Home Film Development + Fine Art Printing: What We Learned Spending Thousands on Equipment
Real costs, honest mistakes, and what actually works for selling photography in 2025.
Last week we decided to go live, this post summarizes the live streaming. Raufan streamed from Japan at night while I joined from New York at 9 AM. What followed was two hours of unfiltered conversation about the real costs, workflows, and business strategies behind shooting and printing film in 2025.
Here's a summary of the live streaming:
The Canon PRO-310 conversation
Early in our conversation, I tell the story of my wife’s reaction when the massive printer box arrived, haha, check out the below note:
The printer now occupies 85% of my former gaming desk. Raufan shares why he chose the PRO-310 over the PRO-1000, and we dive deep into monitor calibration, ICC profiles, and why that $200 calibration device matters more than most photographers think.
Watch this section if you’re considering buying a professional printer for your home studio.
200 rolls developed at home
I walk through the economics of home development versus lab costs. New York labs charge $30 per roll with scanning. Home development costs $1 per roll. But the real advantage isn’t money.
I explain how I shot, developed, and published Kodak’s new color film the same day it released. I share my strategy for developing 28 rolls from my Japan trip without risking an entire city’s worth of photos to a single tank mistake.
This section covers the metadata tracking app I used, the GPS battery drain problem, and why speed matters more than cost for content creators.
Selling prints without a gallery
This might be the most valuable part of the conversation. I show Raufan my Edward Hopper “Nighthawks” photograph and explain why street photography prints need storytelling to sell.
I walk through my complete print-on-demand workflow: how I photograph framed prints for marketing, write Substack posts that sell the story, and use Stripe links for orders. We discuss whether limited editions make sense at our level (spoiler: mostly no).
Raufan shares his exhibition experience in Japan, where he made three thousand dollars in two days selling photobooks and prints to strangers who found his poster on the street.
Paper selection and printing techniques
We both bought sample packs to test different papers before committing. I share my experience with Canon papers while Raufan talks about Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta and the Ilford Washi warmth problem.
I demonstrate the Canon pattern printing software live during the stream, showing how it creates test sheets similar to darkroom test strips.
The tip about printing twice weekly to avoid expensive cleaning cycles is worth watching if you own or want to own a professional printer.
Film photography in New York
I observe that two out of five camera carriers in Manhattan shoot film. I show Raufan the QR code on my camera bag that links to my Instagram. Twenty percent of my followers come from street meetings with other film photographers.
We talk about why film creates better content than digital at every stage of the process, from shooting to development to scanning.
The Substack advantage
Near the end, we discuss why Substack works better than Instagram for selling prints. Email delivery beats social media algorithms. Raufan explains his dual publication strategy: cameraclara.com in English and fotografiacotidiana.com.br in Portuguese, with different content for different audiences.
He shares the economics of film photography in different countries: $30 per roll in New York, $20 in Japan, $3 in Indonesia. These price differences shape what content makes sense for which audiences.
Watch the full conversation
This summary hits the highlights, but the real value comes from watching us work through ideas in real time. We demonstrate software, show prints on camera, discuss mistakes we’ve made, and share specific numbers about costs and sales.
The conversation meanders in the best way. We follow tangents about artistic signatures, the paradox of choice, why film eliminates decision paralysis, and whether NFTs make sense for photography (spoiler: they don’t).
If you’re developing film at home, printing professionally, or trying to sell photography online, this conversation covers ground you won’t find in polished tutorials. It’s two photographers at similar career stages sharing what actually works.
