We live in an exciting time when it comes to photography. Digital revolutionized the market and we’ve had a huge boom of new photographers as a result. Film has also made leaps and bounds in recent history due to a revitalized interest in photography.
I got to thinking about the different types of film photographers out there today, and I think I can narrow them down to seven main categories. Not that I’m trying to draw lines and boundaries, but take this for what it is: my own observations and opinions. So here are the categories and some tips for spotting these creatures in the wild…
Old School Film Extremist
Pre-digital film shooters that never gave up on film. In fact, they seemingly resent digital photography and refuse to touch the stuff. You can spot them by their comments about digital cameras killing photography, flooding the market with amateurs, reducing the value of a good photo, etc. If you see their comments on a blog or forum, you’ll instantly be reminded of Ebenezer Scrooge (bah humbug!). To avoid provoking the old school extremist, refrain from using the word “digital” or speaking of new cameras.
Old School Film Hater
Pre-digital film shooters that completely gave up on film. These folks are nearly opposite from the old school film extremist and they have a deep hatred for film photography. You can pick them out in a crowd by identifying comments like “I’ll never go back”, “film was such a waste of time and money”, or “I’m an old geezer, but digital is the only way to go!” These photographers usually don’t have the “bah humbug” sense about them, but they might stand on a very high pedestal… so high, in fact, that they won’t hear any good arguments for returning to film for any reason. Shout all you want, but they probably won’t hear you.
Old School Film Revert
Pre-digital film shooters that shot film, then digital, then film again. This is a large (and growing) category of film photographers, so there’s a good chance that some of them never stopped shooting film during the digital craze. Others packed away or sold their film cameras, only to return to it some years later. Most of these creatures continue to shoot digital, but a few renegades cast off completely from the world of digital after a while. Of all the old schoolers, this breed is the most open-minded. They’re also a major source of education and inspiration since they haven’t shut out the film photography communities. If you find an old school revert, make it your friend!
New Age Film Extremist
Post-digital film shooters that have never shot digital. These are rare creatures indeed, and highly prized among collectors! For some reason, these folks started into film photography after the digital boom. Some of them might have taken a few shots on a friend’s camera, but they never bought one themselves. Most of them also listen to music on vinyl and use an abacus for complex math. They are relatively harmless, but they can sometimes be aggressive toward digital photographers.
New Age Film Hater
Post-digital photographers who tried film and hated it. Hey, at least they gave it a shot, right? These ones are certainly more open-minded than digital extremists, but film just didn’t do it for them. Some new age film haters will attack the analog medium, while others accept that it has merits.
New Age Film Convert
Post-digital photographers that got into film after being introduced by digital. This is probably the fastest growing category of film photographer, and it’s the group that I fall into myself. Introduced to photography by the digital revolution, we started reaching for something more interesting or challenging. Once drawn into film, some of us became obsessed and let our digital equipment gather dust… others are more casual film shooters.
Digital Extremist
Digital photographers that have never shot film. These animals are the polar opposite of the old school film extremist. They grew up on digital and they refuse to even think of shooting film (why would they? it’s evil!). There are actually a few sub-groups within this category: those that hate film for some reason and those who are impartial toward it. The hateful ones can be quite entertaining with their arguments against a medium they’ve never tried.
June 6th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I guess i’d be a cross breed between an Old School and New Age Film Extremist. By the time i got into photography digital cameras were just starting to be available (though it’d be a couple more years for them to become all prevailing). I have used digital cameras for work and when shooting for other people. But my own photography is all film.
I might convert to digital eventually, maybe when i need it even more for work. But for now it is all film for me!
david
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June 6th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
I started in digital, and enjoyed it. But then I tried a Hasselblad. From that point forward it was only a matter of time and budget before I made the switch. A little over 1.5 years ago I sold my digital gear and now shoot medium and large format film only. The photo at the top of this article looks like me out street shooting today, actually.
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June 6th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
I started with film, with the digital equipments is already prevailing. One reason was the initial cost of the digital equipment is over my reach. So the incremental cost of film photography is cheaper to me at that time (my camera was my dad’s, anyway).
Now that I have acquired digital equipments, I still love to shoot film. So which category will fit me the best? The old school film revert, I guess.
Rahman
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June 6th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I’m technically a ‘New Age Film Convert’ but I think I’ve begun to feel more like an ‘Old School Film Extremist’. I sorta shot film when I was a kid and into high school, but the first pictures I took when I knew what I was doing were digital. I have since gone totally film and shoot every format I can. I have 12 film cameras, 6 of which are Polaroids. I just find I can’t take a digital shot that seriously, it’s data, it’s arbitrary, it’s copied and maimed by software. Film is tangible and when a shot is taken there it is…if an EMP went off tomorrow I still have all of my images, I just lose the scans of them. Digital has made the term ‘original’ seem irrelevant. See, the Scrooge us coming out talking about it..so I’ll stop. All the best to everyone.
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June 6th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I’m a New Age Film Convert. I started photography with my digital camera and I still like working with my digital. The last few years I’ve dabbled in film, and really enjoyed it. I started feeling like I needed a new challenge in photography and film was it. This year film camera has been used just as much as my digital which has been so much fun.
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June 7th, 2010 at 4:23 am
I don’t fall into any of these categories. I shoot both digital and film. Although I vastly prefer film for it’s look and the fact that I forced to for see the composition!
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June 7th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Interesting article. I don’t really fit into any of these categories. I started out on film when I was just a kid, 11 or 12, around 1998, using my parents 35mm point and shoot. When I was 16 I got a Canon AE-1 and shot a few rolls of film before I left home and didn’t have money to spend on film anymore. Three years ago I got a DSLR for Christmas which rekindled my interest in photography and I’m only just now getting back into film. I love film for all of it’s magic and I love digital for all of it’s convenience.
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June 15th, 2010 at 6:26 am
I’m an old school film-revert. What you said pretty much sums me up. I began shooting film when I was in high school, then I put my film gear away and shot digital, and now I shoot both. I treat each as a separate medium. Yes, the end result is a picture, but each with a very different look, ambiance, and feel to it. It’s like two painters…one uses oils on canvas, the other water colors on paper…both end up painting “a picture” but both mediums are vastly different and create a mood, texture, and feel that the other can’t replicate.
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July 1st, 2010 at 6:31 am
Please don’t get hung up on dividing lines.
Film has its place, its opportunities.
So does digital.
Enormous, exciting, opportunities.
Both of them.
And new ones yet to arrive.
The two basic techniques are mutually compatible and have the same potential for rewarding results.
I began taking a closer interest in photography four or five years before the digital revolution started, although I had a working lifetime of commissioning news and corporate still, moving and video photography behind me.
As digital came along, I got into and enjoyed (am enjoying) that too.
I’m increasingly aware in my home city, London, England, of the burgeoning number of courses and facilities dealing with, providing for, teaching about, “wet” photography.
In the early 2000s’, it was extremely hard to find and get access to an operational dark room, I know because I tried.
Now this type of facility, private and/or community-led, is readily available, regularly advertised. And mail-order film processing didn’t die completely either, with specialist providers satisfying a growing, if still niche, market.
There is, I feel, an element of fashion in the current wave of interest in film, but the young – thank goodness – are wide open to choice, so I see the two techniques existing, expanding, interweaving in a very healthy way.
Put me down as “Both”.
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Brian Auer Reply:
July 1st, 2010 at 8:26 am
Don’t worry — I’m not getting hung up on dividing lines. I’m simply making observations, starting discussions, and getting a better feel for who our readers are.
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July 11th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
I’ve just ordered a digital camera having spent my time as a new-school film extremist (though I’ve never been against digital, I just love pushing film, chemicals on my hands and pulling a roll of film out of the tank)… There is no category on the poll for what I’m about to come!
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August 1st, 2010 at 2:08 pm
I am a New Age Film Convert and my DSLR is definitely gathering dust, while I start buying more and more old film cameras.
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February 19th, 2011 at 5:25 am
I guess I’m an old School Film Extremist! As even if I’m only 33, I learned photography before digital came, and I never gave up on film… It’s not that I think digital is that bad, but I like black and white and laboratory work so… And also I wouldn’t like to have all my pictures on a hard drive or dvds, and make copies all the time! With film if in 50 years I want to make a good 30×40 print I just take the negative, put it in my enlarger and do it! And nothing compares to a beautiful print manually made on FB paper!
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