Everyone suggests starting with black and white film to learn with LF cameras since its cheaper and easier to process, but I wanted to hear when you switched to color (if you switched to color). Was it after you'd shot __ number of pieces of B&W? Was it after a certain amount of time?
Thanks!
Color film is just as easy to process as B&W film is. I don't choose to shoot B&W film because its cheeper. I choose to shoot B&W because I love the look of it.
Zak Baker
zakbaker.photo
"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter."
Ansel Adams
Well I'm not sure what the objective of the question is but I'll give my unique two cents.
Shot B&W from 1941 on to the present - 71 years. First color was 1954 (Kodachrome 35mm). Shot Kodachrome up til 2011. 4X5, 5X7 and 8X10 color from about 1968 on to the present.
Cost was never an obstacle for color. The imperative was the color around me. Many images needed color to really sing. The B&W I shoot is limited to very strong and sort of compositionally minimalist scenes.
The difficulty, expense of travel, setup and time consumed doing large format work makes the cost of color film insignificant.
Nate Potter, Austin TX.
I started color when I was hired by a commercial photo lab. Free processing of my film was a big bennie. ZLater, I learned color printing there and if I bought my own paper could do my own personal printing. I learned type R, C and Ciba. Masking and interneg and other processes. That was the best way to explore photography!
I bought a box of Provia 8x10 2 years ago for a wedding portrait in Phoenix, ended up using the film on the landscape around Sedona.
I might try color film again in another 25 years.
When I started using LF, there was still color processing in Seattle. (Ooooooh, what a statement! And it wasn't that long ago!) Since I could drop off Quickloads or Readyloads and pick them up the next day, that's what I did. I was using color right alongside with black and white, no problem.
Now I have a Jobo, but since I don't shoot that much color, I send it off to Praus. I just got back a nice big batch, and I'm feeling happy, happy!
If you like shooting color, then go ahead and shoot color. Nothing is stopping you. Mail order, while inconvenient, doesn't stop you.
"It's the way to educate your eyes. Stare. Pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." - Walker Evans
What are you getting at???Originally Posted by ScenicTraverse
I never switched to color film. It always was and I took a break from it for digital, and didn't take a break from B&W film.
Back in the '80's if you wanted color photos you used color film. And B&W photos you used B&W film. I used both. I developed/printed B&W myself and let labs handle the color. I did develop some E6 myself, it wasn't tough. Printing color was tough. I'd either get slides and like it, or with negative film take what they gave you for prints. I did try color negative printing, but couldn't get the colors I wanted and didn't like working in 100% darkness and not observing the paper developing process.
In contemporary times, I like my B&W film for what it's good at and develop/print/scan myself. I do some DSLR stuff for most color photography, and sometimes some Portra film for color when it's going to provide an aesthetic I want or when a scene has too much subject brightness range for digital, such as outdoor sun lit portraits or gleaming cars.
I thought it was an easy question. Most of the advice given on this forum for beginners (myself included) was that it was easier to start with black and white and make your mistakes there, if for no reason other than cost. So, when did you make the transition to color (if you did)? One way of answering the question could be "I felt confident playing with color after I'd shot and messed up 1 billion frames of B&W..."
I just want to get a sense for when people starting having the confidence or curiosity to shoot with color film if they started on B&W.
More like "when did I stop shooting color" that would be around 1986. I only dabbled in it as I felt contrast control was way too difficult compared to B&W.
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