Jonathan Canlas - Film Is Not Dead: A Digital Photographers Guide to Shooting Film

A Digital Photographers Guide to Shooting Film

By Jonathan Canlas & Kristen Kalp
Photography by Jonathan Canlas

FILM IS NOT DEAD: A DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS GUIDE TO SHOOTING FILM
JONATHAN CANLAS AND KRISTEN KALP

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New Riders is an imprint of Peachpit, a division of Pearson Education

Copyright 2012 by Jonathan Canlas
All photography Jonathan Canlas except where noted

Acquisitions Editor: Ted Waitt
Production Editor: Tracey Croom
Cover and Interior Design: Natalie Christensen
Layout and Composition: Natalie Christensen

Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact .

Notice of Liability
The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the authors nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

ISBN-13 978-0-321-81280-3
ISBN-10 0-321-81280-8

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America

For my wife, Callie, and our
beautiful children: Isaac, Ila, Ruby,
Lulu, Weston, and Kalani.

Each one of you has inspired me
to create these images and together,
you all are responsible for any success
I have in life. Thank you.

And for my father, Arsenio Canlas.
I did it, Dad. I did it.

Jonathan

Dear Mom and Dad,

Turns out that English degree
wasnt useless, after all.

All my love,
Kristen

P.S. MattMatt, dear husband
of mine...thank you. More than
you can possibly imagine.

Holga 120S, Kodak E100VS, cross-processed, sunny setting. Paris, France.

FILM IS NOT DEAD. THATS WHY YOURE HERE.

Whether youre shooting for the first time or returning to film after a hiatus, welcome.

With this book, you have all the information necessary to leap from digital shooting to film shooting on the day your shiny new film purchases arrive in the mail. (Or the day you get your film gear out of the closet and start shooting film again.)

Holga, Kodak E100VS, cross-processed, sunny setting. Maui, HI.

Contax 645, 80mm lens, Fuji 400H, f/2. Provo, UT. Taken by Allison Cox.

You dont have to send me your social security card, or anything...but trust the way this book is arranged. Ive held tons of Film Is Not Dead workshops and answered thousands of questions from peeps around the world about film. This book condenses aaaaaaaaall those questions into an easy-to-read guide.

Its designed for you to read all the way through to build the beginnings of a film foundation. Let me repeat: its designed for you to read all the way through before freaking out about the 6,873 questions this book has created.

Youre going to have questions. Its great to have questions! Im gonna need you to write those questions down. Many times, your questions will be answered later in the book. If theyre not answered dont waste having gone through the trouble of writing em down! Google em.

Google provides a lot more current data about the cost of X camera body or X lens or X accessory than this book can. Google can find stuff thats available for sale. Google knows the sunny 16 rule just as well as I do. Google is king when it comes to finding what you need.

If your question isnt answered in this book and youve got Google stumped, you can ask me. I have no secrets, and I dont believe in industry secrets. Sometimes theres a question that requires an honest-to-goodness film-shooting veterans opinion or knowledge Im happy to answer those questions!

Just know that many times, my answer will be pretty boring. My answer will be try it and see or practice, practice, practice or something along the lines of a long rambling answer ending in hard work, sacrifice, and discipline. Imagine a 250-pound dude giving you those same three answers over and over, and youll be finding your own answers to questions in no time. (I get pretty repetitive, after all.)

Mamiya RZ Pro II, Kodak Portra 160NC, 110mm lens, f/2.8. St. Louis, MO.

SURE, IM COMMITTED TO FILM BUT WHY? WHAT MAKES IT WORTH THE EFFORT OF CREATING AND MAINTAINING MY OWN LAB? THE ANSWERS AWAIT.

FILM ALLOWS ME TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH MY FAMILY, LESS TIME WITH MY EYES GLUED TO A COMPUTER SCREEN.

ONE: THE LOOK OF IT. Film has a distinctive look and feel an incredible color palette and tangible softness. Film is where its at, visually. You may have tried to make your digital images look like film and failed or just realized that the easiest way to get the look of film is to shoot film.

TWO: THE EASE OF IT. I have a full-time photography business that requires loads of travel. I also have a wife and six kids who would like to see more than my face staring at a computer screen every once in a while. Film allows me to shoot, develop, scan, tweak, and upload images to clients in a fraction of the time it takes to process the same number of images digitally. The majority of my finished images are straight from the camera, with only minor adjustments to make them sing.