The film you choose for your camera matters much, much more than the choice of the camera itself and the lenses to use. There are three main types of film you may come across: color negative film, E-6 slide film, and black and white film. They all have their raison d'etre, none of them are perfect for every shooting situation, and all of them are capable of great results if used appropriately. Using a certain type of film always involves some trade-offs, however, if you have the right knowledge, you can choose the film that best suits your needs.
Steps
Step 1. Understand the difference between the three types of film
Many people are only familiar with the first one, but the other two have their place in photography (and maybe even more).
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Image Color negative films have inverted colors and an orange tint. There color negative film it's the print film, and it's the kind most people are familiar with; it can be bought almost anywhere (and is what non-specialists assume you want, if you ask generically "a film"). The image you see in a developed negative has inverted colors and an orange hue. The process used for development is called C-41, and therefore such films are also called "C-41 films".
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Image Reversible films, typically mounted on plastic or cardboard frames, give back a positive image of your photograph. There slide film, more properly called reversible film, returns a positive image; in other words, when you look through a slide, unlike what happens with negatives, it already looks like a photograph. Almost all slide films today use the E-6 process for development, which is a completely different process from that used for negative films.
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Image This photo was taken with Ilford XP2 film, one of the few black and white films that do not use the traditional black and white development process. The traditional black and white films they are usually negative films, but (as you may have guessed) they are black and white. These films use a very different (and much simpler) development process than all other films.
However, there is also a subset of black and white films that can be developed with the C-41 process used for color negative films. Among the latter we find the Ilford XP2 and Kodak BW400CN films. These have all the characteristics of color negative films, except color, so most of what is written about them also applies to these films.
Step 2.
Your choices may be limited if you use some odd film format like 110 cartridges. Consider the options available for the film format.
This article assumes more than anything else that you are using 35mm film. If you are using an odd or poorly commercially successful format like 24mm, then you are probably forced to use color negative film. On the other hand, 35mm and larger formats usually have a ton of options available, so don't worry.
Step 3. Consider your development options
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Image Minilabs that deal with the C-41 can be found almost everywhere. The color negative films they can be developed almost anywhere at a very low cost; If you don't live somewhere out of the way with a population of you and your dog, you will likely find a shop nearby that can develop. If you are the original type, you don't care if you screw up some film and like to deal with unsightly and dangerous chemicals, you can develop on your own, but this is not entirely recommended.
- E-6 slide films and conventional black and white films usually need to be sent to a professional lab to be developed. Most large cities have such workshops, but if there aren't any in your city, don't worry - smaller labs are often available to take care of them for you. On the other hand, you can develop traditional black and white films on your own, without spending a lot, and without all the problems you would encounter with color negative films.
Step 4. Decide how much exposure latitude you want
Both measurement errors and bad technique can make photos overexposed or underexposed; the exposure latitude expresses the amount of overexposure or underexposure that a film can tolerate, giving still acceptable results. Slide films have almost no tolerance in terms of underexposure and overexposure; if you are going to photograph using reversible film, it is a good idea to use one or two test rolls first (unless you want to get some unusual effect for artistic purposes, don't bother with slide film if you don't have a camera without manual or electronic controls; default settings often give poor results). Color negative films can tolerate high values of overexposure and usually only one stop of underexposure; it is not at all a bad idea to always shoot with one more stop than measured by the light meter. Traditional black and white film also has an enormous exposure latitude; any exposure errors can be corrected during development or printing.
Step 5. Decide the speed of the film
The speed (or sensitivity) of the film is usually expressed by the ASA index (also known as ISO); this is a number like 50, 100, 200, etc. The higher the ASA value, the higher the light sensitivity of the film. More or less sensitive films are called "fast" and "slow" respectively. As usual, there is no ideal film, but it is always about making a compromise.
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Image Fast films allow you to take photographs with hardly any light, but have a lot more grain. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The fast films they will allow you to capture a subject in the worst lighting conditions. The downside is that you'll end up having more grain visible in your image (something similar to digital camera noise, but much less unpleasant). Some might say that extremely fast films (1600 ASA and up) are not worth using these days; if you need to use extremely fast shutter speeds to shoot sports (for example), all you should do is use a good DSLR, which will give great results at these high speeds. On the other hand, photography is an art, not a science. The grain of many films looks fantastic in black and white photographs.
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Image Slow films, such as the Velvia 50 ASA used for this shot, are fine for landscapes, but forget to hold the camera by hand in low light. The slow films they typically return less grain, but require longer exposure times. This is not a problem for landscape photos taken during the day and until sunset, but it becomes a problem for indoor shots or fast-moving subjects.
But don't worry too much about all this: if you want to take simple snapshots, go for 200, 400 or 800 ASA films; if you take pictures in bright light or you can still control the lighting, use a slow film whose rendering you like.
- Unless you take many, many photographs, own a dream camera with interchangeable backs, or have several cameras on hand, you will often need to choose a good film that is suitable for a variety of conditions. In this case, use negative film (for greater tolerance towards exposure errors), color (you can always remove the colors on the computer later, if you like), high sensitivity (which will return some grain in full light, but it is better to put up with some grain than to miss out on the opportunity to shoot many images entirely due to the slow exposure time of low-sensitivity films).
Step 6. Decide which colors you like, and choose the film accordingly
This depends on the subject of the photo. For example, super-saturated films like Velvia are very good for landscapes, but are terrible for portraits of people (at least for lighter skinned people). Soft colors or black and white often work much better for this kind of photo. But, again, remember that if you want to do something artistic, it might be more convenient to use the "wrong" film in a certain situation, rather than doing the technically "right" thing.
If you use negative film, remember that the colors you get depend more on how the film is printed or scanned than on the film itself, since there is no standard way to represent colors on film. Unlike with slides, with negatives there is no such thing as printing or scanning without corrections, because all the inverted colors of the negatives must be corrected to remove the base tint of the film. This is not to say that negative films cannot return superb results; this is possible, and often happens, especially with portraits of people. But don't be surprised if you sometimes get unsatisfactory results, or very different ones from one film to another.
Step 7. Ignore all of the above and go try some films
These technical notions are not enough to make you an artist. There is no other way than to try a film, to see what results you can get.
Advice
- If you have the opportunity to buy a lot of films that have just expired or are about to expire, go ahead and buy them and keep them in the fridge. The films keep almost indefinitely in the refrigerator. Even the strange color variations resulting from using expired film can be used to achieve artistic effects (so much so that many people duplicate the effect on digital photographs using Photoshop). Fast films - ISO 400 and up - deteriorate faster with age. Do not use expired film for important work, unless you have already tried other rolls of the same film batch (similarly stored) and they have given you good results after development.
- If you only use color negative films, don't worry about buying a scanner unless you have a huge archive to scan, or you need ultra-high resolution images for digital printing. Most minilabs can scan good quality CDs at a very moderate cost. On the other hand, digitizing slide films can be extremely expensive, depending on where you go.
- One author believes that it no longer makes much sense to shoot slides, as film is routinely scanned digitally for printing and viewing (any film can be scanned again later with newer technology, to improve the quality of the best images, for which are worth a new scan). Slide show damages the image if done for a long time (it is estimated that common slide films retain good quality when projected for up to an hour in total, after which they begin to lose quality). The development of slide films basically creates a negative image, as is done with negative films, and then through multiple chemical steps develops the reverse of the negative image - i.e. a positive image - in which the negative image is no longer visible. This further step involves a certain degree of image degradation, and, probably, the loss of exposure latitude (thus with loss of color and detail in the brighter and darker areas). If the film has to be scanned in any case (which results in a loss of quality), then it is best to do so without the loss of quality due to the chemical inversion process, and instead perfectly reverse the digital image obtained from the scanning of a negative. If you want to get the strong color saturation or contrast of a particular slide film, you can often get those characteristics simply via software (or, if you want to give that characteristic to most of your images, it is better to use a saturated color negative film)..
- It may be worth searching the internet for examples of photos taken with the film you are interested in before purchasing. On the other hand, the internet is full of ugly photos, so don't judge a film by what you see by doing an image search on Google. Try Flickr, which sorts the results by how interesting they are.
