Film Photography Mistakes Every Beginner Makes

If you’ve ever tried taking a picture with a film camera and been disappointed with the results, this video is for you.

Today we’ll discuss the most common mistakes beginner film photographers make and how to fix them.

We’ll talk about the closely guarded secret that is used exclusively by all the best film photographers.

And you’ll learn about all the top secret tips, tricks and hacks to really level up your film photography game.

By the end of this video, you WILL be able to take better film photos than 90% of photographers out there.

And you’re not going to need any fancy or expensive equipment to do it.

And you don’t need to memorize any complicated formulas or extreme composition techniques.

Everything in this video is adapted for the beginner film photographer to be able to get up and running as quickly as possible with whatever film camera you have access to.

#filmphotography #analogphotography #photography

🚀 PS - Here are a few things you might want to check out:

…and then a few more links that you might find useful below:

[aglassbrightly]

I wish this video was around when I was in Photography 101. A whole semester of knowledge right here!

[TheMaliceTree]

This is the best crash course in film photography I've seen so far, thank you!

[bicivelo]

Great video. Nikon F sells for 100 bucks on ebay and they are tanks! They were the primary camera used throughout the Vietnam war by photo journalist and also went to the moon on Apollo 14. You can’t go wrong. 😊

[mrki]

Awesome video, with a lots of Information.
Just one point: measuring for the shadows: it actually means, that you take a spot meter, measure the shadows which are the darkest area you still wish to see some contrast in. Then you put this measurement in the correct ‚zone‘.
The theory is, that a standard developed film has the ability to handle a stretch of an equivalent of 11 aperture steps from pure white to pure dark. Zone 0 is black and zone 10 is white. So if you open one aperture, you double the amount of light. This means, each zone is a doubling or halfen of the exposure.
A normal lightmeter exposes for zone 5 (I think). So what you do, when measuring the shadows, you put them in zone 1. then you calculate your exposure for zone 5. e.g if you measure 1/30 in zone 1 you go up 4 steps: 1/60 - 1/125 - 1/250 - 1/500.
And, because you want to make sure, that you really have some buffer, you put your shadows in zone 2 and expose 1/250.

[AugmentedGravity]

Some of these pictures mentioned here are just so iconic. Tiananmen square and Afghan Girl, both taken on the FM2, imo one of the greatest cameras of all time.

[walfredswanson]

The Nikon FM2 is a great camera. I cannot overstate its value for beginners who want a camera that is just as well suited for professional purposes.

[on]

I've been into film photography and doing my own processing since the 1970's. Your video is an excellent primer for those just getting into film. I started out with a Minolta SRT (all manual) and that's what I mostly still use (I was forever smitten and have 12 of them now). Thanks!

[jordanjoestar]

The Olympus OM1 is either one of the world's best cameras or I'm just lucky because my shots from that thing can easily stand toe to toe with my modern mirrorless systems.

It's a hammer of a machine with some world class glass. I got 2 of them with 5 lenses for $120

[UnconventionalReasoning]

The cameras shown [2:15] is a great selection!

Yes, I'm one of the people who says editing the scans is overdone. It's an extra step so the photographer can pretend they're doing even more to create the image. Whatever they took a picture of already did most of the work. If the effort was put into selecting the film, it seems likely that people will undo that when editing the scan. I know, I know.. I'm... right... 😂

[MarcoRoepers]

If you guess the distance, take a small aperture

[subrotomitra]

Very well made- got me to subscribe half-way through...clear, concise, informative. Keep it up. And I am not a beginner !!

[map]

It also has a lot to do with the lens and the film. Ektar 100 for day, Cinestill 800 for night and Tri X for black and white.

[moustachio]

This is the best intro video to film. I'm an experienced film photographer but I clicked on here to see if I needed to brush up on anything or learn something new. I didn't learn anything new but i watched it all the way through and it's exactly what i would want to hear being taught . Great job and I love the Nikon FE. I have an FM. You are should do a follow up video on using flash . I almost never use fill flash. I see a lot of photogs skip the speedlights in favor of heavy off camera flash which is an obvious logistical issue.

[crispin]

Very useful. Lots of information in ten minutes....

[ceco]

As someone who literally just starts out, Ioved this video! Immediately subscribed!

[sputumtube]

Hugely informative - thanks for posting.

[I.Alfred.Williams]

This video was great! I was recently gifted two old film cameras. A 1950s Kodak Junior 1 and a 1927 Ensign Carbine No. 4, so a bit older than the ones in this video. The 1927 camera has all of the settings like aperture size and shutter speed but the shutter is broken, so until I can get it repaired I have to use the Kodak which has literally zero options. Fixed aperture size, fixed shutter speed, fixed focus distance etc. Anyway today I shot my first ever roll of film using the Kodak and I am taking it to be developed tomorrow.

[janskrdlant]

As an "oldtimer" comming back to film photography I enjoy your videos very much and wish you all the best.

[drayyum]

Great video man, I'm only starting out with film photography and everything made perfectly sense (unlike some other videos).

[Jerry]

I was an army photographer, I was issued a Minolta X700. My boss has a Canon F-1. I was envious of his camera. Was it better? Maybe. It was a professional camera. It shot up to 1/2000 of a second, and you could change focusing screens. But did it take better pictures? No, it didn’t. He had been an army photographer his whole career in the army. I was only one for a little over two and a half years. He was a good photographer and I learned from him. But I also was awarded the Army’s version of the Pulitzer Prize. The Kieth L Ware award. I don’t know if he got it in his time in the Army, but it tells me it’s the photographer and not the camera that gets the shot. You have to know how to get the most out of your camera.