Correct way to use a film SLR?

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cam1210

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Back in the early 90's as a kid, my Dad bought me an Olympus OM-10. I loved using that camera and had it for years. Thinking back, I am never sure I used it correctly. My Dad (no photographer) taught me to use the camera in Auto, focus on the subject and turn the aperture ring until the auto-shutter speed (as shown in the viewfinder) was 250 or 500.

I'm guessing by doing this, I was effectively shooting with a 'shutter priority'. Am I correct? Was this a good method for beginners to shoot using an SLR? What are the disadvantages of this and what would the correct method be to set aperture?
 
There's no 'right' way.

There are millions of 'right' pictures, but they're not all shot using the same aims or techniques.

Your om10 had a fixed iso and I'm guessing a 50mm lens.

A photograph starts in the photographers head, what do you want to show?

How movement is seen can be helped with different shutter speeds, the amount of DoF is controlled by focal length and aperture.
The way subjects are shown in relation to their environment is a result of focal length choice.

So the 'right' way depends on what you want to achieve. And there's no harm in using auto modes as long as you understand the parts you're controlling and why you made the choices you have.

But don't let the camera choose what to focus on, just like with the OM10 focussing is an important part of the decision making process.
 
Your camera was in aperture-priority mode but you were effectively using it as 'shutter-priority' by manually adjusting the aperture until the camera indicated a 'correct' exposure using the target shutter speed (I'm not familiar with the OM-10 but I suspect it did not have a shutter-priority mode). You could have just as easily used manual and set the shutter speed to 1/250 and turned the aperture ring until the camera's light meter indicated 'correct' exposure.

I suspect that your father chose that shutter speed to avoid motion blur.

As Phil says, there is no 'correct' way - you need to understand the different effects that changing aperture, shutter-speed and ISO have on the image and you need to understand what your camera is doing when it meters the light - and what you want to expose for (e.g. the dark bits or the bright bits) and how to use/manipulate the light and environment to achieve your desired results.

I haven't got the hang of it yet ;)
 
Thanks for that - I now think I understand what effects ISO, aperture and shutter speed have on an image. Can you tell me - how does exposure compensation work? My old OM-10 had an exposure compensation dial. Once you've set ISO/aperture and shutter-speed...what is the exposure compensation actually doing?
 
cam1210 said:
Thanks for that - I now think I understand what effects ISO, aperture and shutter speed have on an image. Can you tell me - how does exposure compensation work? My old OM-10 had an exposure compensation dial. Once you've set ISO/aperture and shutter-speed...what is the exposure compensation actually doing?
Click to expand...

In the auto modes you can use exp comp when you know the cameras meter will be fooled. Either by a dark or bright scene.

There's an issue with modern matrix or evaluative metering though, because they try hard not to be fooled so its not so easy to guess when you'd need it, so you chimp before dialling it in, but then a change of composition stars the process again.

That's why I prefer to use exp lock, because I can lock exposure on a known scene, then shoot away.
 
Right, I see. What is the exp comp actually doing to the camera? Does it slightly alter the selected shutter speed?
 
Thank-you! Sorry - lots of basic questions...the result of using digital cameras in auto mode for 15 years.
 
In use, there are two main differences with a film camera.

1) Your ISO is fixed, by the film type.

2) You have to be very careful with exposure measurement, because you can't chimp it to check and never know for certain until the images are processed. That's why film photographers are fond of things like spot metering and incident light readings - basically different tools to help make sure it's right.

A couple of rules of thumb - with negative film, when in doubt err on the side of over-exposure as neg film is quite tolerant of that (unlike digital). With slide film, do the opposite, though there's not much room for error.

And then, just to make sure in tricky conditions, use the BLF technique. Bracket Like F...
 
I had an OM-10 a few months back as fancied a go with film. I soon found out the limitations with a fixed ISO and didn't help that I chose a low one meaning that I was using 1.8 (on the 50 lens) more that I would have on digital. And guess what, most of the shots were way too low on the DoF.
Bit obvious really but caught out by the even lower DoF when using 35 film versus a crop sensor digital.

Lovely camera to use though and I would rather use it than a modern digital.
 
ernesto said:
I had an OM-10 a few months back as fancied a go with film. I soon found out the limitations with a fixed ISO and didn't help that I chose a low one meaning that I was using 1.8 (on the 50 lens) more that I would have on digital. And guess what, most of the shots were way too low on the DoF.
Bit obvious really but caught out by the even lower DoF when using 35 film versus a crop sensor digital.

Lovely camera to use though and I would rather use it than a modern digital.
Click to expand...

Yes.It's hard being a proper photographer isn't it.:lol:
 
ernesto said:
I had an OM-10 a few months back as fancied a go with film. I soon found out the limitations with a fixed ISO and didn't help that I chose a low one meaning that I was using 1.8 (on the 50 lens) more that I would have on digital. And guess what, most of the shots were way too low on the DoF.
Bit obvious really but caught out by the even lower DoF when using 35 film versus a crop sensor digital.

Lovely camera to use though and I would rather use it than a modern digital.
Click to expand...

Definitely worth trying an ISO 400 film for a greater range of flexibility - they were often marketed as all round films.
 
Years ago, when I was shooting film in venues, I can't remember ever shooting with ISO 100 film, it was 400, 800 or 1600 and as my lens (I only had one lens) was f4 I often struggled for a decent shutter speed but my shots usually came out fine helped no doubt by the relatively small prints that were the norm back then.

These days people pixel peep at 400% on screen and noise and subject movement / camera shake are easily spotted, that's not so easy when you have a print in your hand.
 
I still have an OM10 in the cupboard somewhere. Lovely camera (of its type) to use but compared to "modern", AF, AE etc film cameras, a bit of a faff!

The best thing to come from APS cameras is the new faster emulsions with finer grain than the old ones - they have made ISO 400 film a genuinely useable film rather than one used in emergencies when light was low. Print films are quite good on latitude (I suspect it's more to do with the extra processes between shooting and the final print than with the emulsions themselves - scanning slides and playing with the results can often bring out some "lost" detail) with transparencies being rather less so (unless scanned etc, as above).
One of the biggest joys of film though is real B&W. Bung in some FP-4, HP-5 or Tri-X and away you go. You might even get into home processing (although, whatever the film boys may say, it IS rather a smelly business and I gave it up due to horrendous headaches from doing it in a poorly ventilated [due to blacking it out completely] space.
 
^^ printing, sure, but I do all of my developing in a well ventilated light room. You don't need a darkroom at all for processing film, just a changing bag.
 
That's what I ended up doing for a while, then realised I have loads of negs waiting to be printed and nowhere to do them! And the rubber bladders that supported the walls of my elderly changing bag rotted and left denatured rubber on a couple of films, putting me off the whole process!
 
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