Digital got me curious about film

DrPablo wrote in post #9960378
At the Ansel Adams exhibition I went to a few years ago, people were going face first against an 8x10 foot three-panel screen he printed, then backing away, then going up again.

That's a completely different situation with the large format film he shot. You aren't going to put your eye up to a print if there isn't anything you're going to see that close that isn't visible from 5 feet away.

People will get close if there is something extra to see up close. I've seen 20x24" or so prints of his that look absolutely incredible up close.

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #9966246
That's a completely different situation with the large format film he shot. You aren't going to put your eye up to a print if there isn't anything you're going to see that close that isn't visible from 5 feet away.

Yet people do. I've been to a hell of a lot of photo galleries. People look up close, regardless of print size.

This thread had me wanting to get another film camera... for about 15 minutes.

Don't get me wrong, I love(d) film, and there are certain aspects that I still feel film is better... maybe that should be 'more emotionally satisfying'... than digital, but I had to make a mental break and sell ALL my film bodies and move on. I felt I was losing focus (no pun intended) by having too many options.

photoguy6405 wrote in post #9971197
but I had to make a mental break and sell ALL my film bodies and move on. I felt I was losing focus (no pun intended) by having too many options.

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying film gives you too many options? Most would say that digital gives you "too many options" as far as how you can make something look. With film, you're basically going to get the result of the film you have loaded. With digital you can have sepia, b+w, or throw on a photoshop filter that makes your photo file look like a painting all from one RAW file.

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #9976418
I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying film gives you too many options? Most would say that digital gives you "too many options" as far as how you can make something look. With film, you're basically going to get the result of the film you have loaded. With digital you can have sepia, b+w, or throw on a photoshop filter that makes your photo file look like a painting all from one RAW file.

Yeah, I didn't phrase that very well.

When I was doing both film and digital I felt like I had spread myself too thin... that I was becoming the proverbial "jack of all trades, master of none"... and that I wasn't mastering either one as a result.

Knowing that digital was/is the future, I decided I would do better to focus my efforts on only digital. I still enjoyed film, but for me to make that commitment I couldn't just put the film equipment on the shelf, I had to make that "mental break" away from film and just get rid of the film equipment completely.

DrPablo wrote in post #9958645
True -- this is a 4x5 inch contact print, one of my faves.

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Contact prints are the absolute bomb.

Digital still has 20 years of technological breakthroughs to come close to their depth.