{"id":73202,"date":"2025-06-18T10:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T09:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillipreeve.net\/blog\/?p=73202"},"modified":"2025-07-30T08:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:30:19","slug":"analogue-photography-part-1-a-personal-journey-into-film-photography-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phillipreeve.net\/blog\/analogue-photography-part-1-a-personal-journey-into-film-photography-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Analogue Photography – Part 1: A Personal Journey into Film Photography 1\/2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Agfapan 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the growing interest in analogue photography, as Bastian so inspiringly explores in his <\/span>Analogue Adventures<\/span><\/i>, I too have decided to create a series of film-related articles. I\u2019ve chosen not to use the same title, as my own relationship with film photography goes back to a time when it was simply <\/span>photography<\/span><\/i> to me. While <\/span>Film Photography<\/span><\/i> would feel like the most natural title, I\u2019ve decided to go with <\/span>Analogue Photography<\/span><\/i> instead, to keep a sense of continuity with Bastian\u2019s series.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Agfa Isopan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Colour negative film | Fujicolor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Black and White Negative film | Agfapan 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Kodak Tri-X 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Agfa Isopan 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Agfapan 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Agfa Isopan 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Agfa Isopan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative film | Agfapan 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To offer some context, let me take you back to where it all began \u2014 a journey that, I suspect, may feel familiar to others who started their photographic path around the same time I did. If that\u2019s you, chances are you\u2019ve also been around long enough to remember when film wasn\u2019t a choice, but the default.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Canon A1 | Black & White Negative Agfapan 25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a young teenager in the late \u201970s, I developed a growing interest in drawing and pictures, which led my parents to give me my first camera \u2014 a simple point-and-shoot 110 camera.\u00a0<\/span>At first, I was thrilled just to have a camera of my own \u2014 but after shooting two or three rolls of film, I began to notice its limitations. After a year\u2014and a good deal of persistent nagging \u2014 my mother bought me a much better 35mm rangefinder camera with manual adjustment possibilities and a fantastic fixed 40mm f\/1.7 lens. The difference in image quality was striking \u2014 I could finally capture the world the way I saw it. A lot of friends and family photos were taken over the next couple of years, all on colour negative film \u2014 that was simply what everyone used back then for family photography. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Canonet QL17 G-III | Colour negative film | Fujicolor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canonet QL17 G-III | Colour negative film | Fujicolor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canonet QL17 G-III | Colour negative film | Fujicolor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I became proficient enough that even some relatives asked me to photograph their children\u2019s birthday parties and, eventually, even a wedding \u2014 which, thinking back, was quite remarkable for a kid still in his mid-teens. Then again, they were probably just trying to save money.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Canonet QL17 G-III | Colour Negative film | Fujicolor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Relleiflex TLR | Colour negative film | Agfacolor CN S<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Relleiflex TLR | Colour negative film | Agfacolor CN S<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During my late teens, my interest in photographing more than just family and friends really began to grow. I took on summer jobs and carefully saved both my earnings and pocket money to buy a used SLR camera, along with three lenses: a standard 50mm f\/1.4, a 28mm f\/2.8 wide-angle, and a 135mm f\/2.8 telephoto.That\u2019s when I truly began to learn the fundamentals of photography \u2014 experimenting with depth of field, composition, light, and a variety of films. I tried different brands and film speeds, mostly color negatives, which I had developed and printed at local photo labs.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Canon A1 | Colour negative film | Sakuracolor II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Colour negative film | Kodacolor VR 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Colour negative film | Sakuracolor II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Colour negative film | Kodacolor 400 VR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon A1 | Colour negative film | Kodacolor VR 400<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But now that I was taking photography more seriously, I began to notice things I had previously overlooked. The results were often inconsistent \u2014 colors would sometimes shift, prints came out too light or too dark, and occasionally the tones looked washed out, possibly due to overused chemicals in the lab. <\/span>It was a nightmare because you could never be sure where things had gone wrong. Had I exposed the film incorrectly? Was the lighting off? Were there any issues with the film’s colour balance? Did something go wrong during development or printing? Or was it just a different kind of paper this time? The learning curve quickly became long and steep \u2014 not to mention expensive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n