I restarted shooting on film when I received the old SLR camera previously owned by my grandfather. Sometime after, my mother found her old point-and-shoot film camera and she gave it to me.
This brings me to the first advice: shooting on film is more expensive as you have to buy film and develop them, therefore, I suggest you look around you and maybe you’ll have some good photographic gear you can use for free – and have more money to make more pictures. If you’re used to using digital cameras, it can be that your first film won’t be particularly satisfying.
Personally speaking, I now shoot several films on 2 cameras and I do not feel the need to buy any other camera, but If I search on the web, I see reflex cameras for around 20 CHF/EUR/USD.
Once you start to shoot your first film, you’ll be automatically faced with the next question: which roll should I use? I’m not an expert and there are plenty of discussions on the web, but at the moment, I had great results using ISO 400 rolls, both color and black and white. I started by buying the most known brands such as Kodak and Ilford as they are easier to find and a guarantee of quality, but I’m now also exploring some other films of (at least for me) less-known producers.
At this point, the next natural question is… where should I go to let develop the roll? I invested some time on the web to find the best option. This search is really worth it, as there are several possibilities and the price range can be quite broad. I finally found a very nice shop close to me that offers a good price and so I can avoid having any postal fees. Moreover, if you have a physical shop where you can go, you’ll most probably see there some other interesting gear, such as film or other stuff you might be interested in. And of course, some film lovers that can be ready to help you. Last but not least, I personally found it important to support local shops instead of the big online companies, for several good reasons that I’ll for sure better explain in another article.
The last advice I can give you is linked to what I just wrote above, or better said, it’s its consequence… The prints! When I was younger, it was normal to develop the film and receive a print of every picture, otherwise, you would not have had the possibility to see your pictures! Now, the digital world can bring us some advantages when we’re using film photography that I did not have at that time: the use of a scanner!
Usually, when you want to develop a film, you’ll be asked if you want prints, just the film, or the digital file. I personally find a great advantage to first have the possibility to see the pictures on my screen and then choose which pictures are worth a print. Not only for an economical reason but generally, I hate to accumulate stuff and moreover, it’s way more efficient to only have prints I really want to have. I will never forget all those pictures we received at that time from the lab that were useless – absolutely no sense!
As for the developer choice, also the scanning process is an important one. Maybe it’s the lab that sends you directly the file or maybe it can be more interesting to scan them by yourself. There are full of “how to” tutorials where you can see people building interesting scanners with their digital camera and a backlight system or you can also buy a scanner directly. I found out that you can also rent some scanners if you look on the internet, this solution can be interesting if you don’t want to have other stuff in your house.
So, if you decided to explore this magical world of film photography, keep in mind that with some small tricks you can do it without spending a fortune and make the experience even more joyful.