When I first started photography and before I was introduced to Lightroom, I used Nikon’s editing software. Looking back at those old photos, I felt disgusted at how I edited them.
I had a tendency to make everything look HDR (High Dynamic Range) and extremely contrasty. Anyway, I met a photography hobbyist who told me it’s a must to edit digital photos.
Then, I attended a photography class by Keith who is a photographer that doesn’t edit his photos. And he said it’s the same for Nat Geo’s photographers.
Nonetheless, I do edit my digital photos to adjust the brightness, and to increase/decrease ‘temperature’ to my liking. I feel that editing a photo is like adding a cherry on top of your ice cream dessert.
But I am lazy. That’s one of the reasons why I started shooting film because I thought film photos doesn’t require editing.
Kodak Tri-X 400, Queenstown Stadium (2017)
Well, I am both right and wrong.
First, people do edit their film photos. The result of your film look depends on the person/lab who scans it.
Secondly, it’s true that you do not need to digitally edit the film photos.
It’s all about personal preference.
For example, none of the film can give the natural Japanese vibe look. None! To achieve that, you got to edit the scanned film by adjusting colours, highlight and many more in Lightroom or Photoshop.
On average, it might take you 1-2 hours to edit a shot (I heard).
Kodak ColorPlus 200, Singapore (2017)
Then, there are debate from people that resent editing film.
‘So why the hell shoot film? Why don’t you just shoot digital?’
I had the same thought at first. Then, I realised there shouldn’t be a fixed rule in photography and I have to be open-minded.
It’s totally alright to shoot and edit film photos. For all you know, the person might also hate the editing part because it’s time consuming. However, he/she loves the film medium and the solid, 3D look only film can offer. So, they just had to ‘digitalised’ and edit the film photos.
At least if they do a good job, it fetches them money! Ultimately, clients don’t care whether the photos are edited or not, all they want is a good portrait of them looking slim and pretty.
Tudor color xlx 200, Dover, (2017)
Personally, I don’t edit my film shots. For now, I take whatever comes out from the lab. But I guess I might want to learn how to do editing so perhaps there’s a chance I can charge money to edit film photos, muahaha!
But I heard scanner is an essential part in deciding your editing efficiency. I don’t know how true it is. And they say my Epson V600 sucks and the free Epson software sucks even more.
Well, I don’t want to give a damn about scanner right now because I just want to enjoy my film camera, improve my composition and not end up ditching film because of money issue.
What’s your thought about this?
Kodak Color Plus 200, view from my flat (2017)
Like you have said, just enjoy your film cameras.
I do edit my scans. Basic curves and level with a free software, Darktable. My “client” (me) pays for the films and camera so I do want he wants. 😂
Your camera, your pic. Do what u like.
Cheers
Agree! 🙂
I’ve just cancelled my Lightroom subscription and I’ve gone back to Nikon Capture NX-D. I used mostly slide film in the past so I always try to get exposure correct in-camera, even though I use RAW format in a digital camera. I dislike adjusting photos in computer so I usually just add a little brightness or perhaps trim a bit.
The experience is a bit different when I get film scanned. Cheap roll scans usually require more adjusting, but I don’t worry about it too much because those scans are basically just my contact sheet. Once I’ve made my final selection from the roll, I send the film to the lab for a 50MB scan. The lab does adjustments when you order big scans so there’s little for me to do. I like that!
Someone said it takes 1-2 hours of processing for each photo? It’s just as well to take up painting if you’re going to spend that much time at it. 🙂 Probably the person was referring to commercial photography.
I really like the high-key photo of the view from your flat.
I really enjoy the process of shooting film and not knowing if you got it right until you have the scans back from the lab. But I agree, digital and analog film both have its place. The main thing is to just enjoy photography.