A Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography

Shooting analogue cameras is not difficult, as long as you have a solid idea of how to do it right, which this guide should aptly provide.

If you’ve already got your film and camera, scroll down to “Photography 101,” a four-part sub-series about key photographic concepts. If you are confident in your skills or just want to get straight to shooting, scroll to “Buying a film camera,” “Buying film,” or “Making photographs” below.

No matter if you are a beginner or a pro film photographer, there may be something here worth learning.

In this guide: 48-minute read. Download and keep this guide for your reference. Defining film photography. Why shoot film now? A brief history of film photography. The return of film photography. Film in the digital age. The future of film photography. Film vs digital. Photography 101: The shutter. Photography 101: The lens. Photography 101: ISO & exposure. Photography 101: Types of film cameras. Choosing and buying a film camera. Choosing and buying film. Film Prices web app. Making photographs: loading and unloading your camera. Making photographs: metering light and making exposures. Making photographs: developing your film. Taking care of your gear. Where to share your work. Learn more. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

48-minute read. Download and keep this guide for your reference.

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➜ Free Download: A Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography (PDF)

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Defining film photography.

Film photography is the method and the tools most popular amongst amateur and professional photographers up until its peak in 2003 when 960 million rolls were sold. Today it is still used by millions of artists and hobbyists who appreciate or feel fascinated by the process and the results.

Film itself, in the context of photography, is a thin strip of plastic, covered with an emulsion of silver halide crystals suspended in a gelatine base. The chemistry is highly sensitive to light; it has to be handled in complete darkness.

To yield images, the film needs to be washed in additional chemicals; typically developer, bleach, and fixer.

Which then produces a negative, meaning that blacks are now white and greens are red. For colour film, this process is referred to as C-41. There are also ways to produce positive images, E-6, instant film, monochrome film, and few other alternative methods, including Caffeenol, Beerol, and Piller Cuveeol.

Film photographs can have a distinct look. When the medium is pushed to its limit, altered, aged, or old chemistry is used, it may appear extra grainy, produce colour casts, appear with torn edges, or have unusually low or high contrast levels.

 ☝︎Further reading: “How to Make Redscale Film From Any Colour 35mm Roll.”

Instagram is a fantastic example of the mass appeal for analogue photography’s inherent limitations.

The app’s well-engineered filters tool has been instrumental to the company’s success. Those visual effects were modelled to simulate the whacky, fuzzy, colourful images that a cheap plastic film camera produced for its founder, Kevin Systrom.

Instagram filters were built to provide a way to smooth out images taken by people with little or no understanding/interest in photographic principles. The effects add depth and interest to the crispy-clear digital images of often badly-lit subjects.

Instagram, in its earlier iteration, also required all photographs to be cropped into a square shape. That aspect ratio is a direct descendant of Kevin’s Holga, a 6×6 medium-format plastic toy camera. Whether on purpose or as a lucky side-effect, forcing users to crop their images also made them feel more intentional and interesting.

Why shoot film now?

Film photography is more than just the grain. It is an experience. From acquiring the first film camera to seeing the first photograph, there are fundamental differences in how things are done as compared to digital photography.

There is no display at the back of a camera, no way to connect it to a computer. Because film often needs to be processed by a lab, most of the time you’ll need to wait for hours, days, or weeks until you see your photograph. To a newcomer, the wait may seem inefficient and nerve-wracking. But for those who shoot it habitually, this makes for a very special experience — kind of like opening a time capsule.

 ☝︎Further reading: “Why do you prefer photographs taken on film over digital shots?” — Quora.

There’s another type of film that can produce a printed picture instantly, faster than any digital camera. It’s called instant film and is made today by Fuji under the brand Fuji Instax and Polaroid, formerly The Impossible Project.

Because film cameras are considered obsolete by most people, they may be bought on the cheap. The medium is versatile enough to range in results from the strange, distorted images that inspired Instagram filters to remarkably precise representations of reality, virtually indistinguishable from digital photography.

 ☝︎Further reading: “Voigtländer Vitessa L: German Precision Optics in a Foldable Rangefinder Camera.”

Adding to the experience, it is still quite possible to find and buy cameras that are over 100 years old and still functioning. Many of which may look extremely novel and inspire admiration.

Film photography is surprisingly appropriate today. Along with the tremendous advantages of modern digital technology come challenges to our privacy, health, and social interactions. This is evident with the rise of privacy tools like Duck Duck Go, screen time reports on iOS devices, and the increasing pressure on companies like Facebook. Going temporarily offline and avoiding these issues is full of benefits. And film photography is a great way to do it.

Not only can you wander outside with a fully mechanical camera that requires no batteries or internet connection — you can even make your own out of a cardboard box or a tin.

 ☝︎Further reading: “Building an Instax Pinhole Camera: In a Chocolate Tin.”

A brief history of film photography.

Photography was invented in the early nineteenth century. Optic science has already been in development for hundreds of years but only then did the technology was finally able to “freeze” or “fix” an image. At that time, most of it was done with cameras exposing metal or glass plates covered with chemicals, with the first flexible film as we know it being produced in 1889 by Kodak.

Early photographers struggled to be recognized as artists, which in turn gave birth to pictorialism: an attempt to replicate the “organic” quality of a painted image with effects and processes that made photographs look like drawings or paintings.

There were, however, photographers who have fully embraced the power of chemical imaging. Ansel Adams, one of the most recognizable names in the photographic world was one of those people. He openly criticized pictorialism. He also promoted hyper-realism by altering his photographs to often have higher contrast or remodelled lighting.

Adams is particularly famous for sweeping landscape photography which borrowed its genre from painters and artists of the time. Portrait, architectural, fashion, wildlife, and still-life photography did the same, while genres like street, areal, and experimental photography were born out of the medium’s unique properties. Today we have new names meaning roughly the same things: drone (areal), selfie (portrait), travel (landscape & street), and food (still-life) photography.

World War II has changed our society and photography along with it. The important role in the conflict documentation has given it a prominent place of respect amongst the military, scientific, and art communities. Some of the most remarkable work of the time was done by Tony Vaccaro on his Argus C3 film camera.

In the 1970s, the first digital camera was created by Kodak, although the invention hasn’t taken off until the early 2000s when it ultimately led to the “digital revolution.” Unfortunately, digital imaging caused Kodak’s eventual bankruptcy as it was not able to keep up with the technology that the consumer demanded and other brands like Canon and Nikon have fully embraced.

Since film photography’s near demise, technology like autofocus and autoexposure, originally invented for film cameras, migrated onto digital bodies. We continued to improve our cameras with image stabilization, better sensors, and ultra-compact design. The software has also solidified its influence on photography. However, it is worth knowing that the lens sharpness and image resolution had no overly significant improvements since the 1970s. Today’s optics are only marginally sharper, with better correction for distortion, aberration, flaring, and camera shake but less control when it comes to focus and aperture as automation has overtaken those controls.

Printed or projected on a screen, digital and film photographs are often indistinguishable in terms of sharpness and quality. Given that the analogue image was shot on a modern colour emulsion, of course.

The return of film photography.

It never left, actually.

Although companies like Kodak, Fuji, and Polaroid have lost tremendous amounts of capital when digital photography began replacing film, they never ceased manufacturing.

Kodak and Fuji have significantly scaled back their operations. Polaroid, a famous maker of instant cameras, became a licensing and marketing brand with its last factory being bought by a small company called The Impossible Project. That company later bought the original Polaroid name and rebranded itself as Polaroid Originals — today, it’s Polaroid (again).

 ☝︎Further reading: “Strictly analogue: Polaroid's past, present and future – a photo essay” — The Guardian.

As the race to switch over to digital intensified in the 2010s, a young business continued to grow as a proponent of the analogue craft. Lomography sold cheap plastic film cameras as fun toys for creative types. The lo-fi aesthetic had inspired an army of dedicated photographers who, in no small part, have become a solid support for the struggling film industry of the time.

Ilford, a British company known for specializing in black-and-white film had a couple of changes in management. Remarkably, they have survived in a world where monochrome colour images have become long “obsolete.”

Kodak in 2019 has finally hindered the financial downward spiral. The interest in film photography began to slowly resuscitate. In 2018 they have brought back to production two new-old films: T-Max P3200 and Ektachrome E100.

Fujifilm lost the least during the digital boom. Their CEO managed to turn the company around by repurposing the company’s chemical expertise into a line of makeup products. Photography had stayed with Fuji in the form of digital cameras, famously shaped after the rangefinder-type film counterparts. However, for a business as large and as focused on the future as Fuji, producing film has apparently become a hindrance. The company has discontinued a number of film in the 2010s though they did manage to bring one stock back from the dead: Neopan Acros II.

 ☝︎Further reading: “June ‘19 Community Letter: The Return of Fuji.”

Leica Camera, a premium manufacturer, famous for quality and preference among professionals has never stopped producing film cameras. The company, living on the opposite market side of Lomography is doing OK.

As the keystone film companies continue to struggle and adapt to the new market, dozens of small businesses are already starting to form to satisfy the renewed consumer interest. Japan Camera Hunter has made it their business to resell high-value classic film cameras. Bellamy Hunt, its founder, also sells his own brand of film and disposable cameras.

MiNT is in the business of selling modified Polaroid SX-70 cameras and new Instax-based photography products. Gary Ho’s team gives the incredible forty-year-old machines new abilities, such as being able to shoot more than one film speed and extended manual controls. MiNT is also working with Rollei, a brand known for their premium mid-century TLR cameras, to produce Rolleiflex Instant Kamera. Kamera is the next iteration in their InstaFlex series.

CineStill created a new product for film photographers by repurposing Kodak’s top-notch movie picture emulsion. Kodak Vision 3 500T Color Negative Film 5219/7219, is an advanced, modern photochemical technology used on the sets of The Avengers, The Walking Dead, and Star Wars. Found by Brothers Wright, the company modifies the film for development at most photo labs and packages it into 35mm and medium-format canisters.

Film Ferrania, under new management, has been working for the past five years on restarting manufacturing at its Italian factory. Unfortunately, the company has been plagued with issues, crippling production efforts.

Film Washi produces “handcrafted films,” including a special paper-based film. dubblefilm sells pre-exposed film that prints vivid colour gradients on top of images.

Film-based photochemistry has been on sale for over 114 years. After the market slowdown of the early 2000s, the medium has become endangered but the cameras made to shoot it are still in abundance. Out of the consumer’s favour, they got pawned for a small fraction of the price or given away. As Bellamy describes on YouTube, the cameras were brought into the shops “by the box.”

Many used film cameras sold on eBay, the most active analogue photography marketplace, easily qualify as antique. But unlike vehicles and clothing, film cameras are able to withstand the test of time rather well. Because over a billion of them were made and no more than five million film photographers still using them, there are still plenty to go around.

Of course, there are exuberant exceptions, like Contax T2, recently flashed by celebrities, with price tags rivalling top-of-the-line digital bodies.

Analogue photography is not limited to legacy brands, however. Bomm, Cameradactyl, Jollylook, ONDU, and Solar Can are some of the examples of new film camera manufacturers. The challenge of competing with cheap, well-built, functioning antique equipment is not a small one. However, new technologies like 3D printing, precise woodworking equipment, quality plastic moulding, and easier access to global marketing/distribution make for opportunities. A new camera also comes with support and warranty; while antique cameras come with a risk of fatal malfunction.

Large conglomerates and young businesses are not the only brands in the analogue market. Established but less known companies, like Adox, Agfa, Foma, Lucky, Rollei survived by selling film to the prosumer market, dedicated fans, and video surveillance providers.

Undoubtedly a contributing factor to the analogue revival, the internet, is the place where film photographers often socialize in 2021. Found on subreddits, forums, Twitter, and Instagram, the community does its best in supporting projects like the above-mentioned manufacturers.

Due to our “rebellious” 😏 commitment to outdated technology, film photographers are somewhat of an underdog, as compared to over two billion people with digital cameras. To this day, the internet produces “film vs digital” threads, often turning into rants criticizing peoples’ personal and professional choices. Though the topic is finally winding down as we wise up, there is still enough drama to warrant a bag of popcorn.

In a recent controversy, an attempt to replicate the experience of shooting film with a digital camera has spectacularly failed. In 2017, a Hong Kong-based marketing company had successfully raised HK$ 10,035,296 (approx. $1,280,000 USD) on Kickstarter, followed by an additional $1,515,054 USD on IndieGoGo to build Yashica Y35. The brand name they were using belonged to a former Japanese manufacturer known for popular, high-quality cameras.

Despite their relative financial success, the product, a cheap knockoff of the company’s former popular design, Yashica Electro 35, with inferior construction and weak digital sensor disappointed their customers and set photographers on to a sardonic crusade.

Film in the digital age.

Analogue photography owes its revival in part to digital technology. The same invention that has brought the film industry to shambles united the people who care about it. The internet is highly instrumental in persuading thousands of new photographers to try film; it made doing so easy with help of a plethora of instantly available guides, reviews, and tutorials.