The Beginner's Guide to Film Photography

Film photography has been around for many more years than digital, and thus the quality of film, in some ways is unsurpassed. Shooting film can take photographers back to the roots of photography and give them appreciation for our modern equivalents. 
In spirit of this guide I took all the pictures in it with b+w film.

This guide will help even the most photographically challenged people get some cool photos that they can be proud of.

This guide will be comprised of 3 parts
     -Equipment
     -Shooting
     -Developing + scanning

The equipment section goes over everything one will need to take some great pictures and develop them their selves. The shooting section covers camera setting from film speeds to f-stops everything one needs to know. Lastly the developing + scanning section involves getting your pictures developed and into a digital format that can be shared with all.

Step 1: Equipment #1 - The Camera

There's been many film cameras made in the past, with many different features. For this guide we will be using a 35mm manual slr and a 35mm "point n shoot"

The 35mm slr is most often associated with pro photographers. These cameras give superb quality images and have setting for a wide variety of different shooting scenarios. These cameras were innovative when they were first released because they allowed the photography to see exactly what the lens captures on the film when framing a shot. These cameras can be found used all over ebay for cheep, or for a little more you can pick up a new one.

The 35mm "point n shoot" is another great option for anyone jumping into film. These cameras skip past all the complex settings of slr's. They however dont have the greatest quality to their pictures. In this case were looking at a Diana mini. This camera exists to take "crappy" photos. It has few settings and gets right down to the fun of taking pictures. The pictures obtained from the Diana are usually soft focus and have other artifacts giving them an artsy look. These cameras are fairly inexpensive and certainly wont break the bank.

Resources:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/112196-GREY/Nikon_1689_FM10_35mm_SLR_Camera.html

http://usa.shop.lomography.com/diana-mini

Comments

[jcowan4]

Sweet thanks so much. I have a Pentax zx50, was thinking should I sell it. Used to do my own b n w , I'm gonna take it back up.

[ftwopointeight]

As a professional photographer who started in film, and as a pro-camera shop employee, there are a few ways around scanning your film. The easiest is to get a semi-opaque/frosted piece of plexi-glass, light it from the bottom with some cheap fluorescent desk lamps, lay your negative down flat, and shoot it with a digital point n' shoot set on Macro.
I actually took a small square box, cut the bottom out, painted the interior with flat-black spray paint, and place that over the negative and shoot through a hole cut into the lid. Works perfectly and with today's higher-megapixel count point n' shoots, you get a decently large file size to play with! Using this method, you get the sprocket holes of the film, as well as the film info =)

[onemoroni1]

You have done a good job of explaining the basics. I have my own dark room equipment and have obtained old empty film cartridges from the 1 hour places for bulk load. They have a little tail sticking out of the cart that you can easily splice the bulk film to and wind in and its free. Careful of the squeegee as I have grit in my water supply and don't use it to avoid scratched negatives.A cheap hair dryer on low can speed up film drying. Interesting print process and satisfying results. I have an enlarger and if you want to take it to that level you creative world becomes infinite. Peace

[Grzld]

enlarging is a world of its own, getting to race the clock dodging and burning all in the dark, its great

[Libahunt]

I recently tried scanning negatives laid right on a laptop screen. The screen pixels were somewhat visible - which gave a cool effect on semi-dark areas - but one might want to use some spacer between the white screen and film to get a smoother look. Contrast is bit of a problem though with this method - probably right exposure helps a lot.

[amandaghassaei]

awesome instructable! lots of great info here, you should enter it in the analog photography challenge!