A guy at the film lab in Portland told me to shoot my whole first roll at the same setting

I dropped off my first roll of Kodak Gold 200 at a lab last week, feeling pretty lost. The guy at the counter, Mark, saw me looking confused and said to just set my camera to f/8 and 1/250 for every shot on my next roll to really see how the film reacts. It made the whole thing feel less scary. Has anyone else tried a method like this when they were starting out?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.thomas18d ago

My old photography teacher called that the sunny sixteen drill. He made us shoot a whole roll at f/16 with the shutter speed matching the film speed. It's a brutal way to learn, but you see exactly what the film can do in perfect light. That Mark guy gave you a solid starting point with f/8. It takes the guesswork out and lets you focus on just finding a picture.

umaprice18d ago

Ngl that drill sounds kinda brutal.