Starting With Film?
A classic black Nikon SLR design with just a bit of red on the grip
Going out on a limb, I believe it is potentially reasonable for someone who was interested in photography to start with film. To the uninitiated, this may seem like an innocuous statement to make. However, these articles and their corresponding comment sections demonstrate what a controversial position this is to hold: You’re Making a Mistake if You’re Not Telling Your Friends to Start With Film and Why You Shouldn’t Learn Photography on Film
Photography is in an interesting place in 2020. In one way, it is an industry in decline. Newspapers are constantly laying off photojournalists and photographers. Professional photography jobs are much less plentiful than they may have been just a few decades ago. Dedicated camera sales have absolutely cratered, dropping more than 90% since their high around 2010. As bleak as all that sounds, it doesn’t really capture the entire picture. Photography is actually exploding in popularity as an art form, and is almost certainly more popular now than it ever has been. Generally speaking the second most expensive component on the most ubiquitous piece of technology from this century is a camera. The truth is smartphones would be nothing without their cameras. Three of the top four apps on the App Store are typically either photography or videography based apps which require a constant massive stream of user created content. Additionally, as controversial as it may be, citizen journalists and smartphone videography/photography have almost certainly had a more profound impact on the national discourse than anything produced by a dedicated journalist or cameraman for at least the past 5 years.
With all that considered, where does photography truly stand? It has been completely democratized and taken as something of a given for day to day life. There is much to debate regarding Instagram and whether it is more of a photography app or a lifestyle focused social network with photographic components. No matter where one falls on that discussion, the fact remains that hundreds of millions of people engage with the platform and the images featured by it. People are thinking about photography more than at any time before. These users represent a plethora of potential new photographers to bring into the hobby in a more formal sense. These are people who are perhaps not as technically versed in the concepts of aperture, shutter speed, or ISO, but with keen photographic eyes; understanding what makes for a pleasing composition or how to pose someone for a portrait. While these Instagrammers may not understand how to use off camera flash (actually most photographers don’t really understand this skill) they tend to be rather adept at light re-touching and image editing work. The skills that they possess are generally the harder skills to come by, skills that require finesse, practice, and ultimately experience. The photographic skills that they do not possess are relatively trivial and could probably be picked up rather quickly if they were so inclined.
A Nikon N8008 and 50mm F/1.8D can be had for around $125.00 on eBay
Thus, there is a population of potential photographers out there who are more inclined to see photography in an artistic context with an already partially developed aesthetic sense. Therefore, I believe it is not at all unreasonable to think that it would be perfectly fine for an Instagrammer to start a foray into photography by shooting on film. The fact of the matter is that it is a very difficult thing to argue to a person with a good smartphone camera that they should try using a “real” digital camera. There is probably not enough differentiation in image quality and feature set between an iPhone X Pro camera and a Sony A6100 with a kit lens to justify the $800.00+ price tag to the average Instagrammer(you can insert pretty much any new consumer level camera in here and the point will still stand).
However, I believe there is quite a bit of difference when you give someone a film camera. It is a tired cliché, but there is something just a bit magical about shooting film. It harkens back to a time when we could not be so instantly gratified as we are today. You won’t know how the images turned out until you get them back from the developer. Few things are quite so exciting in our day-to-day lives as getting back images from the developer and examining them. Personally, I find film plays both sides of the same coin, by its nature it is limited and thus photographs should be carefully considered before taking the shot; however it is simultaneously low pressure, because it would be unreasonable to expect the images to come out perfectly since it is after all just film. Furthermore, as long as you are not going out and shooting a tremendous amount every weekend, only indulging in it as a hobby, film is remarkably affordable. You could get a Nikon N75 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens and shoot 9 rolls of Kodak Gold 200 plus developing for less than $200.00 all together. Personally, that sounds like a tremendous amount of fun per dollar spent to me, and a super way to get an interested party invested in the wonderful art of photography.
