Green Valley HS Photography

To sum up simply, photographic film is a plastic strip–the film strip–coated with a gelatin filled with tiny light-sensitive crystals. A film camera briefly exposes sections of this plastic film strip to light, which is imprinted into these crystals to form your exposure.

In practical terms, film presents a few considerations that will be new to digital photographers. For one, the ISO you’re shooting with is determined by the film you’re using, so the only way to change your ISO when shooting is to wait to finish the roll. Also, many film cameras don’t have automatic light metering, so film photographers must carry either a light meter, or, for those of us that are technologically dependent, one of the many light-metering smartphone apps. The shutter speed, aperture and focus have to be done manually (usually on the lens itself), so there’s almost always some setup involved before each shot.

Finally, digital photographers have the luxury of snapping dozens of pictures for every scene that catches their eye. Analog photographers have to be much more cautious, as every exposure is much more precious (and more costly). Many will argue that this scarcity of photos to take is actually a benefit to one’s photography since it forces the photographer to work with much more foresight, patience, and direction.

Both technically and practically, the specifics of the film you’ll use, the way the camera works with it, and the subsequent development process all depend on what sort of film you’re working with.