Film photography alive as younger generation continues old artform in a digital world
Kelsey Hopkins is one of the few people still developing film as part of her business. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)
While digital cameras continue to increase in quality and decrease in price, there is an unwavering community of photographers who swear by the quality and craft of mastering film.
Sydney photographer Tegan Page is well aware of the digital camera, but said it had none of the charm, quality and excitement of her beloved film.
In fact, she was a very late adopter of digital, and it will be a short-lived experiment.
"I have a digital, but I only bought it about six months ago and I hate it, I'm going to sell it,"she said.
"It doesn't have the same effect and you can take the same photo with an iPhone."
At 23, she is very much a child of the digital photography era, but her tastes lie in yesterday.
Ms Page is just one member of a strong community of film photographers across the country who get more pleasure out of slowly taking a picture and the even slower journey to seeing it when it is developed.
The cafe manager even shoots all the business' social media content using film.
Kelsey Hopkins has recently opened a film developing lab in Wollongong. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)
It is a love affair that started when she was given her first film camera aged three.
"I loved the graininess and how mechanical the camera is," she said.
"There's something nostalgic about using a film camera, the excitement of not knowing what your photo looks like and when you get it back, remembering the photo is the best feeling."
She said there was just as much excitement when people finally saw a portrait taken of them which they weren't able to see on the back of the camera at the time.
Business booms for film lab
Sydney photographer Tegan Page says she likes the grainy quality of a film photograph. (Supplied: Tegan Page)
Kelsey Hopkins is from the same breed of film fanatics, but she is also the person to develop the film using equipment that is no longer manufactured.
Her new film developing business in Wollongong on the New South Wales south coast has had a consistent stream of customers dropping in rolls of film to be developed and then scanned onto digital copies.
"People are still shooting on film and I haven't had any old rolls come through yet," she said.
"Everyone is shooting fresh rolls and I've seen disposables from music festivals to vacations and family photos.
"Everyone who's come through has been younger too because the younger generation is taking that step back to what used to be and to dabble in the arts."
Become a better photographer with film
Kelsey Hopkins said using film had improved her skills as a photographer.
"When you go into shooting film, you prepare to make mistakes and when it doesn't turn out well, you contemplate what you did wrong and that process is methodical.
Tegan Page has been shooting with film since she received her first camera aged three. (Supplied: Tegan Page)
"When you get it right, that satisfaction is incomparable and makes you want to improve more.
"You see it in the customers when you have conversations and they take away what you've said and it translates in their photos — it's an awesome thing."
Tegan Page said the light meter on her first camera did not work, so learning how to adjust settings to get the correct exposure was one of many skills she picked up.
"I've also learned things like what skin tone goes with what film — it's taken me down to the absolute basics of photography.
While film photography was particularly popular among young people, Ms Hopkins hoped hearing that would encourage older people to bring their old cameras out of storage.
"A lot of people have cameras that haven't seen the light of day for 20 years, so hopefully a lot of people will dust them off and get them going again."