Welcome!
Here’s some great resources that I learned when I first was starting out with my analog photography and photo career.
Butkus: A truly unique website experience ran by the King of analog and obscure camera information. If you have a camera, he has a manual for it. Absolute legend for refusing to optimize his website for mobile use and keeping it looking exactly how it was 10+ years ago.
Camera-wiki: Not a true Wiki but very informative resource for researching the world of analog cameras.
The Big Film Database: Database of every film stock ever made that has a DX code on it (the barcode on film canisters).
KEH and MPB: While eBay is the used camera King, KEH and MPB have better vetting and quality control for the used cameras they sell.
Freestyle Photo, B&H, and Adorama for if you need to buy film or anything else KEH, MPB, eBay or your local camera shop won’t have.
Mar 29, 2025
Related Recs
Here are some super basic film photography tips! I'm not an expert, but this is just a quick crash course of the film101 basics. All the fun comes from trial and error, though, so if you get a working camera, just mess around and you'll figure it out!
CAMERAS
- SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras have a mirror that flips up to take the photo (making the satisfying click sound), if you're getting a second-hand camera check that mechanism works by dry-firing the camera on all the shutter speeds (usually a dial on the top of the camera that measures in milliseconds) and making sure it completely goes up and down in the amount of time the shutter speed is set to.
- A good starter SLR is the Canon AE1 or the Canon AE1-Program. Both of those cameras have lots of interchangeable lenses that are still pretty easy to find online, fully mechanical mechanisms so they can be repaired and don't need a power source, and the Program version has the program mode which sets shutter speed and f/stop automatically, so all you have to do is point and shoot. I recommend going full manual though, just to get a feel for how each aspect influences each other!
- If you're storing your camera, make sure that it is UNCOCKED (if you were to press down the shutter button, it WOULDN'T take a photo). This prevents unnecessary sustained tension on the mechanisms
- Point and shoots are cool! Those are usually battery powered, but you don't have to set anything other than if you're shooting in natural light (daylight) or indoor light (tungsten). Great for fast photos, but they won't teach you about proper image exposure.
TAKING A PHOTO
- f/stop (also called aperture) is how much light gets into the camera through the lens itself, a larger f/stop means less light, a smaller f/stop means more light
- The faster the shutter speed, the less light gets onto the film, use high shutter speeds for bright areas, low shutter speeds for dark areas
- Film has an ISO (sometimes called ASA, they are the same) listed on the box and on the canister itself, that's how sensitive the film is to light - higher ISO is more sensitive, lower ISO is less sensitive
- Shutter Speed, ISO, and F/stop are all RELATED so if you adjust one you have to adjust the others as well to get the same properly exposed image. Rule of thumb with film, since the ISO is set on the film itself, if you bring the shutter speed UP you bring the F/stop DOWN and vice versa - there are calculators online to figure that out as well!
- Frame your subject in your viewfinder and make sure it's in focus! Usually there will be numbers on the lense in feet or meters that represent how far away you are from the subject, but its an imperfect science! As long as everything looks good you can take the photo!
- the AE-1 family has an internal light meter, where if you half-press the shutter button, in full manual mode a little dial will go up in the viewfinder and tell you what f/stop you should be set to based on the shutter speed you're at. This is the one battery operated element of the camera, so if the battery is dead this will not work. Light meter apps for your phone work too (and usually better)!
- "proper exposure" is just an image that looks as close to real life as possible, that's totally subjective, but underexposed images will be darker (not enough light let into the camera when taking the photo, shadowy) and overexposed images will be brighter (too much light let into the camera, blown out). It is much easier to make an underexposed image look natural in editing than it is to make an overexposed image look natural, so I always err on the side of potential underexposure rather than over.
FILM STOCK
- Black and white is great to start out on just because when you develop it you really get to see shadows/ highlights, I love Illford 400! Color film is usually available at CVS, the Fujifilm 400 can be found by the disposable cameras. There are also a bunch of boutique film stocks from companies like tomography you can get online or at specialty photography stores
- Store any film you're not using in a freezer, that keeps them from deteriorating
- Expired film can still be used but since the chemicals on it deteriorate you've gotta adjust, I usually use an online calculator to figure out what the ISO has turned into and thus what you should be adjusting the shutter speed and f/stop to.
- DON'T go to CVS to get film developed - to mirror what @carolineheins said, it's not worth it! There are mail-in services you can ship rolls of film too, and also local developers if you just google around in your area! I personally get just the negatives back because I have my own scanner and that's about $10/roll at my local place, but for a little more the developers will send you digital copies or full size prints of any of the photos on the roll!
Now you can get out and shoot! It's all about experimentation, just have fun and you'll figure it out!
Mar 28, 2025
Aug 1, 2024
Top Recs from @wakeuplmd
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Everything in your life does not have to be subscription based, and subscription does not equate a service being good. If I’m paying $24.99 a month to watch Netflix in 4K UHD, I should expect to see what I pay for, not subpar playback latency, low bitrate streams, many app crashes, and overall looking terrible on anything that isn’t a 4K display.
Remember when you could buy things and own them, like, forever?
There is a better world out there past Netflix, Hulu, Spotify and Amazon Prime.
Mar 15, 2025
You don’t have to tell everyone everything in/about your life, especially online, in today’s online yet frequently data-breached world. Like the great Christopher Wallace once said: Keep your family and business completely separated
Mar 24, 2025
I have a near-Biblical dislike of Allbirds shoes and every other Tim Cook Jeff Bezos Middle-aged Balding Pickleball coach ass shoe out there for convincing the public that these were in any way cool. No dude, you look like a loser with these. They look bland and lifeless, like they were concocted in the same boardroom that made the flat graphic design trend that Meta and Google love so much. Hell, even notorious ip-infringer Skechers makes better looking shoes than these. They don’t even feel good to wear. They have no soul or personality and yet some people swear by them. Who are these shoes for?
Feb 16, 2025