Film photography overview
With the advent of the digital camera, many people have changed their preference from film to digital camera because of many reasons. In digital camera, you can see the image immediately after it has been taken and there are no processing costs. The people who still use film camera are the ones who are either professional photographers or people who have a passion for film camera photography.
The first camera was called daguerreotypes and it didn’t use any film at all. It was in 1885 that Kodak built the first photographic film and at that the time, the film was coated with paper. It was not before 1889 when the first plastic transparent film was produced. The first truly photographic film was actually made from a highly flammable material called nitrocellulose and camphor was added to it as a plasticizer or celluloid.
Around the 1920s, a cellulose acetate or safety film replaced the nitrate film. The Kodak or fuji films were used extensively by one and all and also by professionals in wildlife photography, nature photography etc. Finally, by the end 20th century digital cameras brought with them the near extinction of film cameras.
Types of Photographic Films
There are primarily 2 important types of photographic film and they are:
Print film: When a print film is developed, it forms a negative, which has inverted colors or white and black values in a B&W film. The print film can be viewed only after printing or when kept on a photographic paper. Print films are available in both color and B&W formats.
Color reversal film: Once you develop a color reversal film, it is known as a transparency. The only way to directly view it is through a projector or a loupe. A reversal film that is mounted with cardboard or plastic for the purpose of projection is known as a slide. There are several manufacturers who market it as a slide film. The most common use of a color reversal film is for producing digital scans and even for color separations used in mass-market printing.
You can produce photographic prints from a color reversal film, but it is considered to be an expensive process; more expensive than the normal camera print film development process. A black and white reversal film is quite uncommon and this is one of the primary reasons why color reversal films are mostly used by professional photographers like ad photographers etc.
A color reversal film is far more superior than the normal print film as far as color reproduction is concerned.
The only way to produce an image that can be used, a photographic film should be exposed properly. Both excessive and low exposure can destroy the image. There is a degree of exposure variation that any photographic film can endure in order to produce a high quality image. This degree of exposure variation is called exposure latitude. A color print film will always have higher exposure latitude as compared to any other film.
Another important aspect of a print film is the optical density, which refers to the concentration of silver salts or dyes that remain on the film even after development. Normally, a darker image as seen on the negative will have a higher optical density as compared to a transparent image.
Most of the print films are affected by silver grain activation, which helps in setting a certain amount of light that is required for exposing a single grain. It is also affected by the statistics behind random grain activation using photons. This simply reflects at the fact that the print film will require a minimum degree of light radiation before it can start to expose, and soon after it will start responding by following a progressive darkening over a wider dynamic range as far as exposure is concerned. This will keep on happening till all the grains have been exposed and thus the film will achieve its maximum optical density after development.
Some of the most common print film speeds that is used in film cameras start from ISO 25, 50, 64, 100, 160, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. The consumer print films normally have a ISO range varying from ISO 100 to ISO 800.