Film photography has never really gone away. Sure, it’s declined massively since the arrival of digital, however these days increasing numbers of newer photographers are trying their hand at film photography.
I have written several articles about shooting film here at Light Stalking, yet I have realized that there may well be an entire section of you that know little to nothing about it.
Many of you will have developed your photographic skills through the digital age, and whilst understanding the existence of film photography may be daunted by trying it out for yourselves. So today I am going to look at the absolute basics. Cameras, films, processing and shooting on film. Let’s get into it by looking at film.
Photographic Films
Photographic films can be broken down into three main types. Black and white negative film, colour negative film and colour transparency film also known as slide film.
Negative films do exactly as the name suggests, they record a negative image to the film. Blacks and whites are reversed, primaries become secondaries on colour negative film. Some of you might have seen processed colour negatives and wondered why they are orange. This is simply to mask the imperfections of the dyes in the film.
Negative films are made so because they are designed for printing. When you expose a negative onto photographic paper, you get a normal, positive image.
Transparency film is designed to be projected rather than printed, much like you would have watched a film in the cinema before the advent of digital projectors. It is much less tolerant to incorrect exposure than negative films. It used to be able to be printed via an Ilford process called Cibachrome, however that has been discontinued. As far as I am aware, the only way to print transparency films these days is to digitise them.
What’s also important to note, especially for digital photographers is that the ISO, also known as ASA, is fixed. A film will have a speed rating such as 100, 200 or 400 ISO and the camera must be set to that ISO to shoot. There are ways to change the ISO through the film processing, however that’s not for this basic guide.
I should note that photographic films and processing are relatively expensive these days compared to the film era. This is a simple supply and demand issue, whilst film is seeing a resurgence, it’s nowhere near large enough to bring prices down. Typically you will pay $8-10 for a roll of 35mm black and white film plus $15-20 for processing and scanning.
Film Sizes
As digital photographers you will be aware of different sensor sizes, from the very small ones on our phones to the medium format sensors of Hasselblad and Fuji. Film cameras are very much the same. At the peak of film photography in the 1990s, the smallest commercial film was Disk Film, this was really tiny and as the name suggests, each frame was placed around a disk rather than a roll.
Next came 110 and 126, before we got to the ubiquitous 35mm. From there we stepped up to 120/220, both the same width of film but 220 being able to take twice the number of exposure. These are commonly known as medium format. Above that we had 5×4 and 8×10 sheet film used in plate/field style cameras.
Returning to the modern day, 35mm, 120 and sheet films are still made and available, the smaller films are now obsolete.
The Cameras
Apart from a few speciality companies, film cameras are not mass produced anymore. However there is a massive secondhand market for these cameras. The recent resurgence of film photography has pushed up the price of these significantly, however they are still bargains compared to modern mirrorless cameras.
As you might guess, the camera you buy determines the film that it requires. By far the most commonly used format is 35mm and there are two main camera types you will find. The SLR is the direct predecessor to the modern DSLR and shares a lot of the same ergonomics. Secondly there are the compact, rangefinder cameras. These can be as simple as the excellent Olympus Trip all the way through to Leica Ms with their interchangeable lenses.
Medium format, 120 film gets a little more complicated and a lot more expensive, even used. The smallest medium format cameras are 645. These take 15 images on a roll of 120 and as the name suggests the frame size is 6 cm by 4.5 cm. Next we step up to 6×6, the most common medium format, then 6×7 and 6×9. Generally all these formats use different cameras. For example Mamiya did a compact 645 camera and a 6×9 Press camera whilst Hasselbald were famous for their 6×6 cameras.
As a newcomer to film photography, I would strongly recommend a 35mm SLR camera. These are the cheapest and most available. Buy from a reputable used dealer rather than eBay or marketplace. This will ensure that the camera is in good working order. Things to look out for are light leaks, slow running shutters and electrical issues.
You can also break down SLRs into two main eras. Pre 1990s, cameras were mainly manual focus, manual film wind and with fairly rudimentary exposure meters and modes. The 1990s saw the introduction of many of the features we see in modern cameras such as matrix metering and autofocus. They also often had motorized film advance built in.
Shooting With A Film Camera
Those used to modern digital cameras will be in for quite a culture shock. The first thing you will notice is how bright the viewfinders are, before realizing that the information in that viewfinder is severely lacking, often just an exposure scale.
There will be a dial on the exterior of the body for setting ISO and this is very important to set as the wrong ISO will give you incorrectly exposed images. Plus of course, you cannot see that the images are incorrectly exposed.
On older cameras, focussing can be quite a challenge. Even more modern autofocus film cameras were slow and unreliable. Focusing manually, you would have the viewfinder’s fresnel screen or split screen. If you have less than stellar eyesight, this can be quite a challenge.
Loading film requires dexterity and practice. Getting the end of the film into the slots on the spool can be hard and often different cameras have slightly different ways to achieve this. One tip for manually wound cameras, is to watch the film rewind lever after loading the film. If this turns as you wind the film on, it is loaded correctly.
You are going to need to get used to shooting either 24 or 36 frames before needing to change the film but more importantly not 100% knowing whether you have nailed the shot until you get the films processed. Speaking of which.
Film Processing and Printing
At the top I mentioned the three main types of photographic film, colour and black and white negative film and transparency. Each of these has a different way of being processed. Standard black and white film is actually pretty easy to process yourself, however you need to have a dust free environment to do it. You don’t actually need a darkroom as you can load the film into a processing tank inside a dark bag. This can be a bit fiddly at first but becomes second nature with practice. Once the film is in the drum you can do the actual processing in light.
Both colour negative and slide films require much more complicated processing that are really best suited to a professional lab. Slide/transparency film, in particular, is very prone to colour variations when processed.
If you do not want to go down the home processing route, most labs will also offer black and white processing. These days there are plenty of processing labs available although they are unlikely to be local. You usually have to post your film in, and wait a week or two. The lab will probably offer processing and printing or processing with scans only.
Printing colour or black and white negative films has two options. You can print directly from the negative onto photographic paper, or you can scan the negative and print on a home printer. Most modern labs will actually be scanning your negative although that scan will be output to real photographic paper.
The more ambitious amongst you might want to try printing black and white at home. Although you can print under a red light, your darkroom must be completely sealed from any external white light.
Enlargers and processing trays are readily available, and most decent camera stores stock the processing chemicals. It’s not a difficult task to print black and white yet, immensely satisfying.
So that’s my brief beginners guide to film photography. Film photography is a wonderful medium that can teach you patience, the value of an image and a deep understanding of exposure. It can be relatively expensive compared to digital but can give great satisfaction.
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