How Does Film ACTUALLY Work? (It's MAGIC) [Photos and Development] - Smarter Every Day 258

Wow! I haven't been inspired to pick something up again in a long time. Thank you for this journey, it was a blast

Dungerdore

Fair warning- apparently old film cameras are popular items for scamming people. I bought a camera from an Etsy store that seemed ok- even answered a question about what film they liked to use with it. Then they gave me a fake tracking number, didn't respond to any more messages, and 2 weeks later the same camera was reposted. I've started a dispute, and I expect I'll get my money back, but the scammer won't be losing anything. After a little more looking around on Etsy it looks like this is a very popular thing to do: list an old camera or other nostalgic items of high value and stiff the customer then dissolve the Etsy company and make a new one. I am usually very careful about purchasing things online but I still got taken this time.

Josh Murphy

My debit card was hacked a few months ago and I forgot about you 🙄sorry. I've updated now. Thanks for understanding

Jeff Alcorn

Lovely episode! If you ever need a reason to take your baseball canon out for a spin again, there's a new contender on TikTok, I think most of your fans would love to see a head-to-head betweeen the two sportsball launchers https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdPFGKqm/

Destin, thank you for this love letter to film photography. I totally agree with film having a hard to nail down "magic" to it. The guys and gals at Indie film lab were super fun to see how they work and it's apparent they care deeply about this art form. You have inspired me to pick up my old film camera that's tucked away in a bag somewhere and start shooting again, thank you. Keep being you!

Daniel Ryan

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBsILswB-T2-OLdeCGJkgdg I think you would like Tony's channel Dustin - Tony does a very thorough job of showing how to develop film at our level. He's a good photographer too, I have an EOS 1N, a 4x5, and an 8x10... Plus a few Canon 1 series DSLR's. First love is film though

Michael Lloyd

Destin - Monte Sano - love the shirt. I grew up on Monte Sano - attended K-6th at Monte Sano Elementary - and lived there a total of 12 years before and after college (math doesn't work - don't try). I love Huntsville - it is 3rd on my list of places I would love to live - only behind Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands (look it up - do a story on it), and where I live now in Raleigh, NC (building a Maker Space here). Plus - this was one of our best stories ever - thanks for all you do!!

John Sublette (MakerInspired)

I loved this video! Like some other here, you've inspired me to dig out my dad's AE-1 and start shooting film again. You nailed the description of being focused and present for each shot; I miss that!

Destin, videos like this remind me of why I love being a Patreon of your channel. You often find things that I know nothing about and haven't thought about in years, and make me see them and appreciate them on a gut level. I want my world to contain more of the stuff you do, and that's why I'm here.

Andrew Phillips

I've got a 10 pack of 8x10 Velvia and some Delta 100 ()black and white) that I am going to expose soon. I have a lot of 4x5 and some 35mm. Film isn't dead... much the opposite. Now to watch the video :)

Michael Lloyd

I still love the story of how Kodak figured out that the Trinity test happened because of how sensitive some of their film was.

Clifton Ballad

A couple of months ago I found the remainder of my folks slides from before me till I was about 10...as I dug through and organized hundreds of slides I realized what it is... film wasn't cheap, it took up room, and processing wasn't cheap...so you took a photo, they best you could...sometimes the shutter speed was wrong and it was too dark, maybe a bit out of focus, maybe some shaky shutter work. But you didn't know the result till you got your film back from the processor...maybe a month after you took the shots. There was no going back to fix them, no instant preview, (if you were a pro, you were exposure bracketing, but nobody else was). So in these hundreds of photos, I could almost tell who took the shot, my mom or dad, based on the subject, and the focus (dad had an SLR, mom didn't...both used German 35mm cameras).

Mike in Texas

Photography remained nearly unchanged from 1890 - 1980. A long run for technology. Beginning in 1968, then studying photography in the 1970s we were bound the to limitation of costly, light sensitive, often inconsistent chemically based imaging. The magic of development, as Destin has shared was a large part of the photographic experience. Thank you for providing context for this previous technology. I wrote about my first film development here: A Reverence for Film - https://link.medium.com/8Nu3iMpO5gb

Maybe a nice follow up video would be to set up a tripod and make the exact same shots with film and digital and analyze what makes film different. I'm sure there's information to be found about it but like you said in an earlier video, investigating something yourself can be a more rewarding experience.

Marc Selman

This brought me back to being 12 years old in summer camp and learning how to develop film by hand. I definitely agree with a lot of the value behind the physical products, especially since you can trace a direct line from the photons that bounced off that image to the film negative. It's a physical memory in a way digital is not. I think as we're getting more into the digital age, we're learning that while information and ideas are easily transmittable, there is a care and craft that comes with taking the time to bring something into the physical world. Also, it reminded me that I love film, know how to develop it, and am looking for work, so who knows, maybe I'll be working for their franchise in Atlanta. Might be easier to ship internationally with the airport right here, and with the rising film industry here, definitely no shortage of work... Thanks for the video, Destin. And thanks for sharing your unabashed enthusiasm with the world. You definitely help me find the magic in every day life, and really embody the idea that learning more only adds to the magic and mystery of the world.

Sparrow

Hey Destin! I always love the videos you make and this fascinated me. I started shooting film this year after I learned how to develop my own 35mm film, I kind of made the reverse way that you did. I'm already loving it and shoot one roll on an 80's Cannon A1 that was used by my father when he was my age. Crazy to see his camera still working after all this years. Anyhow, keep up whit the good work!

It is awesome! I bought a Minolta X700 (Same category as the Canon Ae1 mentioned in your video) after you talked about film photography in No Dumb Questions. I enjoy it very much. I am 40 years old. My dad taught me how to shoot with a range finder when I was a kid. It is good to be back! I enjoy the manual settings as well! Thank you for the inspiration!

I managed two film laboratories many years ago. Rather than the 'dip-and-dunk' system, we spliced film head to tail in full reels. This, of course, was done in complete darkness. There were times I had an emergency situation where I would come into the light-tight room and repair one of the splicers all by feel. This doesn't sound too bad until you realize these splicers used solenoid-driven blades to cut the heads and tails of the film before moving the film to the splicing area. Once there, a piece of slicing tape joined the previous film strip to the new one using a 360 degree F head which dropped down to fix the splice. Therefore, in the dark, working solely by feel, and staying away from the dangerous bits, I removed a piece of errant film (cut-offs), adjusted the splicing time with a set screw located near the splice head, or did whatever necessary to get the machine back into production. Thank you for the Indie Film lab video--a memory jolt to yesteryear.

Fascinating video. Thanks very much.

The most fascinating part of this video was when I vividly recalled the smell of developer, stop bath & fixer chemicals the moment you mentioned them. Thanks for a fabulous episode.

David Mueller

This is one of my favourite episodes

Film was always great and never went away entirely. It's more expensive, time and space consuming, but boy does it give you Color with Character. I kept shooting film until 2015, nearly 500 rolls in 20 years. Had to give it up because I no longer had the space and time for it. Maybe someday I'll get back to it, I still have the Olympus OM-1 that is ~40yo and my father gave ~25 years ago. I wonder if it "comes back" for real and then I can pick up again when I retire :D

Miguel Angel Vilela

Thanks, Destin. Somewhere I've got an old AE-1. It made a few amazing pics. Wonder if I can find it...

Pete Hall in Wi

Did I see a Canon AE1 Program in the video? That was my very first and only SLR camera. I bought back in 1984 and oh I had so much fun with that camera. Just as Destin says in this video, I have never duplicated that intentional and thrilling attempts of artistic processes since I went digital. I'm so happy to hear that film is coming back and it's also so coincidental as well, I just found my old AE1 Program going though some boxes last week. Thanks Destin for sharing!!!

John & Melissa

Yes. This brings back memories of high school and college. I spent too many hours in a darkroom. Watching this brought back all those smells.

Michael Coolidge

Do it!!

Smarter Every Day

Yeah Tory Bruno talks about that all the time!

Smarter Every Day

Oh wow, I bet you remember a bunch of stuff!

Smarter Every Day

I thought it went by fast as well!

Smarter Every Day

You've given me the itch to start shooting film again. Thanks for that! I had no idea that film was still as active as it is. Great video and as always, great content. I too would like to see you do something for the positive print process - if anyone still does that. I believe a lot of the larger labs have moved to the digital print process with laser exposed film (think laser printer for positive emulsion paper) that still requires chemistry to develop - but no fancy bellows/light-based exposure.

Nice video editing btw

Roberto Canoff

I hadn't thought about it until today, but I'd always assumed all darkrooms have red lights. It turns out that it's only okay to use red lights when working with black and white photo paper and not color (or I assume either black and white or color negatives).

Norman Rasmussen

neat!!

evistre

Yeah, your exploration reminded me of this guy... 1983 seems not that long ago. Thank you! https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobusn/119125459/lightbox/

Robert Keiser

Destin: "What do you use these for?" Hannah: "To be able to see..." LOL

DOUGLAS HOLCK

I see what you did there. :)

Robert Keiser

This was amazing but please do a follow up about how the positives are developed, you know that red room where you use chemistry to see the image slowly appear infont of you, rather than just scanning into a pc.

Flashback time. I started in a photo lab in 1967 running dip and dunk. Graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in the early ‘70s (photo and photo science) and stayed with film until the digital age and then continued until 2017. 50 years of image making, both analog and digital. In your world, you might check out the spy satellites (Lockheed?) that shot reconnaissance images on to film and sent the canisters out of orbit and back to earth by parachute, where they were snagged out of the air and flown to the photo lab. Rocket science meets film lab.

Russell Dodd

Destin, just started watching this. Brought back so many memories as this my first full time job in the 90s. Operating an E6, C41 & B&W dip and dunk processors for professional photographers. Keep up the great work! Olie.

Olie Bosley

Tank you so much for brining focus to this hobby. I started shooting on film last summer and I am in love with it, it's only by new people discovering it that we can keep it alive, especially since we are so dependent on large corporations catering to such a niche area. Thank you for helping the hobby survive.

Watched it. Read a comment saying it was 37 minutes long. Didn‘t belive it. Went back up and checked. It was. Great video!

Lars Sturm