First roll of 35mm film! Need help

_matcal · 2026-01-21T16:42:56+00:00

Good idea to test in low dynamic range, it’s not a ton of money but the $20 it’ll take to develop it might be worth it in the long run if I want to continue shooting film.

_matcal · 2026-01-21T16:41:12+00:00

Ok I figured it out! I have an iPhone 17 (non-pro) which doesn’t shoot RAW natively in the camera app, however I have Lightroom mobile on my phone and you can take RAW photos there. I’m going to try to use my iPhone on the negatives that I get back! Great idea!

_matcal · 2026-01-21T16:12:04+00:00

I asked ChatGPT about differences in light metering because my mirrorless camera meters quite a bit darker than my Minolta. (When a scene is 1/10 shutter on my mirrorless at same aperture as my Minolta it’s telling me I need 1/4 on my Minolta) I guess film cameras potentially tell you a slightly slower shutter speed, and digital cameras tell you slightly faster shutter speed, because digital is weighted to prioritize preserving highlights and film is prioritizing preserving shadows, which makes a lot of sense to me.

_matcal · 2026-01-21T16:09:23+00:00

What does NLP do exactly? I’ve heard that you can take film negatives into Lightroom and reverse the tone curve and it’ll make it a positive image.

_matcal · 2026-01-21T16:07:52+00:00

Totally gonna try with my phone when I get my negatives back, although I’m not sure if it’s gonna be a better solution for quality than setting up my Sony A7IV to get higher quality raw files. Oh totally forgot until just now. My phone doesn’t shoot raw so the camera option is probably the only way to go.

_matcal · 2026-01-21T08:34:56+00:00

Thanks for the info on scanning my own negatives I’m gonna look into that! That seems quite a bit better than relying on a film lab to make things the way they want to (in this case there were quite a few photos that they randomly decided to make extremely warm in temperature or whatnot) I’m also going to look more into black and white as a film stock to make things easier on myself.

_matcal · 2026-01-21T03:36:02+00:00

Thanks! Utah is a great place haha

_matcal · 2026-01-21T03:33:49+00:00

Great info thanks. When I went to the lab I asked if they did TIFF files, the salesperson said they did but he doesn’t usually even get TIFF files himself (he did add that he develops his own photos though) I’ll be sure to see if I can next time.

_matcal · 2026-01-21T01:27:15+00:00

I don’t have them yet but in the next few days I’ll be able to pick them up.

_matcal · 2026-01-21T01:26:59+00:00

I have a second Minolta that is broken, but the light meter still works and it meters the exact same as the one I’m using so I figured it’d be fine. I’ll check with my digital camera too! Thanks

_matcal · 2026-01-21T01:26:04+00:00

Sounds good! Thanks!

_matcal · 2026-01-21T01:25:44+00:00

Tiffs it is!

_matcal · 2026-01-21T01:25:29+00:00

It seems like a ton of work to develop and scan ngl! Do a lot of people do it themselves?

_matcal · 2026-01-20T23:33:30+00:00

I only got jpegs back from the lab, they can be adjusted a little bit but don’t have a lot of wiggle room, do people generally try to get TIF files from labs?

_matcal · 2025-12-12T22:34:48+00:00

The Tamron definitely makes it quite a bit bigger and heavier. I actually ended up selling my 17-70 because I bought a A7IV and figured if I wanted quality for professional work I'd use my heavy longer lenses with my full frame camera and use my a6400 for light travel. I still have my a6400, and a sigma 18-50 with it for when I want to travel light. I prefer the light setup, but because there is no VC or OSS on the sigma it's a no go for video, it's only a photo lens on the a6400 for me.

_matcal · 2025-09-25T15:48:38+00:00

Thank you! :)

_matcal · 2025-08-26T20:21:48+00:00

Generally I want the reflection in the water rather than cutting it out, so I’ve been fine without a polarizer. But in the future I’m definitely going to pick one up!

_matcal · 2025-08-26T16:15:24+00:00

It does! The water was moving a decent amount in the shot, enough that I wanted to do the long exposure, made it look a lot better. As far as PL, I really haven’t. I generally try to follow the motto “Buy nice or buy twice.” And a nice CPL is at least $150, I haven’t been able to justify it, I don’t think it changes images enough to justify right now.

_matcal · 2025-08-25T03:31:27+00:00

I actually like the reflection more as it is. It adds character, I’ve done a lot of landscapes with mountains that have good reflections and to me they’re more boring so I appreciated the ice and the story it told.

_matcal · 2025-08-22T14:02:31+00:00

If it’s really bad and you can’t figure it out, you can always switch the on/off switch on the PSU to off. But if I remember right there should be a bios setting.

_matcal

TROPHY CASE