NEVER SHOT FILM, JUST BOUGHT 35MM CAMERA - HELP!!

[DGN1984]

Hi everyone,

I haven't been here for a while. I've had my canon 450 DSLR for just over a year now and I have just bought a Canon A1 because i eally want to get involved in shooting film.

I know nothing about developing or processing film and would like a few pointers please.

Ideally I would like to be developing, printing etc everything in a darkroom I can make in my shed at home. what is the process for developing/printing/scanning etc??

I know I may be asking basic stuff but I am total novice when it comes to shooting film.

I'd really appreciate some help and advice on this

All the best

Dan

 

[daventryh]

Hi everyone,

I haven't been here for a while. I've had my canon 450 DSLR for just over a year now and I have just bought a Canon A1 because i eally want to get involved in shooting film.

I know nothing about developing or processing film and would like a few pointers please.

Ideally I would like to be developing, printing etc everything in a darkroom I can make in my shed at home. what is the process for developing/printing/scanning etc??

I know I may be asking basic stuff but I am total novice when it comes to shooting film.

I'd really appreciate some help and advice on this

All the best

Dan

I can't help you with developing and processing film, but I too have been using a Canon 1100 DSLR for a while and have recently brought a few film cameras.

The only advice I can give is put a film in the camera, shoot at different settings and see how they turn out!

 

[freecom2]

My personal recommendation is to shoot a few rolls and get them developed commercially, so you get comfortable with the process of loading, shooting with a camera that shoots on film, unloading and all of that process. Then you can look for a suitable lab using this sticky, "Film Developing in the UK".

Once you are comfortable with shooting, you can tackle the developing side.

This sticky, "How to develop your first B&W film", will come in handy.

Scanning is relatively self explanatory, purchase a new/used scanner that has provision for scanning film negatives (we always prefer to scan the original negatives rather than a print). Scanner choice depends on budget and what format you shoot - for instance, if you are thinking of going for a medium format camera in the future it doesn't make sense to limit yourself to a scanner only capable of 35mm.

 

[excalibur2]

You'll like the A1 and it will work similar to your DSLR in that for most shots the camera will work out correct exposure (if you set the aperture or shutter speed)and in the words of Kodak "you press the button, we do the rest".
Later on you can set the camera on manual so you have full control and then play with B/W film and so on. Another plus is the Canon will take all those old screw lenses (you have probably read about) using a cheap adapter.

 

[Psyence33]

My personal recommendation is to shoot a few rolls and get them developed commercially, so you get comfortable with the process of loading, shooting with a camera that shoots on film, unloading and all of that process. Then you can look for a suitable lab using this sticky, "Film Developing in the UK".

Once you are comfortable with shooting, you can tackle the developing side.

This sticky, "How to develop your first B&W film", will come in handy.

Scanning is relatively self explanatory, purchase a new/used scanner that has provision for scanning film negatives (we always prefer to scan the original negatives rather than a print). Scanner choice depends on budget and what format you shoot - for instance, if you are thinking of going for a medium format camera in the future it doesn't make sense to limit yourself to a scanner only capable of 35mm.

Or you can develop your own black and white first which is relatively easy but I agree with freecom2 you should shoot a few rolls and get them developed before investing a lot of money, same goes with the deveoping, printing and scanning gears especially since film itself is quite pricey unless your super rich

 

[Morinaka]

Woah woah woah slow down and take it easy, don't jump in at the deep end before you can swim.

As others have said shoot some film first and have it developed by a lab, freecom2 first link has a list of UK labs, should at least be somewhere near you that can develop colour negative (C41 films) type films, scan them and give you a CD.

You want to shoot a roll first to make sure your camera actually works properly, get a roll and shoot 36 frames of any old **** and get it developed, i and many people have been burned by dodgy cameras and lost good shots on the first roll because they didn't check it out first. Just ask dd1989 who shot five rolls before getting the first one developed and they were all blank, why? because he didn't know how to load the film on the take up spool properly, stupid yes, but a noob mistake and he wouldn't have lost a ton of shots if he just had the first roll developed and realised his mistake first.

If you have a C-41 lab near you great, stick to that for now before branching into real B&W or colour slide. You can buy B&W C-41 films, them being; Fuji 400CN, Kodak BW400CN and Ilford XP2 Super 400, if your lab is run by idiots they might refuse to process it but just insist that it's C-41 and tell them to STFU.
Though i'd just stick to colour for now, if you want cheap consumer film get a roll or two of Fuji Superia 200 or Kodak Gold 200 to blast through quickly. I personally prefer Kodak Ektar 100 and Kodak Portra 160 or 400 as they scan better for me and i prefer the look of them. 7dayshop's film sections are usually the nest place to buy film in the UK.

Once you've shot a few rolls you'll probably want to scan it yourself, if you only ever plan to shoot 35mm then get a dedicated 35mm film scanner like a Plustek 7400 or 7600i, if you plan to do medium format and want a more general purpose flatbed style scanner then get an Epson V500, both of these aren't cheap, about £160 for the Epson and closer to £200-250 for the Plustek, you can get a Epson V33 (not sure if that's the current model) for under a hundred but that's 35mm only when it comes to film.

Scanning is OK but can be a royal pain the arse, dust is the enemy, damn stuff is everywhere, it's time consuming, scanning a roll of 36 shots at 1200 or 2400dpi on a flatbed takes an hour before you even post process it, and you will have to post process it as scanner don't ever scan a shot right, contrast, white balance and other stuff will be off. If you can live with all that then scan away.

If at this point after a dozen or more rolls you like shooting film, how it looks, you've settled on your favourite film stocks and want to go down the old dark room route so you have more control over B&W development chemicals and making your own optical prints.

When you get to this stage then come back here and ask again, what's the rush?

 

[robhooley167]

Woah woah woah slow down and take it easy, don't jump in at the deep end before you can swim.

As others have said shoot some film first and have it developed by a lab, freecom2 first link has a list of UK labs, should at least be somewhere near you that can develop colour negative (C41 films) type films, scan them and give you a CD.

You want to shoot a roll first to make sure your camera actually works properly, get a roll and shoot 36 frames of any old **** and get it developed, i and many people have been burned by dodgy cameras and lost good shots on the first roll because they didn't check it out first. Just ask dd1989 who shot five rolls before getting the first one developed and they were all blank, why? because he didn't know how to load the film on the take up spool properly, stupid yes, but a noob mistake and he wouldn't have lost a ton of shots if he just had the first roll developed and realised his mistake first.

If you have a C-41 lab near you great, stick to that for now before branching into real B&W or colour slide. You can buy B&W C-41 films, them being; Fuji 400CN, Kodak BW400CN and Ilford XP2 Super 400, if your lab is run by idiots they might refuse to process it but just insist that it's C-41 and tell them to STFU.
Though i'd just stick to colour for now, if you want cheap consumer film get a roll or two of Fuji Superia 200 or Kodak Gold 200 to blast through quickly. I personally prefer Kodak Ektar 100 and Kodak Portra 160 or 400 as they scan better for me and i prefer the look of them. 7dayshop's film sections are usually the nest place to buy film in the UK.

Once you've shot a few rolls you'll probably want to scan it yourself, if you only ever plan to shoot 35mm then get a dedicated 35mm film scanner like a Plustek 7400 or 7600i, if you plan to do medium format and want a more general purpose flatbed style scanner then get an Epson V500, both of these aren't cheap, about £160 for the Epson and closer to £200-250 for the Plustek, you can get a Epson V33 (not sure if that's the current model) for under a hundred but that's 35mm only when it comes to film.

Scanning is OK but can be a royal pain the arse, dust is the enemy, damn stuff is everywhere, it's time consuming, scanning a roll of 36 shots at 1200 or 2400dpi on a flatbed takes an hour before you even post process it, and you will have to post process it as scanner don't ever scan a shot right, contrast, white balance and other stuff will be off. If you can live with all that then scan away.

If at this point after a dozen or more rolls you like shooting film, how it looks, you've settled on your favourite film stocks and want to go down the old dark room route so you have more control over B&W development chemicals and making your own optical prints.

When you get to this stage then come back here and ask again, what's the rush?

The man speaks the truth, no need to run before you can walk.

Get some Poundland colour film and have a bit of fun with it, send it for developing somewhere cheap then move up to better film and better developers/labs until you feel like you want to do it yourself

 

[Tricky69]

I d'no ... what's wrong with getting some cheap film, shooting it, pour yourself a coffee, dunk the film in it, wait half n hour, and look at the nice pictures ???

All you have to loose is a cheap film and a cup of coffee !

Remember it can be fun to jump in the deep end .. you never know , he might be able to swim



Rich

 

[freecom2]

Remember it can be fun to jump in the deep end .. you never know , he might be able to swim

I respect the point, but it's just because it eliminates the chances of errors and problems (and eventually headaches) appearing, if you do each step separately. If you run a roll through, develop it yourself for the first time and it turns out blank, it could be a camera problem, a developer problem, changing bag problem, developing tank problem etc etc.

 

[Tricky69]

I respect the point, but it's just because it eliminates the chances of errors and problems (and eventually headaches) appearing, if you do each step separately. If you run a roll through, develop it yourself for the first time and it turns out blank, it could be a camera problem, a developer problem, changing bag problem, developing tank problem etc etc.

But think of the wonder and excitement (I still get it ) when the pictures appear !

Depends if you are the type to get easily discouraged I spoze. I'm quite happy to accept disappointment and persevere, if anything goes wrong. I know that others are not. Everyone's different

remember, half an hour after getting home with your camera, you can be looking at pictures you took that day. there is something to be said for that.

 

[freecom2]

But think of the wonder and excitement (I still get it ) when the pictures appear !

Preaching to the choir on that point I'm afraid - I've developed probably 40-50+ rolls and opening the lid of the Paterson tank is still magic.

And I don't know, if you wanted a camera that gave you fast feedback and fast results I know of these new fangled creations coming to shops soon... (ask the salesperson for a "digital" camera). I kid of course, but no special need to rush everything when it comes to film.

 

[Tricky69]

Preaching to the choir on that point I'm afraid - I've developed probably 40-50+ rolls and opening the lid of the Paterson tank is still magic.

And I don't know, if you wanted a camera that gave you fast feedback and fast results I know of these new fangled creations coming to shops soon... (ask the salesperson for a "digital" camera). I kid of course, but no special need to rush everything when it comes to film.

I know you kid

but still, for newbies (and digi's), one of the things against film, is the time it takes to see the photo's. Digi's always use it in their banter !, but it doesn't have to be that way. Digi's and newbies are sometimes unaware that filmies can have their photos uploaded to the forum, the same day they took them.

When I got into film a couple of years ago, I had now idea if the cheap SLR I bought worked at all, but I still dev's my own 1st film, and even printed onto paper a couple of days after. curtains up in the garage ! it's amazing how much light you can see in the dark, after your eyes adjust !, but luckily it was dark enough to get some prints.

I's all good fun ... don't be scared of it....enjoy it !

but again, that's just me - two feet every time

 

[Morinaka]

Yes while it's magical there's no rush, get used to shooting a few rolls before you starting building dark rooms. It's a chunk of change to invest in before you know if you even like shooting film or not.

I've been shooting film for two years maybe and i hope to start making my own dark room prints this week, even though i thought myself clued up on a lot of film stuff it's a new set of knowledge entirely and had i tried to do it never even having shot a roll it would have been overwhelming. I might even hate making the prints but i've accepted that and weighed it up, hopefully i'll know by the end of this week, i guess i'm just more thoughtful about these things than you.

I'd still rather have someone develop my film (for now) though as i can always redo a print but if i stuff up a roll of film in dev i've lost the shots. The learning curve for screwing up prints is much shallower than the one for screwing up film which is why i'm doing it first.

 

[Tricky69]

for me it was the other way round.

I used up a roll of film , just shooting anything vaguely interesting, just so I could have a go at dark room developing.

For me, that is the only reason for using film. The shutter button on a digi, is the same as one on a film slr ! (I hadn't got into other formats yet)

I used the darkest place I could, at the darkest time of night, blocked out as much light as I could. I used dinner trays for dev trays and a couple of buckets of water (I dont have running water in the garage) and I had fun !
It doesn't matter if they all came out blank, (as it happens they were very good) I just wanted to learn the dark room process,

I didn't build a dark room. I bought a set of chems and a few plastic dinner trays ... that's it . Oh, and yes, I did get a patterson enlarger from ebay for £25

 

[JCoquillon]

I'm with Morinaka on this.

There is so much to cover - to take it all on in one go is likely to be overwhelming.

Shoot a few rolls, get them developed, start to get a feel for how film behaves and what shots work best for you. And then once you start to get comfortable with that and with the kind of PP that film shots sometimes need, then look into home processing and scanning.

Once you're happy with that then look at enlarging and printing.

That seems to be the most logical way to build up your skills and understanding.