(Above image by Erik Lauri Kulo)

Who would have thought that 146 years after the photographic negatives were added to protected works under copyright – people would still use the technique even though there’s an almost futuristic alternative?

In the late 90s photographic film made, what would seem, a last push to stay on top of the photography market with a row of new cameras such as the Olympus Mju-II that quickly sold around 3.8 million examples. Or the Canon EOS 1-N that served the purpose of showcasing just how advanced Canon’s technology really was at the time.

But with the millennium came a new king of the market: the digital camera. With the new Canon 1D and Nikon D1 film truly appeared to be losing the battle. And today when technology has reached a level that was a mere fantasy of science fiction fans a couple of years ago, it would seem like film is dead.

The workhorse of photography

Thankfully, I was born in the year 1990 and didn’t miss out too much on the post-futuristic era that we live in today. Surely it was an amazing time in a way; likewise, we are living in amazing times today. We have a habit of going back to our very roots and perhaps that is the reason I’ve gone from digital photography to film.

When I humblingly began my photography in 2006 I used a simple digital compact camera and later upgraded to a Canon EOS 400D. It wasn’t until 2010 that I upgraded to a 7D and shortly after to a 5D Mark II. But even though these are all great cameras, I got sidetracked and ended up with a fridge full of film and a shelf full of analog cameras.

When firing off the shutter of a digital camera I’ve always felt that I’m missing out in the process; as if I am not the one creating the pictures. But with film photography I’m actively making decisions throughout the whole process: what film will I use? What ASA? What camera and with what lens? What developer and how will I develop it? What post-production will I do?

Unlike digital photography, film feels like a true workhorse. At the beginning I wanted to try out different techniques, like harsh agitation to create heavy grain and contrast, but it turned out to be a dead end. I learned that the best way to develop is to develop as well as you can, so you’ll get good negatives – then you can work on the contrast in post-production.

Grain, film, street and fears

Any place in the world is a place for photography. Even an old industrial town like Sundsvall, my hometown, holds its fair share of decisive moments and interesting people. Being there is all that matters – but it’s harder than you think, especially when you have a five-ton rock on your chest and a devil on your shoulder stomping on your confidence. Not everyone can be a Bruce Gilden, and certainly not me.

To overcome this fear is impossible for me, instead I focus on working on an alternative way of photographing. What works for me personally is being invisible. When I was younger I was always frustrated when walking the streets because people kept bumping into me, as if I was not there – I would never have guessed that this would later come to use. By no means have I perfected this way of photographing, I am a young street photographer after all. But it works for me and I know I’m on the right track – what is yours?

Using film when I saunter the streets enables me to always stay inside my own focused, subjective view of the world. No longer am I distracted by the digital LCD that one can not avoid peeking at after each photograph. Film is acuity and grain is merely an expression.

Practical tips for beginners

Starting out film photography is a simple one-way street. Perhaps you are afraid that you won’t be able to develop your own negatives, or perhaps you’ve heard that film photography is expensive (I spend about $40 a month on film) – well, I’ll give you what I see as the truth.

As a beginner the vast, but shrinking, variety of different films may be overwhelming. But the jungle isn’t as deep as it may seem. There are basically four standard films: Kodak T-max 400, Kodak Tri-X, Ilford HP5+ and Fuji Neopan 400. All of these films are rated 400 ASA, being the same as ISO 400, and which one to choose is entirely up to you. The only solid tip when it comes to choosing film is to do a simple search on Flickr with the name of the film (e.g. “Kodak T-max 400”) and see how you like the results that people gets.

The films mentioned above are all black and white, and that is the main focus in this article. However, I’d just like to mention a few points about color film: developing color film with C-41 is claimed to be almost as easy as black and white developing, but as I will try this myself next month for the first time I’m unable to hand out any practical tips. The main point to be made is that the temperature has to be exact when it comes to color film, while it can differ quite a lot with black and white without the results being ruined.

When it comes to what color film to choose I’d recommend you choose the classics. For saturated colors you’re well off with Fuji Superia and for the more neutral look: Fuji Pro 400H is a great choice. Then there’s the high quality Kodak Portra 400 that has a well-balanced color tone.

As a footnote: I buy all my films at Macodirect (www.macodirect.de) and am very pleased with both their supply and service. There are other stores as well, but I have no experience with them. If you do have any recommendations I urge you to leave a comment.

Tips on developing black and white film

To develop your own negatives, all you need is the right equipment and a dark room. Not a traditional darkroom, but an actual dark room that allows no light to sip through. Because when you load the film onto the spiral, no light is allowed or the film will be ruined. But once you get the film into your film tank you can turn on the lights again.

Developing a film is done with three liquids: the developer, stop and fix. Some people like to use a wetting agent to avoid dry spots. For how-to guides and time charts, please see links below.

While there are a lot of great resources online when it comes to guides and tips for developing at home, there are some things you need to know. First of all: nothing is written in stone. You can do whatever you like to your negative, but I advise you to get a basic understanding of developing and try to get as good results as you can in the beginning. When it comes to developing times, I always add an extra 30 or 60 seconds to the time to get a little bit of extra contrast in the negatives and I highly recommend you to add around 30 seconds even when you start out.

Agitation is a highly debated subject and people will tell you that you’re doing it wrong no matter how you twist and turn that film tank. I have received excellent results when gently turning the tank completely upside down while twisting it and do this twice every 30 seconds. Then when it comes to the stop I keep agitating (turning the tank) the entire time, which is one minute for the stop I use, and finally with the fix I use the same technique as with the developer.

Washing is another debatable subject and again I can only give you my personal opinion. I wash my film for 15 minutes: for the first 5 minutes I do active washing; by that I mean that I fill the tank up and then I twist and turn the spiral (this is done with the tank open), empty it and then do it over again. After that time has passed I just let it sit in running water for the remaining 10 minutes. When done, I put a drop of ordinary soap into the water, wash it off and hang up the film for drying. Depending on how wet the film is I might gently drag a finger over the film to remove the biggest drops that might turn into dry spots.

When all this is done I cut up the film in 6 frames per strip and scan it, then store it in negative sleeves. And that’s it!

Hopefully this article has helped you with both finding inspiration and willpower to take that extra step into film photography and the practical information to know how to do it. There’s a lot that has been left out, but I am always ready to answer any questions you might have in the comments below – or via email if that suits you better.

Useful links

The Massive Dev Chart

A website that has times for most black and white films and developers. Highly recommended.

Link: http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php

Darkroom Source

A detailed guide about how to developing black and white film at home. Use as guidelines only, don’t follow it religiously.

Link: http://www.darkroomsource.net/tech-bw-film.shtml

About the author

My name is Erik Lauri Kulo and I’m studying photojournalism at MidSweden University in Sundsvall, Sweden. I’ve been interested in photography basically all my life but didn’t get a grasp of what it meant until 2006 when I officially started photographing.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/eriklaurikulo/

Blog: http://eriklaurikulo.tumblr.com/

Website: http://www.eriklaurikulo.se/

Got any questions about shooting with film or how to develop your own film? Ask your questions to Erik below!