Using an analog camera

Learning goal

You will be able to shoot a roll from start to finish confidently with a film camera that has no screen. You will load the film in semi-darkness and make sure with the film advance lever that it is advancing correctly, enter the roll's sensitivity into the camera by hand, and rewind the film before opening the camera when the roll is finished. You will find the light with the camera's needle light meter, with a handheld light meter, or with the sunny day rule if there is no meter, and explain how reflected metering is misled differently on different skin tones and how incident metering removes this error. You will find focus by hand with a rangefinder's double image or an SLR's split image, and preset with the lens's distance scale in fast scenes. You will manage the limited number of frames with an exposure notebook and learn by comparing the results that come back from development with these notes.

The question

Your friend has loaded the roll into the camera and is standing at the first corner of the neighborhood. Across the way, in front of a tea stall, two men are playing backgammon; the afternoon sun lights one side of the table, the other side is in shadow. With their digital camera they would shoot a frame, look at the screen, correct the brightness, and shoot another frame. Here there is a small needle trembling at the edge of the viewfinder, small numbers on the lens marked meters and feet, and the counter shows three.

They hesitate to press the shutter; what if the frame comes out too dark, what if it isn't sharp, what if the film isn't advancing at all? How do you shoot without a screen? How does someone who can't see anything right away know the correct exposure and focus?

Context

While explaining how the camera meters light, you saw that reflected light metering is affected by the subject's color, while incident light metering isn't (Lesson 9.1). In the hyperfocal distance lesson you learned to preset focus at a distance and shoot as the subject passes through that zone (Lesson 10.9). In the high-speed sync lesson, too, we touched on the practical rule that lets you find exposure without a meter on a sunny day (Lesson 19.5).

In the previous lesson we talked about how to choose the right roll for your friend's camera. This lesson goes out into the field with that roll. With a film camera, many jobs the digital camera does automatically fall to the photographer: loading and advancing the film, entering the sensitivity, metering the light and setting aperture and shutter speed by hand, finding focus. These jobs feel slow at first; but once each is understood, they show how the camera works more clearly than ever happens on a digital camera.

Simple explanation

How is film loaded into the camera and advanced?

Film is loaded not in direct sunlight, but in the shade or in a semi-dark place. The camera's back is opened, the roll is seated in its chamber, and the film's leader is threaded into the slot of the take-up spool on the opposite side. The film advance lever is the lever that winds the film one frame forward after every frame, cocks the shutter again and increases the counter by one. Before the back is closed, the lever is turned once or twice to see that the film is advancing properly over the sprockets.

After the back is closed, the way to tell whether the film is really advancing is to look at the rewind knob on top of the camera: as the film advances, this knob turns too. If it doesn't turn, the film hasn't caught on the spool and the whole roll can be shot for nothing. Many old cameras don't read the roll's sensitivity themselves; the photographer enters this value by hand on a small dial on top of the camera. A forgotten setting makes the light meter meter wrongly throughout the whole roll. If there is a battery-powered meter, testing before going out whether the battery runs the meter and taking a spare battery along is also part of this preparation; a weak battery can quietly send the needle to the wrong place.

When the roll is finished, the advance lever jams and won't turn any further. At this point the back isn't opened. The rewind button on the bottom of the camera is pressed, and the rewind crank on top is turned until the film comes free of the spool and the tension disappears. The back is opened only after the film has been fully rewound into its canister; otherwise light erases the latent image.

How is light found without a screen?

Many film cameras have a light meter inside, shown in the viewfinder with a needle or small lights. The photographer changes aperture and shutter speed by hand until the needle comes to the middle. In some old cameras the meter needs a battery; some have no meter at all. Then a separate handheld light meter, a light-metering app, or the practical rule on a sunny day is used: aperture at sixteen, shutter speed at a value close to the reciprocal of the film's sensitivity.

The meter inside the camera measures reflected light and tries to pull everything it looks at toward a middle gray. This produces different errors on different skin tones. If a dark-skinned face fills the frame, the meter thinks it is too dark and gives too much light; if a light-skinned face fills it, it gives too little light. If two siblings or two friends are side by side and in the same light, the meter suggests two different exposures even though they are under the same light. Incident light metering, by turning the meter's white dome toward the camera in front of the face, measures the light falling on the face; the skin's color doesn't change the reading and both faces are recorded in their own tone.

How are focus and limited frames managed?

A rangefinder is a focusing system that shows two images of the scene overlapping in the middle of the viewfinder and brings these two images together as the focus ring is turned. When the two images coincide exactly, the subject is sharp. Split-image focusing, on the other hand, is a focusing aid in the middle of an SLR film camera's ground glass, in which the top and bottom halves of a circle look offset and come together when focus is found. Both work most easily on a vertical line, a door edge or the contour line of a face.

A distance scale is the markings on the lens barrel that show focus distance in meters and feet and let the photographer set focus to a distance without looking through the viewfinder. In the street or in a fast moment, with a lens preset to three meters and a suitable aperture, you can shoot the moment the subject enters that zone without searching for focus. The more the aperture is stopped down, the wider the zone the focus covers; many lenses also have small lines on the barrel showing the limits of this zone for each aperture. These lines let you read, without ever looking through the viewfinder, between which distances things will stay sharp.

An exposure notebook is a small notebook that records each frame's number, aperture, shutter speed, light conditions and a short note. When the film comes back from development, only these notes show which frame came out dark or blurred and why. The notebook is the learning tool of the photographer who can't see the result right away: it does the job of the screen, even if late. With these notes, every roll turns into a small series of experiments in which every frame asks a separate question.

Visual evidence

Across from the tea stall, your friend first takes a reading through the viewfinder. The face of the dark-skinned one of the men playing backgammon fills the frame, and when the needle slides to his light-skinned friend's face, it moves noticeably. They put the camera down and walk to the front of the stall, hold the handheld light meter between the two men, in front of their faces, turn the dome toward the camera and take a single value.

On the distance scale they choose two and a half meters, bring together the line in the middle of the split image on the edge of the backgammon board and confirm the focus. When one of the men raises his hand to throw the dice they press the shutter, turn the advance lever and see that the rewind knob turns. They write in their notebook: number four, incident light, aperture eight, shutter speed one hundred twenty-fifth, shaded table.

When the scans of the roll developed at the club arrive, both men playing backgammon appear in their own tone; the light on one's forehead and the shadow on the other's cheek are detailed. Frame number nine on the same roll, however, is blurred; the notebook says they dropped the shutter speed to a thirtieth because the light was fading. The notebook says what to change for the next roll.

Common mistakes

Summary

With a film camera, film is loaded in semi-darkness, its advancing is confirmed by the rewind knob turning while the advance lever is turned, the roll's sensitivity is entered by hand, and when the roll is finished the film is rewound before the back is opened. Light is found with a needle meter, a handheld light meter or the sunny day rule; while reflected metering is misled differently on different skin tones, incident metering records every face in its own tone; focus is found by hand with a rangefinder, split image or distance scale, and an exposure notebook gives the photographer, who sees the result days later, the chance to learn from every frame.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will shoot consciously through a roll with a film camera or by imitating one.

1. If you have a film camera, load the film in the shade, confirm while turning the advance lever that the rewind knob turns, and enter the roll's sensitivity into the camera; if not, switch your digital camera to full manual mode and turn off the screen.
2. In the first ten frames of the roll meter the light with the camera's meter, and in the next ten with a handheld light meter or an app's incident light mode; on a sunny day shoot a few frames without a meter using the practical rule.
3. Shoot a frame in which at least two people of different skin tones stand in the same light with both reflected and incident light metering, and note the values the two readings suggest.
4. For every frame write the number, aperture, shutter speed, light and a note in your exposure notebook; when the results arrive, compare each faulty frame with the notebook and find the reason.

Check yourself

• Do you know how to tell that the film is advancing and that the roll has been rewound?
• Can you explain why reflected metering gives different values on different skin tones?
• Did your exposure notebook help you find the reason for the faulty frames?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. After film is loaded into the camera, how do you tell that the film is really advancing?

• A) The counter never changes
• B) The viewfinder goes dark
• C) The shutter sound changes
• D) The rewind knob turns while the advance lever is turned

2. When a dark-skinned face fills the frame, what does the camera's reflected metering tend to do?

• A) It gives too much light to pull the face toward middle gray
• B) It gives too little light
• C) It doesn't take the skin's color into account at all and meters correctly
• D) It can't take a reading

3. What is the advantage of incident light metering on different skin tones?

• A) It works faster
• B) It doesn't need a battery
• C) Because it measures the light falling on the face, the skin's color doesn't change the reading
• D) It also sets the focus

4. When the roll is finished, what is done before opening the back?

• A) The film is pulled off the spool by hand
• B) The rewind button is pressed and the film is rewound into its canister
• C) The advance lever is forced
• D) The camera is held up to the light

Answers

1. D — As the film advances, the spool in the canister turns too, and the rewind knob on top shows this.
2. A — Because the reflected meter tries to pull the surface it looks at toward middle gray, it gives too much light on a dark face.
3. C — An incident meter reads the light falling on the subject, so every face stays in its own tone.
4. B — A back opened before the film is rewound into its canister lets light erase the latent image.

Summary card

• Load film in the shade; see that the rewind knob turns.
• Enter the sensitivity into the camera by hand.
• With mixed skin tones, meter incident light.
• Find focus with the double or split image; in a fast moment use the distance scale.
• Write every frame in your notebook; when finished, don't open the back without rewinding.

Bridge to the next lesson

The roll is finished and rewound into its canister. Instead of sending it to a lab, the older member suggests developing it together in the club's small darkroom. On the shelf there are a few bottles, a measuring jug, a thermometer and a small black tank with a spiral reel inside. Your friend doesn't know how these chemicals turn an invisible trace into a visible negative, or what can go wrong at which step. How do you develop film at home? The next lesson takes up the developing, stopping and fixing steps.