We all love photography and embraced digital cameras, smartphone photography, and Instagram. It’s all so easy and quick! Everybody is a photographer now! But how about shooting with a camera and a roll of film in your camera?
Why is analog film photography still popular?
Film photography is getting more and more popular again. Partly because of its characteristics, creative use, and enjoyment to work with materials that have so much history and creative potential.
Also because a lot of people have never used film since they grew up with digital cameras and are now curious to find out about film shooting. By using primary and mechanical cameras and a roll of film, we are getting to understand more in-depth the art of photography.
Vintage Photography Workshop and Photo walk in Amsterdam.
Film photography is another kind of medium to help us to make a statement and rethink before we press the camera release button. During our vintage photography workshop and photo walk in Amsterdam, we can learn and show you all about it.
What will you learn during our film-based photography workshop?
For some people in digital photography, it is all just a bit too fast and too easy and also smooth. When you have picked up a film photo camera from the analog film era, this workshop in Amsterdam is for you.
This workshop is undoubtedly designed not to rule out digital photography. It invites us to explore and rethink our ways of using photography as an exercise. How we are using our film camera and lens tools with a different mindset, and how to explore additional creative ways to express yourselves.
Everyone at all levels in photography can join this workshop that will be almost private. We generally don’t work in groups; 1-2-3 photographers maximum will give the best results in communication.
You can bring every kind of functional camera that can shoot 35mm or 120 roll films. For best results, make sure everything in your camera works well. Run a test film first and have that processed when in doubt.
Yes, we can also accommodate groups or photo clubs, but we prefer to make special arrangements for groups. (6-10 people) Please contact us for more information and bookings at klinkhamerphoto@gmail.com or by calling me via my profile at TheONE.
I just released 36 Exposures from Cambodia magazine. Entirely shot on flm with my trusty F70 camera and a few rolls of Tri-x film. Please check it out and get inspired.
What do we offer during our full-day analog camera workshop in Amsterdam?
What we offer is a comprehensive full-day getting to understand your analog camera, the different films available, and what to do with them. We go through the whole process of using your camera and shooting great pictures with it.
We meet up in the city, load our camera with a roll of film, and walk to explore Amsterdam. While doing this, we focus on street photography and check out places off the beaten tourist trails and enjoy the beauty and exciting part of this very vibrant and upbeat city.
Our challenge is to shoot at least one roll of film. Included film processing and have low res digital scans at the end of the workshop. You certainly also can bring your preferred film and shoot as much as you like.
When you are a more advanced photographer, and you don’t need any technical explanation or instructions that is also fine. We then skip the tutorials and get down to shooting in Amsterdam right away and have a good time.
You are also welcome to bring a digital camera or smartphone as well. But I recommend to focus on the challenge of 36 exposures on film, and at least and getting 6-7 printable above average good shots. That is the assignment, and that is already very challenging.
The famous photographer Henri Cartier Bresson said;
Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.
We will have your results processed at a photo lab and share the results with you as a learning curve and how to improve. Or you can have fun with selecting your favorite pictures for potential prints and have them done the same day at our local photo lab.
You get your roll of film of negatives color to keep, and we upload your result to a Dropbox storage and share your images as digital scans to you. So, you can still use them on social media but now with a different film tonality and personal intend.
What is the difference between digital and film photography?
Digital photography is all about instant gratification and instant result. Fast, free pictures once you buy and relative expensive camera or smartphone. Digital cameras are now so good and fully automated that you can quickly see the results and immediately share your images over the world or to your friends and family.
Digital images can also be incredibly edited and adjusted in photoshop or lightroom or any image app that you like. Most of the time, we want to improve the tonality and contrast and tweak the digital images into something that looks like a cool photo.
The beauty of imperfection of analog photography
Digital images are perfect. The way some of these cameras like Nikon or Canon process them is just unbelievable and also the sensitivity for digital is astronomical these days. The film is not as perfect, and it shows grain and contrast and different characteristics between specific film and especially in a black and white film.
Films present us with a more organic look, a somewhat more pleasant natural look, and feeling. With film, you can use the grain and contrast to make your images more powerful and artistic to look at. Experimentation is the way to go.
With film cameras, there is no instant check on a screen for exposure or composition or to see if we got the moment. So you tend to take more pictures sometimes with film to be sure. Rolls of film are not for free, and so we have to be super alert and aware of what we as a photographer are doing, regarding exposures and focusing, for example.
When you like to shoot with a film photo camera you can now pick them up for as little as €35- to €70 depending on the brand and the kind of lens you want to have with it.
So, that brings us to the core of the matter. With film photography, we will produce something that not only looks different but also provides a different experience.
Film cameras tend to be built from metal and glass only, and this also enhances our experiences in the user materials and feedback from the camera. In digital, the cameras are often made from plastic and electronics.
Again, very useful and enjoyable but a different experience from the more mechanical and organics of film. They use light-sensitive silver halides to capture our images and needs to be processed in chemicals and dried and cut before they can be printed.
Who is your host-instructor and guide Michael Klinkhamer?
I am a Dutch photographer from Amsterdam, and I have worked most of my professional career with film cameras.
I use my Nikon’s and Hasselblad cameras for publishing in magazines and newspapers. Shooting mostly transparencies and negatives for prints and processing my black and white work with the beautiful Kodak Tri-X and Plus-X film in my darkroom.
Being a full-time professional and world traveler, it made sense to switch to digital and keep up with technology. I am now also hosting photography tours and workshops in Cambodia and in my hometown Amsterdam.
This kind of street and portrait photography we do during the tours is more personal and free from client demands or need for fast delivery. So, there is more time for personal reflection, time to teach, and time to enjoy photography. And to reconsider the traditional ways of photography by using modern Fuji or Kodak films with the old but beautiful vintage mechanical cameras.
I’m currently shooting film with his 50 years old Nikkormat and a 50mm Nikkor lens.
Sign up for a day in magical Amsterdam, shooting with your “special” camera and getting the best out of it. While staying in Amsterdam and meet the locals this is a fun photography adventure in the port of Amsterdam not to be missed.