Is it still relevant to shoot film?

Vintage K1000

With most smartphones today having the ability to shoot 4k video and take beautiful images, you might wonder why even consider shooting film. I’m not saying you need to go to the store and buy a film camera today, but I do believe that shooting film can help you become a better photographer.

1.) Back to basics.

With mirrorless, smartphone, and DSLR its point shoot and you get the picture. You do have the option to control the camera manually, but with automatic modes like aperture or shutter priority why not just point, shoot and let the camera do the work? Using a film camera forces you to learn how your exposure triangle works together with manual ISO, shutter, and aperture.

2.) The “Look”

I love sharp photos just as much as the next guy, but the sharpness doesn’t make a good image great. Shooting film gives raw emotion to your images with grain and motion blur. It’s hard to deny film gives a nostalgic look that we all want in our images, think about all the filters on Facebook and Instagram.

3.) Slowing down

When shooting film there is a cost with each press of the shutter. Film rolls, typically are limited to 24 or 36 exposures. This leads to much greater thought involved with each photo you take, compared to digital that you can “spray and pray” one of your images is good. The limit of exposes causes you to be much more methodical with each press of the shutter, thinking much more about the composition, and lighting.

I still shoot film for the joy of it. Shooting film forces you to flex different photography muscles you don’t consider when shooting digital. Film photography embraces the imperfect with each image, the grain, the color, the light leaks, something that digital photography cannot replicate no matter how many filters you use.