Related Recs

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FILM CAMERAS

i found a perfectly functional nikon n60 for 35 bucks at a thrift store, and i impulsively spent an extra forty five bucks getting film and then getting the film developed later on. holy fuck i like this lifestyle. i think everyone should take shitty pictures with film cameras because it’s very much worth the fortune you spend.

@al1

Apr 29, 2025

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SLR/ film Advice

Here are some super basic film photography tips! I'm not an expert, but this is just a quick crash course of the film101 basics. All the fun comes from trial and error, though, so if you get a working camera, just mess around and you'll figure it out! CAMERAS - SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras have a mirror that flips up to take the photo (making the satisfying click sound), if you're getting a second-hand camera check that mechanism works by dry-firing the camera on all the shutter speeds (usually a dial on the top of the camera that measures in milliseconds) and making sure it completely goes up and down in the amount of time the shutter speed is set to. - A good starter SLR is the Canon AE1 or the Canon AE1-Program. Both of those cameras have lots of interchangeable lenses that are still pretty easy to find online, fully mechanical mechanisms so they can be repaired and don't need a power source, and the Program version has the program mode which sets shutter speed and f/stop automatically, so all you have to do is point and shoot. I recommend going full manual though, just to get a feel for how each aspect influences each other! - If you're storing your camera, make sure that it is UNCOCKED (if you were to press down the shutter button, it WOULDN'T take a photo). This prevents unnecessary sustained tension on the mechanisms - Point and shoots are cool! Those are usually battery powered, but you don't have to set anything other than if you're shooting in natural light (daylight) or indoor light (tungsten). Great for fast photos, but they won't teach you about proper image exposure. TAKING A PHOTO - f/stop (also called aperture) is how much light gets into the camera through the lens itself, a larger f/stop means less light, a smaller f/stop means more light - The faster the shutter speed, the less light gets onto the film, use high shutter speeds for bright areas, low shutter speeds for dark areas - Film has an ISO (sometimes called ASA, they are the same) listed on the box and on the canister itself, that's how sensitive the film is to light - higher ISO is more sensitive, lower ISO is less sensitive - Shutter Speed, ISO, and F/stop are all RELATED so if you adjust one you have to adjust the others as well to get the same properly exposed image. Rule of thumb with film, since the ISO is set on the film itself, if you bring the shutter speed UP you bring the F/stop DOWN and vice versa - there are calculators online to figure that out as well! - Frame your subject in your viewfinder and make sure it's in focus! Usually there will be numbers on the lense in feet or meters that represent how far away you are from the subject, but its an imperfect science! As long as everything looks good you can take the photo! - the AE-1 family has an internal light meter, where if you half-press the shutter button, in full manual mode a little dial will go up in the viewfinder and tell you what f/stop you should be set to based on the shutter speed you're at. This is the one battery operated element of the camera, so if the battery is dead this will not work. Light meter apps for your phone work too (and usually better)! - "proper exposure" is just an image that looks as close to real life as possible, that's totally subjective, but underexposed images will be darker (not enough light let into the camera when taking the photo, shadowy) and overexposed images will be brighter (too much light let into the camera, blown out). It is much easier to make an underexposed image look natural in editing than it is to make an overexposed image look natural, so I always err on the side of potential underexposure rather than over. FILM STOCK - Black and white is great to start out on just because when you develop it you really get to see shadows/ highlights, I love Illford 400! Color film is usually available at CVS, the Fujifilm 400 can be found by the disposable cameras. There are also a bunch of boutique film stocks from companies like tomography you can get online or at specialty photography stores - Store any film you're not using in a freezer, that keeps them from deteriorating - Expired film can still be used but since the chemicals on it deteriorate you've gotta adjust, I usually use an online calculator to figure out what the ISO has turned into and thus what you should be adjusting the shutter speed and f/stop to. - DON'T go to CVS to get film developed - to mirror what @carolineheins said, it's not worth it! There are mail-in services you can ship rolls of film too, and also local developers if you just google around in your area! I personally get just the negatives back because I have my own scanner and that's about $10/roll at my local place, but for a little more the developers will send you digital copies or full size prints of any of the photos on the roll! Now you can get out and shoot! It's all about experimentation, just have fun and you'll figure it out!

@haydenaugust

Mar 28, 2025

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weird film for cameras

i first bought a film camera at an antique shop last summer and i immediately fell in love with it. despite the cost of film and development, i love it so much more than most cameras. i grew up accidentally collecting cameras from thrift stores and my mom’s friends, including one of the very first popular models of polaroid camera! when i bought the film, the man who owned the store gave me some free 18-exposure (i think ?) film. when i got the film developed, i realized that there was this blue hue to the photos. i am not sure why and didnt think to google it but for whatever reason, the next set of developed photos had that same hue, but ONLY FOR THE FIRST 8 EXPOSURES i was so confused but i dont care honestly it looked good while it lasted

@ylianna

Mar 12, 2025

Top Recs from @royallmonarch

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WATCHING MOVING WATER

just sit still and listen. drink it in.

@royallmonarch

Jun 2, 2025

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DETACH from the algo, become an active participant in your own curation, form relationships to music, track your patterns

I consume a lot of music regularly, and a huge part of keeping a fresh diet of new listens going is having enough sources of recommendations that aren’t an algorithm that either 1) reinforces your existing listening patterns, keeping you stagnant in your tastes, or 2) platforms whoever paid enough to push their product to the top, serving you something that may not inherently be of inferior quality, but may not align with your tastes, may not be exciting beyond just being a new release, and realigns your current listening habits to be more in line with what the average user on the platform is also listening to — which socially might have benefits but which creates a homogeneity of consumption that can become bland since you’re listening to something really just because it’s the next product on the assembly line to have its public moment and not because anything about the music actually captured your attention. the current landscape of streaming is designed to keep you at an all you can eat buffet where you take what’s served to you, and as a result a lot of us have forgotten how to look at a menu and order. so what does taking a more active role in your own music curation look like? for me, it’s meant not using streaming as a primary listening platform. I mostly use my local Apple Music library on my phone that I curate with the vestigial iTunes Library framework that’s still a part of Apple Music on my laptop. probably going to find an alternative soon since apple seems to be cutting integration progressively. I like this method because it forces me to choose what to sync to the limited storage space I have, forcing me to take inventory of what I actually listen to and what I can offload. the files I get are mostly from Bandcamp or Soulseek depending on whether it’s available for purchase or entirely unavailable online (as is the case for a lot of electronic music that was on vinyl only, which is where soulseek comes in clutch). I also have freedom here to change the ID3 tags to better sort and organize, rate, change track info, and track my own listening data. Bandcamp and other music purchasing platforms are great because 1) it reshapes my relationship to music away from consumerism and back towards curation. I have to pay actual money for this thing now if I want to use it, so i’m forced to consider its value (usually i’ll stream a release first to gauge my interest). 2) having to spend money helps me to course out my meals so to speak, as i’ll buy a few releases i’ve accumulated in my cart over the month and cash out on Bandcamp Friday when 100% of my money is actually getting to the artist (TOMORROW IS BANDCAMP FRIDAY BTW!!!), and between purchases I can actually chew and savor and digest my last orders, they don’t get swept up in the deluge of new releases. my plate is full until i’m done and then I order more. also for the times of the year like now when new music isn’t coming out as regularly I take time to find older music that I would normally overlook while keeping up with new drops. currently very into early 80s/late 70s music with early digital production, kinda stuff that would evolve into synthpop and dance music. so how do you know what to order? for me, I’m getting recs through trusted curation platforms. whether it’s bandcamp daily, y’all lovely folks here on PI.FYI, friends, or most importantly musicians who I follow on socials that share their tastes through posts, stories, playlists on steaming, interviews, etc. I like this last one especially because it’s kind of like a musical game of telephone. if I like an artist and they share their interests and influences it’s like every layer in this process is stretching my palate further from the sound that I was originally interested in and into a new territory that has some shared DNA but would never have been recommended to me by an algo because there’s no shared category or label between them, only the musical influence and interpretation of it made by the artist. as an example, I was a huge Skrillex stan, he signed KOAN Sound to his label, they collab with Asa who collabs with Sorrow, Sorrow takes huge influence from Burial, Burial makes some ambient adjacent stuff and takes huge influence from 90s rave music and drum and bass and 2000s rnb, now i’m listening to Brandy - All in Me, William Basinski, Aphex Twin, none on whom would get recommended by Spotify to me from Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. LAST thing i’ll say — because in yappin about this i’m realizing how actually passionate about this subject I am: MAKE LISTS! playlists are cool, but they can flatten your music into vague categories of “vibes” and “aesthetics” and encourage picking one-off songs from artists that you never form an active audience relationship with. I make a practice of making my own year end lists of top 25 albums (plus some honorable recs and top individual songs) and keeping them in a notes doc that I regularly update and rearrange over the course of the year. this forces me to consider the actual relationship i’m forming with what i’ve ordered for myself. did I like it in the moment but it didn’t have staying power? is it slowly growing on me? it also encourages taking albums as a whole. maybe I liked one or two tracks a lot but the rest wasn't resonating. that’s ok! maybe I rank it lower but now i’ve actually taken time to consider it, it’s in my library, and maybe (quite a few cases for me) something I ranked like bottom 5 albums becomes a retroactive favorite from that year as my tastes evolve. also 25 albums to take with me from each year is really more than you'd think, i struggle sometimes to even find 25 that I formed a true connection with. I think the biggest thing the itunes era ruined that led into now is the single-ification of music, the ability to separate the hits from the deep cuts. albums are meant to be taken as a whole, and then once you've really sat with the whole you can find what actually stuck. even then I like to keep the whole around because soooo often i’ll write off a track that yeeeears later I come to love. trust the artist, they made it like they did for a reason. aaannyyyywayy TLDR: get recs organically, be more active in deciding your listening patterns, fr*cken pay artists yall, trust the artist embrace the album, really consider what you consume

@royallmonarch

Feb 29, 2024

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GOING ON A SUMMER SUNSET BIKE RIDE

many treats to be had

@royallmonarch

Jun 4, 2025