Learning some film techniques but with digital?

[sross]

A few months ago, I bought a D80 and have been having a lot of fun learning on it. My composition has become significantly better but when I get back the States I would like to start shooting film. My reason for doing so is that I have some a couple different adventure plans/daydreams to occupy myself while on terminal leave (2 months). Either Central America in the Zuk or an overland tour from South Africa to Nairobi.

Back home I have a Nikon FE that my mom bought me 15 years ago to try and teach me photography. I didn't get into it at the time but I think it might/would be a better adventure camera. I am a hard on equipment after a few years in the Army where most stuff is built like a tank.

I would have to carry film but with digital you have to lug around a lot of expensive, tempting to thieves gear to make sure you don't lose anything. Plus you have to charge batteries, make certain nothing gets wet, and a lens change can/does mean dust on the sensor necessitating way too much time in PP trying to brush it out. This is not as big an issue if I do CA in the Zuk as I already have plans for a lockable charging box where all this crap could be kept in semi-safety.

To the meat of the question; what would be the best way to learn film techniques on a digital SLR? I don't want to burn through too much film and time before becoming comfortable on it.

So far I have come up with set it on aperture priority mode, manual focus, and spot metering so I can work on learning the zone system. Any other ideas on how to go about this project?

and last but not least my favorite picture so far for having read all of the above:

 

[Wander]

Keep a small note pad on you and write down the data of your shots, that will help you learn what settings look best to you for the conditions. With a DLSR you can immediatly check your results so determin if the setting you picked where good and what making a change or two does to effect the image. This way you can learn what settings to use when.

When you are traveling with the FE make a plan on how you are going to store and transport your film. It's been so long since I brought film along with me that I don't know if the TSA allows lead bags for the exposed film to go through the x-ray scanner. They used to also hand check film if you asked nicely. I kind of doubt they will do that anymore. It's interesting that you are going from Digi to Film other than the opposite, shooting film will make you a better photographer as you forced to spend more time on the shot as you can't go back and fix it later. The price of non-DSLR lenses is also pretty low so you can get some nice gear without selling a kidney. I alwasy (and still do) prefered lower speed file and rarely shoot anything over iso 100, sadly Kodachrome is gone so you won't be able to give that a try but Kodak and Fuji still make pro quality slide and print film.

 

[sross]

Thanks Matt, I didn't even think about the ISO so I'll set that to 100.

I looked up TSA regs and on domestic flights they are supposed to hand search if you request it; international is a crapshoot. You have to take it in your carry on which would be a pain in the *** and I think the easiest thing to do would be fedex all the film ahead of time.

Another motivation for doing it on film for me is that a few years ago my Grandparents moved. I went and helped them and ended up taking a giant box of slides back to my place and spent many, many hours looking through them. My granddad is a good photographer but he is an engineer at heart and all his notebooks from accompany the slides. Everything is cross referenced between his notes and my grandmother's journals of these pretty amazing trips they went on. Being able to box it up and throw it in a closet and years later be suprised by it is pretty cool. At the time, getting all of them scanned would have been pretty expensive but is something I will probably do whenever I get done with all this.

Thanks

 

[Wander]

The ISO setting on your DSLR can vary and is one of the great things about shooting digital. You could never shoot a roll at 100,200,800,6400,etc all on the same roll! Try shooting with the ISO at 100 and shoot the same shot at 400 and look for the differences.

I meant I usually never used greater than 100 speed film-mainly because I always thought that higher speed film allowed too much noise and was too grainy.

The box of slides sounds really cool, and the notes to tell the story brings them to life.

 

[sross]

Roger on the ISO settings. I meant to say I will turn it off auto and pick the most appropriate ISO. The important thing is to train myself to think about this stuff before I press the shutter. Its my night off so will probably go take some shots this morning. Hopefully it won't be too dusty out.

 

[Wander]

I saw your shots in the P&S thread-nice sunrise!

Thank you for your service.

 

[sross]

Thanks, I have a lot of them. I work the night shift so I get to take a lot of sunrise pictures!

One of my favorite sunrise pics: