Missing the past....maybe...

[shootoften]

I’ve been sitting here reflecting back to the days of shooting with film, and a couple of thoughts come to mind:

Do I still get the same feeling after shooting a Gig or two of images, as I did when shooting a roll or two of print/slide film?
Are my images as satisfying to me now, as the film prints/slides were?

Answer: I don't think so, to both questions! Why, you may wonder:

There used to be an awesome feeling of anticipation, waiting for a roll or two of print/slide film to come back from the lab. When they finally arrived, and I got to view my shots for the first time, the excitement was almost unbearable. If you were like me, out of every 36 exposures, you would get (if you were lucky) 2 or 3 “WOW” shots, that made you feel like you really achieved something close to perfection! Something that would be yours to treasure and show off for years to come!

With the switch to digital, and the ability to view an image instantly, those feelings of anticipation, excitement, and accomplishment are somewhat “dulled” in comparison. They’ve been replaced with: That’s a pretty decent shot, or that one will be awesome, when I bump up the saturation and add a levels or curves adjustment. “Don’t get me wrong, I realize that film processing requires adjustments to the images as well.” It’s just that now, with the ability to do all the work myself at home on my computer, the final print doesn’t seem to have the same “perfection factor” that the print/slide did back in the day! Now, once I get an image looking the way I want it, (perfect), I will look at it again a week or so done the road, and think, it still needs a color adjustment here, or a little dodging or sharpening there. Doing these adjustments makes it perfect again, (until next week when it needs something else done to it). It seems as if I’m never quite as satisfied with my images now, as I was back in the day when changing something wasn’t an option!!! It seems as if that “perfect print” is a thing of the past!

I’m I knocking digital? No, why would I, it’s an awesome technology. Would I go back to shooting film exclusively? Not likely, as I really enjoy working with my images in post processing. What’s the point of this post? Not sure, guess I’m just curious if anyone else has feelings or opinions along this line.

Sorry for the long, and possibly rambling post (it’s hard for me to explain what I’m thinking sometimes) Thanks for taking the time to read it!

[inkista]

If I ever start missing film, I try to remind myself of how you always reached the end of the roll just as things were getting good. What it was like to have the film slip the sprockets. What it was like to inadvertently double-expose. How much high-iso film cost. How much <100 iso film cost. How you always had slide film loaded when you wanted to make prints. How you always had the 100 iso film in when you wanted to shoot available light, and the 1200 in when you wanted to do landscapes. How you had to write down your exposure settings in a notebook with the roll # and exposure # if you were experimenting. What it was like to discover you actually hadn't gotten your flash to fire correctly. For the entire roll. And you still had to pay for the processing and prints. And, of course, when the printlab sent your negatives back with big scratches and one frame sliced through the middle and a "sorry" note.

That generally makes me feel happier about digital.

[corry]

never was into photography when i had a film camera......oh how i wish i had been as i missed out on lots of great moments when my kids were little........but i know that i would probably have been too cheap to take oodles of pictures just to get a few good ones. and i'm easily frustrated sooooo i LOVE digital and instant results.

as for the post processing part of digi photo. i sometimes think its like cheating to tweak and change and alter a photo and i often wonder what the original image looked like.....i want my pics to be better SOOC so i guess thats why i'm here and absorbing info like a sponge but as with many other aspects of life in this decade, technology is a wonderful thing and can sure correct a multitude of sins. not sure if this is along the same train of thought as your orig. post but its on my mind so...there ya go.

[sk66]

I agree, to an extent. The anticipation is not there....it's too "immediate" and that does take some of the "excitement" out of it.
But, It's a whole lot less costly/painful now. No more "entire roll messed up". No opening the back to find the roll still "out". No disappointment that none of the "great pictures" are great. The ability to see that they are not great immediately and try to adjust (the notepad was never "fun" for me). No cost of film/bulbs/chemicals etc etc. No dependence on labs to develop the roll right. No chemical/enlarger expenses....
I take better pics in the camera now (due to instant results/adjusting) and I can still be just as involved(or more) in the "development" of the pics (now it's with software and not an enlarger/chemicals)

I think you are just suffering from nostalgia. It wasn't that great.

[private]

Originally Posted by corry

...as for the post processing part of digi photo. i sometimes think its like cheating to tweak and change and alter a photo and i often wonder what the original image looked like.....i want my pics to be better SOOC so i guess thats why i'm here and absorbing info like a sponge but as with many other aspects of life in this decade, technology is a wonderful thing and can sure correct a multitude of sins. not sure if this is along the same train of thought as your orig. post but its on my mind so...there ya go.

I used to think that, and then I remembered that post processing is a digital darkroom. Even waaay back when, photos were tweaked outside of the camera, not the ones that you picked up at the local drugstore, but the ones that professional photographers did. I remember sitting with my grandfather watching him do "selective coloring" in his studio and THAT was in the 70's. He did it b4 then , but I was not around then

And no matter how much post processing you do, you can NEVER save or fix a bad photo - I've tried

So, in closing, its not cheating (if you shoot in jpg your camera is processing the photo anyway) by using pp just adding to an already fantastic photo.

I am now off of my soapbox

Oh, and I do not miss film, mainly b/c I remember my little sister opening my camera (gasp) to see what was inside.

[Doug Pardee]

It's a funny thing… people always feel like they have to "take advantage" of everything, even when they don't really want it.

With most cameras it's quite possible to shoot digital the same way that you did film. Well, at least for prints. Use a small memory card, turn off the instant review, shoot sRGB JPEG, and after you've shot your 25 or 37 photos take the card out and put it in the kiosk at Wal*Mart or Target or CostCo or wherever and order your prints (my apologies for the US-centric list of stores).

Nothing is forcing us to take lots of photos, to review them in-camera, to shoot Raw, and to post-process. For many people photography is all about the photographs, but for some of us it's more about the process. Mike Johnston often compares photography to fishing, and I'd say that many people approach digital photography like they've got a diesel-powered trawler equipped with sonar, big nets, and huge live wells. Nothing wrong with that, unless what you really wanted was the fly-fishing experience.

A couple of years ago I realized that I was in photography for the process, not for the photos. I went back to shooting sRGB JPEG, to not post-processing, and to using the discount store minilab for my prints. For me, it's put the fun back into digital photography.

[lissykeeper]

I was thinking about this a few days ago when I shot 600 pictures of two adorable babies. It wasn't but just a few years ago that it took me an hour to shoot 24 pics of my own daughter because every picture had to be perfect because I couldn't afford to waste one frame.

To some extent I agree about the lack of anticipation to receive those prints back from the lab. Yet, I still find myself anxious to get home and upload my pics because it doesn't matter that I can see them on the back of my camera, I can't really "see" them until they have been properly processed.


I also love the flexibility digital provides. Being able to take so many pictures offers me the chance to catch a moment that I otherwise may have missed.

So, do I miss film? Perhaps at some level I do. But for someone who thought they would never switch camps to digital, I sure do love it.

[Major_Small]

Originally Posted by shootoften

With the switch to digital, and the ability to view an image instantly, those feelings of anticipation, excitement, and accomplishment are somewhat “dulled” in comparison.

Nobody said you had to chimp for every shot

Originally Posted by shootoften

They’ve been replaced with: That’s a pretty decent shot, or that one will be awesome, when I bump up the saturation and add a levels or curves adjustment. “Don’t get me wrong, I realize that film processing requires adjustments to the images as well.” It’s just that now, with the ability to do all the work myself at home on my computer, the final print doesn’t seem to have the same “perfection factor” that the print/slide did back in the day!

It's the same as it was back in the day for me. Once I developed the film and made the contact sheet, I would look at them and make notes of 'keepers', the same way I do now, and then head into the dark room and try to perfect them in there.

Originally Posted by shootoften

Now, once I get an image looking the way I want it, (perfect), I will look at it again a week or so done the road, and think, it still needs a color adjustment here, or a little dodging or sharpening there.

I've always and will always do that with every shot. Once you stop seeing flaws in your own work, you stop growing as a photographer.

To me digital is a whole lot better than film. With film, I'd go around shooting, and not even bother developing the film, just because it was such a pain to sit there keeping track of times and agitating. And the more rolls that built up, the less I would want to get it done. The darkroom was fun to a point. I miss seeing the image appear once the paper hit the chemicals, but I don't miss taking the print out into the light and realizing I needed a different filter, or that I didn't dodge/burn enough or whatever. And I especially didn't like spotting. What I really miss about the darkroom is the alone time I got, the "bonding" () that people did in there, and the fun we had.

I guess if you take the film to a lab and get prints back, it's a completely different experience, but when you do all the processing and printing on your own, it really just becomes tedious and repetitive. Taking the film out of the wash wasn't an "ooh! let's see the pretty pictures!" type of deal - it was more like "I really hope nothing went wrong" type of feeling - because there was a lot more that could go wrong than could go right with the process. Now, I can spend more time shooting, and less time editing. I know that sounds backwards, but it's the truth. If you take the time from taking the film out of the canister to hanging the print on the line and compare it to the time between connecting the camera to the computer and having a finished image, it's MUCH shorter for me.

[shootoften]

I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts on this. Thanks for sharing them

inkista; been there, experienced all of that. Don’t miss any of those "occurrences" in the least. Thanks for the reminder, and the chuckle!

corry; this goes “hand in hand with my post” I try to think about every shot, but it seems that I still, subconsciously, have that “I can fix it in Post attitude”.

sk66; I guess it basically is the “anticipation and excitement” that I miss, not so much the film.

patjesten; very true on the "you can NEVER save or fix a bad photo" statement!

Doug Pardee; that’s certainly some “food for thought”

lissykeeper; I also used to think I would “never” switch to digital. Change is good sometimes

Major_Small; I can certainly see where developing your own film, would have been a lot more work. I guess "Digital" is the way to go.

[Elmo]

I am not so sure it was the excitement of waiting to look at the shots or the excitement of waiting to see the 'good one". The 'good one," the one where you got it all right, Now days it is "i'll fix it in post processing" posterize, solarize or HDR it.