Not many people are using film cameras nowadays and it could actually be a dying form of photography. Many people prefer to use digital photography, because we will be able to get instant previews of our images. We would be able to determine exposure and composition more easily. However, although film cameras don’t have auto exposure and autofocus, the basic process of photography is still the same. After we take our shot, we could finish roll and get our prints. In reality, many photographers have their own mini studio at home and processing our own film can be a great experience. However, we should know what we are doing and with some practice, it shouldn’t be that hard. In fact, if we purchase the processing supplies in bulk, it is possible for us to save quite a bit of money. There are still a few photo labs that accept film processing and they may charge rather ridiculously for processing and printing film.
Films are available in many formats, including 35mm and among the most commonly used are medium formats at 120 and 220. There are two types of films, slide films and negative films. Negative films are what we use when we were children and they are essentially inversions of normal photos. In this case, dark is light and light is dark. Negative films can be black and white or they may have colors. Color negatives are usually called C41, or also the name of the common processing method. Slide film is not commonly used as negatives and they can be processed as color transparencies. Developed film strips should have the same colors like original pictures. In this case, we should be able to hold transparencies to light sources and view the images. We could also use slider viewer, which is a small device with ing lens and light source. We should be able to see a big version of photo. In this case, no scanning or printing is required.
Color slide films are what are still being manufactured these days and black and white version can be quite difficult to find. However, it is possible to get black and white shots, so they can be used as transparencies. Only a few companies still specialize on black and white films, such as DR5. However, it may not be common black and white slides, but could likely be the process of developing transparencies from negative films. Another big difference between slide and negative films are their exposure tolerance. In this case, negative films can be quite flexible and it may be necessary to fix incorrectly exposed shots. It should be noted that slide films can be rather unforgiving. However, slides can still be exposure-corrected, although they may not be as tolerant as negative films. But in many cases, negative films are still much more flexible. There should be no distinguishable features between different film brands and models, but the more important thing is to know how take pictures appropriately.
