another question?

[curmugeon]

Does anyone still shoot film? Have we abandoned film for digital? Does the creative process suffer? Do we see differently?

Comments

[monkeyone.livejournal.com]

I sometimes shoot film.

I don't think the creative process suffers when I shoot digital. I don't see much difference between looking through the viewfinder of a DSLR and film SLR.

However, there is a difference when I look at the LCD monitor of my small digital camera. I still don't think that changes anything. It may make composition a bit easier, but then it's almost like looking at the ground glass of a twin lens reflex.

There is something about shooting film, though. I like it. I started with film and what it did was to teach me to consider each shot. There are only 36 shots to a roll (or 12 or 24). It's not like digital where you can shoot hundreds of shots and then pick the best one. When I shoot digital, I shoot the same way that I shoot film.

I've seen younger photographers, those brought up on digital, shoot hundreds of shots to my 5 or 6. It's just click, click, click.

The other thing is that digital gives one immediate satisfaction. I can shoot, go home and view my photos in no time. I've shot and uploaded photos in the same hour.

I still have film in my camera that I need to shoot to finish the roll. Then I have to bring the roll in to be developed, wait a half hour, then go home and scan the negs.

It's fun, though. I even like scanning the negs and then removing the dust spots from the images. That way I really get to know each image.

That's the way it is for me.

[cathy-edgett.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who shoots film of a creek, Lagunitas Creek, and he believes there is a tremendous difference, and he is slowly being dragged to digital. My son majored in film in college, and, he, too, felt there was a difference, but I think the eyes of most of us are being trained to the computer and not nature, and so we aren't as discerning. I have read that children can now discern fewer colors than we used to, and when I go outside and walk in nature and see the greens and colors, I am shocked at the variety. Maybe it is the greater appreciation that age brings, or maybe it is the contrast to so much life spent looking at a flat screen and a limited number of colors.

Also, I just saw the photography of Lee Miller at SFMOMA. I think the process of developing one's own work, the discernment and time, has to make a difference over shoot, shoot, shoot. I think yes, we are seeing differently, but I attribute that mainly to so much time spent at the computer, rather than in the out of doors.

It takes time to appreciate one flower, and it used to take time to develop a picture. Do we allow that time today?

My young friend Zach and I get along so well because we like to stand and look at things. He is being trained rapidly away from that to more and more stimulation and that means he will fit into this society, and I mourn the loss of what it takes to fit into this society.