Photography to Cinematography

M

MeAgain

Carbonite Member
So I'm an aspiring writer director who knows the very basics of videography...I've worked with the DVX so I know the feel and purpose of stuff like iris, focus ring, shutter speed, f stop, white balance, etc.

What I don't know about is REAL photography. I understand what ISO, aperture, and why you need different lenses....what I don't know is when to change what, where, when, etc.

In other words, I'd like to start practicing photography and seg that into getting better at cinematography and communicating with my DPs.

I know the answer to this question is "Pick it up, hold it in your hands", but I'm looking for a beginners camera under a grand. I know DSLR would make the most sense for me to get, but I'd like to use actual film and I don't want to be tempted to start shooting videos...unless you really think I can learn the same sort of stuff with a DSLR. But I really want to use real light and not deal with codecs...because I've never had the opportunity.

So if anyone can give me a few reccs for basic cameras where I can learn this stuff, that'd be great. I've so far gotten a lot of reccs for Nikon because of the lens choices and Leica because they're so well trusted, but it's hard to know what cameras will fall apart after one use or ones that are good for what I need.

Also, any books that teach this stuff would be great...a sort of photographer's bible that's similar to Jay Rose's stuff on sound?

Thanks.
 
So you're looking for a still camera? Film's a great medium, though keep in mind that processing is getting more and more expensive as fewer and fewer people use it. Want to an even more thorough education? Shoot monochrome (black and white) and learn to develop your own film. A basic B&W darkroom setup isn't very expensive at all.

Nikon's a good place to start. Plus any lenses you get for that would be solid investments if you ever think about moving to DSLR video, or adapting to AF100. You don't need anything terribly fancy. Look at something like the FM10. You could go super-amazing, the F100, but that's $750 for the body and a large investment for something that may or may not be long-term for you.

Another thing to consider would be used. Lots of photographers are dumping their film cameras not that they're digital, and you can get an absolute bargain on used medium format and/or TLR (twin lens reflex) cameras, as well as lenses. TLR cameras are a blast to use, and rely on prime lenses.

But again, the Nikon means that you get lenses you can keep using later in the digital world.
 
Yeah I've gotten two other recommendations for the FM10, though I've read some pretty bad reviews for it...though these are coming from pros, probably.

Not looking for anything fancy and would certainly prefer used. This is simply a learning tool for me to get used to working with light and all of the different terms and variables in photography.
 
Perhaps a used Nikon N90? All over the ebay right now, dirt cheap. $100-200. That will allow 2 or three good primes, used, on top of the camera and still keep things under $1k.
 
C2V said:
Perhaps a used Nikon N90? All over the ebay right now, dirt cheap. $100-200. That will allow 2 or three good primes, used, on top of the camera and still keep things under $1k.
Click to expand...

I did a check, and the Fuji S3 seems to be going for similar prices.

First things first... well now second... I'd recommend digital over film for a beginner these days. The reason is in order to develop skill one needs to 'shoot a lot'... and on a budget, digital wins over film hands down for the learner. While it may be nice to take a tour in to the nostalgia of film processing, most of the seminars and week sessions that the Wife has taught since about 2000 have typically used digital cameras to get students out shooting, and instant personal feed back, as well as quick turn feedback in the seminar sessions. Time was there was always a delay at the seminars of at least a day, when students shot film, film out that night, results back next day...

Next... I think the S3 is superior to the similar priced Nikons, as Fuji made it's own sensor, (ok perhaps engineered the sensor...), and it was tuned to have much better human skin tones. Nikons seemed to have a bluish/purple cast, while Canons seemed to have a yellowish... the Fuji spec produced fairly good skin tones with no need for post processing.

The S3 also had better 'highlight' separation.

The S3 that I typically us for Burning Man, was sent to the Daughter yesterday so she could take some 'industrial' shots for her company in Oklahoma... she did a fairly good job at least in terms of exposure... but needs work on some compositional elements... but other wise, she would not be particularly embarrassed to show the shots...
 
Actually, composition is my strongest attribute. I'm pretty good at framing a shot for my films and making the composition interesting, but I'm pretty much completely amateur with lighting and figuring out lenses and such.

I'll take the digital comment to heart...and that's what I want to do, shoot a lot. Just practice, practice practice practice. Perhaps once I get a good amount of DSLR use under my belt, I can trade it in for an old film camera and apply what I've learned? Even if it seems pointless, it's something I want to do at least once or twice in my work.
 
For film film, with an eye to 'filmmaking' I'd recommend getting an film SLR and buying ends/tails/short of 'real(tm)' movie film, currently it seems that only Kodak and Fujifilm are still in the market. But you can
cut the movie film to lengths (in an absolutely darkroom...) then load the lengths in reefillable cartridges, this class of activity is called 'bulk loading'... That way you can 'see' what real movie Film produces...

Here's a url on the topic of processing 'movie' film shot as stills...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ecn2/discuss/72157621804680219/
 
Yeah, sorry, I meant trade it in for a film SLR, not a film camera. I have seen some cheap 16mm and 8mm deals on ebay as well, though.

Thanks again.
 
film ?

I can tell you that shooting on digital media will speed up your learning process by a factor of 10

get a dslr with an S35 chip, D100, D70, D80, for stills

or t2i or 60d does motion too

id go with the latter

S
 
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