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> “They don’t pick up their negatives,” Cohen said of his customers, guessing that maybe 10 percent of them return for the rolls. "Return"? How does this work?
by bambax 2y ago
> “They don’t pick up their negatives,” Cohen said of his customers, guessing that maybe 10 percent of them return for the rolls.
"Return"? How does this work? You can't make a print without the negative, so why not give them to the customer in the same envelope? Why would the customer need to come back to get the negatives? What am I missing?
... Aaah, that's what I was missing:
> In the digital age, most shops where people get their film developed will scan the negatives into a computer and just email the photographs to their customers.
Ok. So the question that remains is why? Why shoot on film today if you're not interested in keeping the negatives and printing yourself?
Digital photography is incredibly convenient and incredibly powerful; you can simulate any film in post if you shoot raw. It's completely understandable that some people would still prefer to own the whole process and shoot on film, but doing it like this, halfway, and keeping just the scans seems very strange.
- glayciar 2y agoThey're after the "look" of film in general, and in some cases the look of the individual film stock. It can be hard to emulate digitally, although you can get similar results. Film can also be a lot more forgiving, gracefully rolling off highlights that you can usually still get something out of, unlike digital which is a straight up clipping of the values. It can also be about the process. I know when I shoot film I'm fully conscious that I've got only 36 exposures, I've got a set sensitivity, and my film stock reacts a certain way in certain situations. Limitations can be fun to work with. All that said, I always take my negatives, but it's understandable why a lot of people don't. I don't think it's a big deal.
- macintux 2y agoAnother advantage to film is the wide variety of formats. Sure, you can always crop or stitch, but I like to take 3 different medium format cameras with different aspect ratios when I go out shooting. And waist-level shooting is very nice. I don’t have a digital camera with an articulating screen that would let me compare experiences, but my TLR is a great way to get different angles and shoot street photography without being as obnoxious about it.
- exitb 2y agoOn top of that, there are tiny full frame film cameras. Meanwhile full frame digital cameras are significantly bigger and more expensive. Digital medium format even more so, is prohibitively expensive for amateurs.
- FergusArgyll 2y agoI use a film camera exclusively and almost never "pick up" the negatives. I like 1) the look, 2) the wait ( months of wondering if I'll have any good pictures of my vacation) and mostly 3) the constraint of only being able to take a few pictures. I only have a few pictures so I look at them a lot and I really enjoy each (good) one