Opinion

We have sung the praises of the Nikon Df on Shutterbug several times before so it’s nice to know we’re not the only ones still infatuated with this retro-styled DSLR from 2013. Photographer Mattias Burling who takes second looks at recent classic cameras on his excellent YouTube channel has put out a video titled “5 Reasons to Buy a Nikon DF in 2018 - As underrated as it gets.

At Shutterbug.com, we have a vast archive of how-to stories and tips pieces offering advice from photography experts on what you should do to take better photos. But after following the wacky and occasionally disturbing photography news this past month, I’ve come up with a list of five things you really shouldn’t do as a photographer.

Here are seven film shooting skills that make you a better digital photographer. And I’ll bet my last roll of Tri-X that they work.

In an age when fast food coffee cups are marked “Caution: Hot” it’s unfortunate that some of the hidden hazards photographers encounter don’t have warning signs. Forewarned is forearmed, as wise men say. Or as I like to say, sometimes the difference between a disaster and a minor annoyance is knowledge, experience and preparation—or accidentally stumbling upon some obscure piece of advice on the internet.

I’m hardly what you’d call a Film Dinosaur. Over 98% of the images I shoot are captured digitally. But, after I recently ran a dozen rolls of Kodak Tri-X 120 through some ancient medium-format roll film cameras, and had it developed, scanned, and printed on Fuji Crystal Archive photographic paper, I’m a much better digital photographer because of it.

Early photographers were bedeviled by the slowness of their sensitized materials. Though exposure times were eventually shortened to workable lengths, early studios used neck braces and confining chairs to keep their subjects still while the exposure was being made.

Optical technology has advanced dramatically since the early days of zoom lenses when the consensus among serious photographers was that prime lenses offered far greater sharpness, resolution, color rendition and contrast than zoom lenses. In the video below, Matt Granger discusses that “misconception” as it pertains today, as well as the notion that prime lenses encourage more compositional creativity by forcing you to “zoom with your feet.”