Practical Advice For Inexpensive Film Photography

So you're interested in film photography but finding that it can be very expensive. Great news! Here is some practical advice for actually inexpensive film photography. To be clear, there are some upfront costs. However, once you've paid these you'll be able to pay less and shoot more film!

The Secret to Inexpensive Film Photography

The secret to inexpensive film photography is shooting and processing film yourself. It's honestly not as daunting of a task and some would have you believe. That said, it's best to at least start with Black and White (if not just sticking to it entirely). After all, black and white film is the easiest to develop yourself.

So, here is what you'll need to develop your own black and white film.

Developing Film

Developing film is the most cost effective and inexpensive way to save money when it comes to film photography. To develop film you need a few things.

1. A darkroom or far less expensive a changing bag
2. Development chemicals
3. A film development tank
4. Chemical disposal storage
5. Film drying clips
6. Film Sleeves

Skip the Darkroom with a Changing Bag

Gone are the days of needing a light-tight darkroom. Today you can buy a changing bag that will allow you to load and unload film into your development tank. The best part is that you can do this anywhere. If you're traveling and don't want to wait until you get home you can develop film on the road.

In addition, changing bags are handy for more than allowing you to develop your own film. In fact, you can buy film in bulk and load your own rolls. This takes skill (and reusable film canisters) but it's a great way to save additional money when shooting film.

Developing Black and White Film

Developing Black and White Film is fun and easy. In addition, it's a great way to save money shooting film. Here are the chemicals you need:

1. Developer -this is the first chemical you'll use to bring the image out on the film.
2. Stop bath - an inexpensive alternative is to just use water to stop the development
3. Fixer - makes the image permanent on the film so it doesn't fade away before you can print or scan the image.

Some photographers will tell you that you should use a wetting agent to prevent spots. In fact, you should. However, just like with the stop bath chemicals you can save money by skipping them.

Additionally, you will likely want to have some other tools (measuring devices like a thermometer, graduated cylinders, etc). That said, these are things which are really helpful but you can get away with buying some of them over time and taking risks to keep things cheap to start with.

How To Actually Develop Film

This is a subject that is well covered online. For example, here is a video from Youtube on the actual development process. I might do one in the future. For now, this article is more about saving than how to actually develop film.

Save Money After Development

A drying rack with negative air pressure and a great filtration system can cost the same as a really solid used motorcycle. Alternatively you can dry film with some binder clips and a coat hanger in your bathroom.

That said, I'd recommend vacuuming the room really well. After all, toilet paper has a tendency to create a ton of dust.

Film Storage

After you've developed your own film you need to store it. Film sleeves are a great and inexpensive tool. You can usually get an entire roll of 36 exposures in each sleeve. Alternatively you can roll your film back up and keep it in film cans. However, that makes it much harder to scan.

Film Scanning

When it comes to inexpensive film photography tips scanning is somewhere you don't want to cheap out on. That said, a quality film negative scanner can be really expensive (over $500). So, if you want to save money here you're probably going to need to take your film somewhere to be professionally scanned.

The good news is that you can buy an inexpensive scanner (even a used one). Then, use it to make lower quality scans of all your work. After that, if there is a particular photo or set of photos you want scanned properly then just pay for those to be professionally scanned.

Inexpensive Film Photography

Black and white film that you develop yourself is the ultimate way to save the most. Thus, if you're after inexpensive film photography you've got to try developing your own black and white film.