manually tell the printer, ‘I want you to put five blue and three magenta.’ And you couldn’t see it until it came back to you again after being printed.”

By merging modern technology with time-tested analog techniques, Dwayne’s laboratory has increased its efficiency without losing its edge as a top-tier film processor with pro customers around the country. “Being in the industry this long, we can simplify it so there’s not this huge learning curve with film,” Josh explains. “It’s not some daunting task. People can pick up an old camera they found in their grandparents’ house and say, ‘OK, I’m going to take some film and I’m going to shoot it and I’m going to know what I’m doing.’”

The other reason the company is growing is that younger shooters prefer film. Somewhat paradoxically, most rolls of film Dwayne’s develops come from younger customers. And the shop markets to them using social media.

Photo by Shawn Brackbill. All the photography for this story was shot on Kodak Portra 400 and 

Tri-X 400 Black and White film and developed at Dwayne’s.

“The vast majority of new film shooters are under twenty-five,” Derek Carter says. “To cater to that crowd, we have to both be able to have a lot of learning and cater from a social media standpoint or from a technological standpoint. It’s something that a lot of things like Instagram are actually a huge tool for us.”

Although scanning pictures to Instagram is a great way to spread the love of film photography, getting people to appreciate the value of print is another goal of Dwayne’s.

“We want to raise awareness about it because we bring a lot of people through who will say they are not that interested in print photos and then when we show them a thirty-by-forty that comes out of one of our processors, they’re blown away,” Derek Carter says. “They are like, ‘That looks really good.’ If we can just get that in front of enough people, I think there will be people who are still interested in that medium.”  Share this article.

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Explore Detroit Photographer Russ Marshall's Shots from an Old Car Town

 

  Tags:  Detroit, Russ Marshall, Photographs

 

 By Jonathon Ramsey

Russ Marshall was three years old when he moved from a coal town to a car town– from South Fork, Pennsylvania to Detroit, where his father took a job on a Chrysler assembly line building DeSotos. Marshall was in his teens when he got hold of a Scout 120 box camera and began capturing the people around him and the place he lived. He's 80 now, and 50 years of his most striking shots currently line the walls at the Detroit Institute of Arts. There was never a plan to turn his world into fine art.

"I just wanted to take interesting photos," he says.

Running until June 27, 2021, the showcase's full title is "Russ Marshall: Detroit Photographs, 1958–2008—An exhibition celebrating blue-collar workers throughout Southeast Michigan." That banner of a name still doesn’t capture the suffuse magic in the more than 90 black-and-white photographs that DIA photography curator Nancy Barr spent two years working with Marshall to select.

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The photos express a city in full, the kind of consideration Detroit deserves, but rarely receives. Freed from the shadows and soul of the auto industry and Motown, Marshall reveals the benign scenes of any big city, full of regular folks attending to and enjoying regular activities on a regular day.

Growing up, he and his camera wandered out of the family living room and into the neighborhood, taking pictures of his friends, then into the Navy. From 1960-1964, Marshall served in the Navy as a photographer. Caribbean duty included stops in Jamaica and Cuba during the missile crisis.

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Russ Marshall

Returning to Detroit after his discharge, he moved downtown near UAW headquarters in the early 1980s and picked up freelance photo work for the UAW magazine Solidarity. Gigs for unions like the Teamsters and the American Federation of Teachers followed. Marshall's a blue-collar son with ties to two faded industrial hubs, so one can read a hint of elegy in the "Workers" section of the exhibit. Here one finds photos from Ford's River Rouge Complex, the Acorn Iron Works in Detroit, a steel-town bar in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and stacked meanings in the image "Ms. USA, Ford Motor Company, Batavia, Ohio."

"I knew and sensed over time that these jobs and these workers and these factories would someday be gone, replaced by something or nothing," Marshall said in a 2013 interview with American Elegy. "I had this opportunity to document and preserve the fact that these workers did exist at this time and in this place, like my coal mining, steel making relatives in our photo album."

The factory photos seem as though they'd be impossible to recreate today. Some workers pose, but they're doing so for themselves, not for a public relations department. Most workers don't wear protective gear. And the images are dark, Marshall combining his day job and matter-of-fact sensibility with his interest in film noir. If you see photos like these come out of a modern factory in the U.S., there have been breakdowns in the safety and the public relations departments.

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Russ Marshall

Another series of prints documents Marshall's work in Europe. He told us Continental jaunts began when the head of the UAW asked him to come to a conference in Denmark. Over a number of trips from 1987 to 1990, Marshall photographed workers and daily scenes, like the two women waiting at the charcuterie station in Harrod's in London, and the disinterested guard slumped in a chair in Budapest next to a three-quarter statue of Lenin.

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The "Everyday Detroit," "Public Life," and "Sounds of Detroit" photos are where Marshall injects high-contrast drama into the commonplace. LaMonte Hamilton playing sax at the Vanity Ballroom in 1982 could be auditioning for a spot at Rick’s Casablanca watering hole. Marshall shot "Woodward City Man" in 2000, but the only thing the image is missing is Orson Welles in The Third Man from 1949. "Ambassador Bridge and Zug Island" from 1968 and "Detroit Skyline with Water Tower #3" are models of German Expressionist cinematography, or screencaps from the movie Sin City, admitting that even the dark city must wake, even if to just the mere hint of the sun.

Between the industry and the darkness, Marshall captured Detroit icons like the Michigan Central Station when it was a train station, and Eastern Market. There are iconic moments such as the "Love Nuns" at the "maximum hippie" Love-In at Belle Isle, when something like 8000 longhairs occupied the island on April 30, 1967 "for several hours of singing, dancing, and probably a little bit of doobie-smoking as well." There are society moments like Henry Ford II dining with friends at the Renaissance Club and the Detroit Symphony Opera welcoming German conductor Günther Herbig, both from 1984. And then there’s just society, six-deep on the sidewalk watching the Palms Parade over Thanksgiving in 1964, united in curiosity like the seven men stopped to watch a construction site, and solo like the figure in "City Corner."

View Photos

Russ Marshall

The DIA has served several online side dishes with the photographs, starting with an exhibition brochure and a large-print label booklet containing small images of the prints. Marshall also put together audio playlists of promiscuous variety to ease one into his noir ambience—Spotify here, YouTube here—with selections from Kerouac’s and Morgan Williams’ spoken word to Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, Eminem, and the staggeringly enticing voice of Eva Cassidy.

Marshall offers six books on Blurb for those taken with his mood. You wouldn’t need a bottle of Michigan-sourced whiskey and an old pressing of Kind of Blue to savor the books, but those side orders would be excellent study aids.

Also currently at the DIA is its exhibit featuring 70 years of automotive design, Detroit Style. Share this article.

 

 

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Go analog with film photography.

Tags:  Photography for Beginners, Shutter Speed, f-stop, Digital Photography, Film Photographers

 

by: Ryan Mills, Dillon Jenkins

 Explore the roots of analog photography and see how complex, yet rewarding, it is to shoot with film, develop your exposures, and print your photos.

Capture the moment.

Before digital photography entered the scene, all photos were made with light-sensitive rolls of film. From there, film photographers would develop the rolls and print their photos in a darkroom; a physical process that lets artists get up close and personal with photography as a medium. Film photography gives you total control over image exposure and shutter speed, and the ability to print and enlarge images can help artists better understand how photos are made.

 

While film can be a great way to explore the ins and outs of photography, it comes with a lot of trial and error. “With digital photography you can learn really fast. But with film, you can take a photograph and not know what settings you used. You could get the perfect photograph, but you wouldn’t know why. With digital, you can go back to the metadata and see what f-stop and shutter speed you used,” explains photographer Ryan Mills.

Master your photography tools.

Film cameras.

During film photography, a roll of light-sensitive film is placed within the camera. When the shutter of the camera is open, the film is exposed to light and an impression is captured. After the exposure is made, the photographer rolls the film forward so a fresh section of unexposed film is ready for the next photo. In some manual cameras, you can roll the film backward and shoot over the same piece of film multiple times to create a double exposure. When the roll has all been shot, it’s removed from the camera and developed.

 

“One important thing to realize about digital cameras is that the brand of camera, like Nikon or Canon, doesn’t really matter; your image will kind of look the same. And by the time people start editing photos, it’s difficult to tell what kind of camera that came from,” explains Mills. “With film, however, the cameras and the film all give different looks. And they all function a little bit differently.”

 

Many photographers use a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera for their film photography, which uses a mirror and prism to create an exposure. The inner workings of these cameras allow photographers to look through the viewfinder and lens to see what will be captured within the frame. SLR cameras come in different formats, including 35mm cameras, medium format, and large format. These formats translate to the size of the physical film that fits in the camera. And the larger the film negative, the better the resolution of your final image. For smaller formats, like 35mm, the film grain will be more noticeable on the printed image.

“You can get analog cameras pretty cheaply, but it’s more expensive to shoot the film,” explains photographer Dillon Jenkins. Digital cameras are more expensive upfront, but there’s no extra cost accumulated for every photo you take. But keep in mind, you can’t shoot 35mm film inside a medium format camera. So before purchasing film or a camera, consider the kind of photos you want to create before investing in the equipment.

 

Photographic film.

When it comes to film, there are a few options to consider. “These days, you can generally buy 35mm film and 120 medium format film. You may have heard the terms 120 and 220 format. They’re essentially the same medium format size film, but at different lengths,” explains Mills. With a longer roll of film, you can take more photos before replacing the roll. “You can get 10 to 12 shots out of 120 film, and 22 to 24 shots out of 220 film,” notes Mills.

 

Film cameras can shoot in either black and white or in color. Black-and-white film is a little easier to develop yourself, but color film gives you room to experiment with tints and shades. Different brands of film, like Fujifilm and Kodak, can give you different color saturation or contrast as well. Try a few different brands and see which works best for your artistic needs.

 

Beyond the color of the film, you also have a choice between film positives and film negatives. Negatives capture an inverted image of your photo, which allows for easier photo printing in a darkroom. Positive film creates positive images on a transparent base. “One of the big differences between color negatives and color positives is exposure latitude, which is the dynamic range of the film itself,” explains Jenkins. Keep in mind that each type of film has different parameters and considerations.

• Color positive film has more color and saturation. Color positive film is often used in analog video cameras, since it’s more easily projected.
  
  
• Color negative film is flexible, but the colors can unintentionally shift if you’re too high or low within your film camera settings.
  
  
• Black-and-white film is less expensive than color film. It’s also the most forgiving medium and is one you can develop at home.
   

Remember, before the film has been developed, it’s still light sensitive, so the artist must be careful while developing to limit the risk of light leaks or overexposure to the film.

 

How to shoot with film.

Understand your camera settings.

The exposure triangle is imperative when it comes to film photography. “I would start with digital photography, so you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals. With film, you’re going to be shooting everything manually.” says Mills. Because everything is manual, you need to clearly understand how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO will affect your photo. And with film cameras, your ISO, or the light sensitivity, is dependent on your physical film.

Plan ahead for the shoot.

With film photography, you have a limited number of exposures at your disposal. If you want to capture landscape photos, you don’t want to run out of film before you make it to the viewpoint, so bring a few extra rolls of film with you just in case. It can also be helpful to keep a journal or log of the camera settings you use while you shoot film. That way, when you look back at your images after they’ve been developed, you can see what you did right and what went wrong.

 

Trial and error happens.

“When it comes to analog photography, expect to make a lot of mistakes. And sometimes, you’ll like your mistakes. I think understanding how you made the mistake helps you appreciate it,” explains Jenkins. “For example, one time my camera had broken, but it was still working. So I shot a roll of film with it. But the camera kept shooting for about 40 exposures, which was very weird. But what had happened was the spool had broken, so I had been taking photos over the same piece of film for two months, so it had about 30 photos on one frame.” Weird mistakes will happen with film photography, but those moments can help you create something truly unique and unexpected.

 

How to process your film.

After a roll of film is shot, it needs to be developed. One approach is to mail the film roll out to a developer. There used to be a multitude of film processing companies, but with the rise of digital photography, it has become more a specialty. With mail-in developers, you can often choose what format you’d like your images in. You can order just the processed film, small or large prints of each photo, or digital images of the film photos. That final approach can save you time, and gives you high-quality images to edit digitally.

Build a darkroom.

Another avenue to consider is at-home developing. For some film, you can order a developing kit with the right chemicals. Alternatively, if you have a dark basement or a windowless room, you could create an at-home darkroom. This gives you the flexibility to develop your film and then create your own photo prints. Keep in mind that black-and-white film is the easiest to develop and print at home, and it requires fewer chemicals.

 

To build a darkroom at home, you’ll need a dark space, a safelight, the right chemicals, distilled water, developer, fixer, trays, and gloves. You can purchase the chemicals and developer at a specialty photography store or online. To develop the film, you’ll need to load the film into the developing tube, mix your chemicals, pour in the developer, wash it, and then dry the negatives.

Print your photos.

When the negatives are dry, you can print the photos. Use an enlarger to project your film negative onto a piece of photo-sensitive paper, and create test strips and prints by turning on the light inside the enlarger for a series of increasing seconds.

 

Set up four trays, and fill them with developer, fixer, stopper, and water. After the photo paper has been exposed to light, place it in a tray of developer. While the paper sits in the developer, you’ll see the contrast and shadows start to emerge. From there, you’ll move it to the fixer, then the stop bath, and then rinse it in the water bath. Keep in mind that your brand of paper and chemicals will impact the amount of time your print stays in each solution. After that, you can hang your photo dry, then frame it and enjoy.

 

Give your photos a digital touch.

The process of physically developing film can be fun and worthwhile, but if you want to create a specific artistic look, it can take a lot of experimentation to get it right. Another way to get the perfect photo is to transform your film shot into a digital image. Use a DSLR camera, a photo scanner, or your smartphone to create a high-quality shot of your film negative or photo print. From there, you can use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to edit and perfect the image. If you’re not sure how to get started, check out these tutorials:

• Use the Adjustment Brush to dodge and burn an image, similar to traditional tactics used in the darkroom, to adjust the exposure and contrast in certain areas of your photo.
  
  
• Remove distracting objects in the background of your shot with these simple steps.
  
  
• Use selective editing tools in Lightroom, like the Brush tool or Radial Gradients, to edit specific parts of your photo.
  
  
• Learn how to edit out dust and scratches from images in Adobe Photoshop.
   

Film photography takes time and patience, but shooting film can help you connect with your photos — and understand photography — in a new way. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional photographer, analog photography forces you to master the exposure triangle, your camera settings, and your creative vision. If you’re not ready to invest in a darkroom or an SLR camera, consider a Polaroid or instant film camera instead. You’ll still get to experience the physicality of film photography, but with an easier way to access it.  Share this article. 

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Best Camera Settings for Portraits

 

AI Editing Will NOT Ruin Photography

 Tags:  Photography for Beginners, AI, Photography software

 

 by: Michael Comeau

AI is the #1 buzzword in the digital photography world. Skylum, which has ridden the AI photo editing craze better than any company, is about to release Luminar AI. ON1 now offers ON1 Portrait AI. DxO announced DxO DeepPRIME, which it describes as “an artificial intelligence technology dedicated to editing photos in RAW format.”

Adobe just made AI a major centerpiece in the latest version of Photoshop, declaring that Photoshop is “the world’s most advanced AI application for creatives.”

Reactions within the online photography community seem split. It feels like there’s a loud minority proclaiming AI to be pure evil. But there’s another side thinking about the convenience factor of one-click fixes.

So let’s talk about it.

The Photography Software Industry Pulled a Massive Persuasion Trick on You

The AI photo editing boom has created a major discussion over ethics. Is it wrong to use AI to reshape faces, replace skies, and make outright fake images? And will AI change photography as we know it forever?

Questions like this play right into the photography software industry’s hands. Because when you debate the ethics of AI software, you also do 2 things:

1. You are saying this is actually AI technology, and not just a clever angle cooked up by the marketing department

2. You are saying the software works well

The industry got you to “think past the sale,” which is a classic sales and persuasion trick. I’m not yet convinced there’s real AI in any of this software. But we’re acting as if it is.

And that’s just the first step towards mass acceptance. So let’s admit…

There Is No Turning Back from AI Software

See how effective that “thinking past the sale” stuff is? I’m not convinced AI software actually has any AI in it, yet I’m writing sentences like “there is no turning back from AI software.”

Let me put all my cards on the table. Post-processing is my least favorite part of portrait photography. So if I can clean up skin or knock out a background with a single click, I will slam my credit card down and buy. I value my time more than my ability to push pixels around.

That relates to a major reality of consumer spending: most people gravitate toward the most convenient option.

Why did digital cameras beat film cameras? Because digital is more convenient.

And why are smartphones beating digital cameras? Because smartphones are more convenient.

There will always be a place for serious retouchers and enthusiasts that have exacting demands. But many people will gravitate to the “click and it’s done” model.

But let’s remember…

You Don’t Have to Use Any of This Stuff

If you get enjoyment out of perfecting your images in Photoshop or Affinity Photo or whatever with traditional old school tools, then don’t stop.

No one is forcing you to do use anything new, and you don’t have to buy any AI editing software products if you don’t want to.

One of the biggest weaknesses of software is that it tends to get more bloated over time. Companies like Adobe keep adding features to their products. But they don’t take stuff away.

Odds are you can use your same digital retouching workflow for the next 20 years if you really want to. The clone stamp tool ain’t going anywhere.

Now, you may be thinking “I don’t want to use this stuff, but no one should because it’s bad for society!” Well…

The Damage Is Done

Thanks to reality altering mobile apps, you’re a few clicks away from having bigger eyes, smoother skin, and a slimmer waist. Ironically, these apps are very popular with influencers and celebrities that tell us to love ourselves the way we are.

So by including more face/body altering features in their software, Adobe, Luminar, and their competitors are only following an existing trend.

Photoshelter Chairman Allen Murabayashi argued that “there is something legitimizing about the incorporation of similar technologies into Adobe Photoshop.”

But does legitimizing even matter? These apps have been massively popular for years before Adobe got in on the game. And even if these apps were made illegal, a black market would pop up in about 8 minutes.

Now, let’s get to my final point.

Only You Can Ruin Photography

Landscape photographer and YouTube Thomas Heaton recently said “AI Editing Will Ruin Photography As We Know It:”

I disagree 100%.

If we’re going down this road, we could say that Photoshop should have ended photography. You could even extend that to the analog darkroom! Photographers were retouching skin, swapping heads, manipulating color, and compositing images decades before Photoshop even existed.

The AI editors are simply making things easier. We can still freely choose to nail shots in-camera, or carefully use traditional editing tools if we want.

Let’s also think about why we shoot in the first place.

The great Gregory Heisler once said this about photography:

If your only expectation is the satisfaction of making the picture, it will never let you down.

 

 

 

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