New @ Film and needing some tips!

[pweknikonf3]

Hi,

I just got hold of a SLR. It's my dad's actually. A Nikon F3 with Motor Drive MD-4 and Zoom-Nikkor 35~105mm lens. And now he's handing it over to me, seeing that I have been very passionate about the craft. This is my first camera, btw but I have already tried shooting with a DSLR (w/c I borrowed from a friend for about a month). I kinda know the basics like aperture, ISO and shutter speed. but I would love some tips about how to start with Film because I know it's an entirely different arena. I would greatly appreciate your help. How should I start out? i'm leaning more on street photography

[Axle]

Load it up with film, and go shooting! The F3 is a wonderful camera to use, I have on myself.

[photophorous]

...I would love some tips about how to start with Film because I know it's an entirely different arena...

It's not entirely different. You could probably just load some film and go shooting, but if you haven't already, you should read about how to get a good exposure, what shutter speeds and apertures do, and what a "stop" is...the basics. You should be able to find a tutorial somewhere on the net and it doesn't matter if it's for film or digital cameras.

The main differences between exposing digital and exposing film are that you can not review the image on an LCD right after you shoot it and you can not switch ISO speed any time you want to. You pick a film based on how much speed you need, and you stay at that speed until the roll is finished. Determining the correct exposure is technically the same in terms of apertures and shutter speeds. However, you will find that film is more tolerant of over-exposure, where digital is more tolerant of under-exposure. I don't know if you noticed when you were shooting digital, but digital cameras tend to wash out the brighter areas of a scene (highlights), especially in high contrast situations. Digital photographers will sometimes deliberately underexpose a little bit to keep the highlights from washing out. You don't have to do that as much with film, especially negative film. In fact sometimes you may want to do the opposite...over-expose a little so shadow areas aren't so dark. Usually these are small changes from what the meter reads, maybe plus or minus one stop. Slide film is more like digital, so you have to watch the highlights a little more than you do with negative film.

For street photography, I recommend starting with a 400 ISO negative film. You may be tempted to try a lot of different kinds of films, but when you're first starting with film it's a good idea to pick one and stick with it until you've experimented enough that you know how to get good exposures. All films behave a little differently, so if you switch around too much you'll never learn how to get the best results from any of them.

Hope that helps.

Paul

[Axle]

For street photography, I recommend starting with a 400 ISO negative film.

Kodak BW400CN is a good place to start. It's a C41 process B/W film.

[cameron665]

Tri X is my favourite.

[PWhite214]

As much as I love Tri-X, I wouls suggest using BW400CN as a start. You can get processing almost anywhere.

When I go to the local drugstore for processing, I specify no prints, just process and scan to CD. Then I decide what I want printed.

Phil

[xjken99]

Welcome to the world of film. I still enjoy using my Canon T70 and my Nikon F65 which I just took out yesterday. One thing I would do is to find one subject and then take 24exp roll of just that one subject using various camera settings. This will give you a good idea of how the camera changes exposures with each setting. Another thing that helps me is to either write down each exposure or take a small pocket tape recorder to keep track of each exposure. Good Luck, and be sure to post some shots.