I entered the world of photography when digital cameras where already on the rise, and as a result, I learned photography on digital. That being said, I am a sucker for anything analog... the sensation of using real organic materials to produce photographs excites me.
My name is Marius Hanzak, and I'm an experimental photography student currently studying at the Cleveland College of Art and Design in the UK. For one of my recent projects, titled RGB Church Street, I experimented with making color photos using black and white film.
It's the holidays, which means gift guides from every photography site out there are about to clutter your Facebook feed. We'll probably put something together for you as well, but for now, here's one idea that's both affordable and bound to make the film lover on your list smile.
We all know a knockoff when we see it. Fake Rolexes, certain Russian motorcycles, and pretty much anything bought off of a street cart in Hong Kong, these poor quality imitators just can’t match their real deal counterparts. It’s no different in the world of film. And one film in particular has garnered a reputation for being just such a cheap copy—Ilford HP5 Plus.
Photographer Christoffer Relander collects landscapes... literally. Using medium format film, he's capturing some of his favorite landscapes inside mason jars using in-camera double exposures.
It’s not news that photography has changed dramatically over the past century. What was once an arduous process involving chemicals and clothespins has been completely digitalized, and in many cases automated. Anyone with a smartphone can call themselves a photographer; but does that mean the artistry has fizzled? Not in the least.
I've been shooting Canon for the last 15 years and have finally made the decision to move on. The reasons are not really the focus of this article but rather my process for getting into a new system and making that process a creative one.
"What was your first camera?" The answer to that question can reveal a lot about a person. Did you start on digital or film? Was it an SLR, a point-and-shoot, maybe even a medium format camera? Was it your mom's camera? In this fun video, 10 top industry photographers share what their first camera was.
Most photographers could work their way through a few terabytes worth of memory cards during a trip to Norway. But when Tom Kluyver decided to join his buddy Chris Konig on a landscape photography adventure, he didn't pack memory cards. Instead, he brought his panoramic Hasselblad XPan and some Kodak Portra.
Wedding photographers these days often find themselves competing with guests who spend the whole ceremony shooting photos with smartphones, DSLRs, and even tablets. The short film above, titled "Unplugged," is a parody that shows why couples are sometimes choosing to have an "unplugged" wedding free of these distractions.
Here's a video by the Camera Repair Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that shows an overhaul they did recently of a Pentax K1000 film SLR -- the "dirtiest Pentax [they've] seen in a very long time." The 3 to 4 hour examination and cleaning is condensed down to 2.5 minutes, and shows the beautiful mechanical inner workings of the K1000.
One of the challenges (and rewards) of managing a digital production lab for a university research library is working with the wide assortment of analog formats that are collected within its archives, special collections, and map library holdings. For instance, we've recently begun conversion work on a 2002 aerial survey of Connecticut that was originally shot on 9"x9" positive black and white film.
If you've been itching to step up your film photography game—be it trying 35mm for the first time, stepping up to 120 medium format, or even trying out large format film—this old video that's circulating the Interwebz again today is a great place to start.
My name is Skyler Adams. I recently wanted to challenge my gear acquisition syndrome, so I decided to shoot with a $1 camera for a month.
Gary Fong is famous in the photo industry for inventing the Lightsphere diffusion system, but now he's taking a huge step in a new direction: Fong has directed a Hollywood feature film... using only Sony mirrorless cameras.
Storm and wedding photographer Mike Olbinski of Phoenix, Arizona, is back again with another incredible time-lapse project that shows summer monsoon season covering landscapes with rain, lightning, and dust. The 8-minute video above is titled "Monsoon III."
San Francisco-based Shoot Film Co. has launched a new notebook for film photographers called PhotoMemo. It's a small, simple, and elegant way to jot down technical details and notes while you're out shooting.
Official Lone Star State Photographer Wyman Meinzer is a Texas legend. A world-class hunter, trapper, marksman, outdoor pioneer, and photographer, he's the ultimate outdoorsman and quintessential Texan.
Here's a 3-minute video by Great Big Story about the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, a nuclear bunker that was once used by the Feds to house $4 billion worth of gold. Its goal these days is to preserve the nation's history of film.
Everyone's digging that "faded" film look nowadays, but here's a secret: you don't have to have a VSCO preset pack to get it. In this short tutorial, Mathieu Stern will show you three very quick and very effective ways to "crush the blacks" and get that popular look using just Photoshop.
For a recent project, I was tasked with shooting a hot rod. It was exciting from the beginning, because this particular kind of car is pretty rare here where I live. The owner also requested that their dog sit on the car's fender, and for the photos to be huge -- 100 megapixels were too few.
Fotr is as close to film photography as you're likely to get out of your iPhone. The new iOS app acts just like a film camera: you have to buy "digital" film, and every single photo you take with that "roll" is printed... even the crappy ones.
What you can shoot with Canon's crazy low-light MH20F-SH camera, which has a max ISO of over 4 million? You can shoot real-time footage of people standing under the glowing Milky Way.
I remember the first time I picked up a digital camera. It was 2003 and I got this little Canon G5, a good point-and-shoot, and it was 5 megapixels.
Film photographers sick of the same-old who want to try something totally different definitely need to give Film Washi a look. The self-styled "world's smallest film company" just started making its signature black-and-white film "W" in 35mm format!
Canadian filmmaker Scott Portingale has released a new short mixed media film titled "Infinitude." Created by hand using an assortment of camera techniques, the film tells the story of the evolution of matter and energy over time.
The digital revolution—and a revolution it was—enabled photographers to immediately start saving money after new equipment purchases. Sure, the quality sucked initially (and convenience was overstated) but after a few years, the whole thing really started to work properly, for the most part.
Unless you have the dough to get a lab scanner, it is a painful process to scan your own film. Luckily one day all the photo labs dumped their Pakon F-135 to the market, and I remember you could get one for ~$250 a pop.
Sales of photographic film have been steadily rising over the last few years, with professionals and amateurs alike rediscovering the artistic control offered by manual processes and the creative satisfaction of a physical end product.
When Polaroid announced that it would stop making Polaroid instant film in February 2008, The Impossible Project was founded to keep the film alive. Filmmaker Jens Meurer has spent several years shooting a feature-length documentary film about the saving and reinventing of the Polaroid picture.
It's time for a long overdue post. Looking back through my archives, I realized that I've covered topics like film selections and scanning film but to date I've skipped one really important part: metering and exposing color film.
The Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube has amassed over 1 million subscribers by sharing videos of various objects getting crushed by a powerful hydraulic press. For its latest video, the channel decided to crush some vintage Canon and Nikon SLR camera gear.
Developing your own color negative film at home might not be as scary as you think. With a simple developing kit, a few accessories, and a short tutorial, the folks at the Film Photography Project will show you how to do it in just 10 minutes.
Photography company VSCO has released a new film pack that may finally woo the film emulation hold-outs among us. It's called the "VSCO Film Essentials" pack, and it'll nab you 14 of VSCO's most popular presets for just $59.
Remember the Filmomat automatic film processor that went viral in December 2015? If you said "want!" when you saw that machine, there's good news for you: a new personal automatic film processing machine has already hit the market: it's called the Osiris F1.
Jason P. Howe is a self-taught photographer who started documenting the conflict in Colombia starting in 2001. Since then, he has traveled to many countries around the world, documenting conflicts on the front lines. "Hoka Hey" is an upcoming documentary film about Howe's life and work.
These are not Photoshop creations and they are not double exposures. In a world of digital manipulation, Hungarian photographer Judit Cholnoky's portrait series Fading Memories is a beautiful example of the power of film photography and alternative processing.
Photo projects usually are planned, researched and given approval to. This one just kind of fell into my lap after a single day of shooting on a bunch of expired film on a whim at the Daytona 500.
Enjoy documentary films about photographers? Here's one to add to your list: Don't Blink - Robert Frank. It's a new look at the life and work of one of the most famous American photographers. (Note: There's some strong language in the video).
Want to recreate that "Martian" look? Or maybe it's the "Moonrise Kingdon" look you're going for, or your latest photo project needs the "Annie Hall" look. Whatever cinematic feel you're trying to capture, Cinema Palettes can help you achieve it.
Every year, around the beginning of April, I find myself getting lost in the emotions I felt after witnessing and photographing the aftermath of the explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013.
In December, I went along to my friend Paul’s leaving do. He was departing the UK to live with his family in the US, and was spending his last few weeks visiting friends in Britain and Europe before the big move.
We are in the 21st century. The world has gone digital. It has changed the way we communicate, watch movies, listen to music and take photos.
I found them on the bottom of a box in a New Jersey antique shop filled with photographic junk from years gone by. They were just sitting there, four faded yellow boxes mixed in with haze covered filters, dirty lens caps, ancient darkroom thermometers and broken cable releases.
Here’s a short and sweet educational video by the YouTube channel What Is… …
Kodak Alaris, the spin-off of Eastman Kodak that produces the photographic film products the Kodak name is known for, may be in trouble. The company plans to shut down one of its five major manufacturing facilities by the end of this year.
If you love old film cameras and constantly want to know more about them, then we've got the perfect YouTube channel for you. It's called, appropriately enough, "Old Cameras" and even veteran film photographers might learn a thing or two from a few of the videos.
Everybody is "reinventing" things these days, but even still, we would be lying if we said we weren't at least intrigued by the all-new Impossible Project I-1. It's the company's very first camera, or, as they put it, "The Original Instant Camera. Reinvented."
It came out first in 1940, when Europe was plunged into war but America was enjoying the dying days of calm before the storm. It was Kodak’s new black-and-white film, designed to be shot on location. The only problem was, it was only available in large format.
Fuji's Instax instant film was the bestselling item in Amazon's Camera category in the 2015 holiday season. It wasn't a fluke: the company's instant film business has been exploding in popularity in recent years.