"Obviously you're not a golfer!"...

How would your photographic behaviour change if you only had four shots to take in a week and weren't able to preview the results?

This is a question I am currently finding the answer to this week. The work photo club is running a wee project where an old film SLR has been dusted off, loaded with a fresh roll of photographic film and is getting passed round the participants of the project a week at a time.

I've used compact film cameras in my day and in fact some of the photos on my website were done with a film camera but I've never, outside of a couple of clicks of my dad's old SLR, truely used a film SLR.

It is a very odd change in photographic behaviour. I need to think very, very carefully about each of my 4 shots. I can't just test the shot, preview and adjust as I am used to in the digital age. I can't rely upon post-process cropping or colour boosting and adjusting. White balancing??

No, it's all very careful check of light, framing and preparing. The camera (a Nikon F301) has wee dials and knobs that you have to adjust to change shutter speed and metering. I'm not adverse to it in any way and quite enjoying the slower pace of it but I think the cons are far outweighed by the pros.

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