HELP! (some advice please)

[MarkM10431]

Yes. You would be cheating yourself. The best way to learn is to practice and to learn from your mistakes. If there is a cost to making a mistake, you will be motivated to learn. You will learn nothing by using a DSLR this way it will become a crutch that you won't be able to do without. You will not develop the skills needed to assess exposure properly by using a DSLR in this way. You will not experience the satisfaction of having learned a skill and being able to apply it.

At the end of the day millions of people around the world have learned how to create images using cameras without computer aids. I'm one of them. If I can look at a scene and make creative decisions about how I want to photograph it and then do everything manually to create the image in the camera, you can too. There is no reason you can't join the people who have real photography skills instead of joining the crowd that doesn't. It's a matter of learning the basics and practice.

There are no short cuts to becoming expert at something. The price of success is failure. Failure is what success is built on, it is what success is based on. Taking a short cut to avoid failure is to sabotage the possibility of success.

using that logic, it's better to hoe a row of corne manually instead of using a plow or tractor. if you think that you learn better with a film camera than I do with my DSLR, think again. FYI, I had plenty of film camera, Canon A1, AE-1 A Minolta maxxum and Nikon F-1,100and N80. if anyhting my skill and knowledge has INCREASED because I'm not afraid to try the new and different. and I certainly would not be getting the astro images with a film camera i am with my D600.. no one can

 

[DougieB]

I have been using an IPhone app as a light meter with pretty good results.
I have developed several rolls of 120 and last night developed 2 rolls of color 120 in my bath room.
Window open.
I have yet to scan, but the negatives look great on the first roll and pretty good on the second.
My hands were still a little clammy from the first roll when I loaded the 120 on the spool in a dark bag. It was like my hands were sticky. The roll struggled going on the roll. Came out with a little crinkles around the edges but pretty good. No touch marks.

 

[seattleshaver]

I had a darkroom in my bedroom when I was in high school (closet) and used the bathroom as necessary. I also worked in the darkroom/photographer for my HS yearbook. It's a fun hobby. It was all black and white for me. You can get an inexpensive film dryer (filtered). You just turn it on, and drop the reel of film down a pole into the dryer.

There are also chemicals that you can add to the film wash to reduce spotting and the collection of dusk. If you end up buying some equipment for your house it's easy to do without a dedicated darkroom. Just go into a closet (use black plastic to make lightproof around the door) and take the film out of the camera and onto the reel and into the developing can with light proof baffling.

You can develop it in the bathroom with all of the lights on. Set up a closet with a couple of tables (one for the enlarger) and one for the developing trays. Mix everything in the bathroom. Get a darkroom light for the closet.

It's easy to break everything down when you aren't using it. Take the trays out and clean up. Leave the enlarger at one end of your closet.

 

[DougieB]

 

[DougieB]

Both the above shots were a little on the under exposed side.
Other more properly exposed shots from the one roll (dog) had very very little grain.
The cropped to a pano shot I believe was under exposed and. I did not intend it to be a pano.
It just looked a lot better that way. I may try to reshoot.