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About Film Photography
Film photography is the foundation of photography where photographs were taken on strips of plastic with layers of emulsion. Further back from that, photographers used glass and metal sheets that played both the role of light carrier and print.
These strips come with a coating of a silver halide solution that’s protected by a layer of gelatin.
The photographs we took burned an imprint into the silver. To get a negative out of this, chemicals and washes stripped the plastic of all its coating. This reveals a reversed image.
Dark areas of the scene would show up as transparent on the negative. The grain or “noise” we see from higher ISOs comes from the size of the silver pieces.
The bigger the pieces, the better they were at capturing light. But that also meant they were big enough to see.
Film photography is all about having a physical element with the possibility of experimentation. It relies on the process of conscious image-making because you have a limited number of frames. It is also time-consuming due to the developing and scanning process.
There are plenty of reasons why you should shoot film with a lot of online communities, collectives, and groups on social media. You can even find hashtags like #filmisnotdead where people aim to bring film photography back to life.
These strips come with a coating of a silver halide solution that’s protected by a layer of gelatin.
The photographs we took burned an imprint into the silver. To get a negative out of this, chemicals and washes stripped the plastic of all its coating. This reveals a reversed image.
Dark areas of the scene would show up as transparent on the negative. The grain or “noise” we see from higher ISOs comes from the size of the silver pieces.
The bigger the pieces, the better they were at capturing light. But that also meant they were big enough to see.
Film photography is all about having a physical element with the possibility of experimentation. It relies on the process of conscious image-making because you have a limited number of frames. It is also time-consuming due to the developing and scanning process.
There are plenty of reasons why you should shoot film with a lot of online communities, collectives, and groups on social media. You can even find hashtags like #filmisnotdead where people aim to bring film photography back to life.
Why you should try Film Photography
The biggest advantage of film photography is that it offers you a way to learn.
Most analog film cameras are fully manual, meaning you have to adjust all the settings yourself. Analog photography offers you is a range of great cameras to choose from which are specific to their time and their location. There are also great lenses that you can even mount on DSLRs with adapters.
Without film photography, digital photography would not have been born. Adobe Photoshop was born from struggles that Thomas Knoll found when dodging and burning in the darkroom.
Film photography still offers a lot of choices. Many different types of film give you different looks in the real world. And you don’t even have to use presets in Lightroom to mimic the unique looks.
Most analog film cameras are fully manual, meaning you have to adjust all the settings yourself. Analog photography offers you is a range of great cameras to choose from which are specific to their time and their location. There are also great lenses that you can even mount on DSLRs with adapters.
Without film photography, digital photography would not have been born. Adobe Photoshop was born from struggles that Thomas Knoll found when dodging and burning in the darkroom.
Film photography still offers a lot of choices. Many different types of film give you different looks in the real world. And you don’t even have to use presets in Lightroom to mimic the unique looks.
Useful Links to Film Photography
- First Call Photographic - https://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/
- Silver Print - https://silverprint.co.uk/
- ILford Photo - https://www.ilfordphoto.com/
- A more specialist chemicals site: - https://www.moersch-photochemie.de/en/
- Paterson Photographic Equipment - https://www.patersonphotographic.com/
- Fotospeed - https://fotospeed.com/darkroom.html
- Tim Rudmans offers film photography inspiration - http://www.timrudman.com/