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Film photography orclassical photography, also known by theretronymanalog photography, is a term usually applied to photography that useschemical processes to capture an image, typically onpaper, gelatinfilm, or ahard plate. These processes were the only methods available to photographers for more than a century prior to the invention ofdigital photography, which useselectronic sensors to record images todigital media. Analog electronic photography was sometimes used in the late 20th century but soon died out.
Photographic films utilizesilver halide crystals suspended inemulsion, which when exposed to light record alatent image, which is thenprocessed making it visible and insensitive to light.
Despite a steep decline in popularity since the advent of digital photography, film photography has seen a limited resurgence due to social media and the ubiquity of digital cameras.[1] With the renewed interest in traditional photography, new organizations (Film Is Not Dead,Lomography) were established and new lines of products helped to perpetuate film photography. In 2017B&H Photo & Video stated that film sales were increasing by 5% each year in the recent past.[2]
As digital photography took over,Kodak, the major photographic film and cameras producer, announced in 2004 that it would stop selling and manufacturing traditional film cameras in North America and Europe.[3][4] In 2006,Nikon, the Japanese Camera maker announced that it would stop making most of its film cameras.[5] Incurring losses in the film camera line,Konica-Minolta too announced its discontinuation of cameras and film.[6] In 2008 the firstinstant film makerPolaroid announced it would stop making instant film.[7]
Interest in all types of film photography has been in the process of revival. The Lomography movement started in 1992, which, BBC claimed, has saved film from disappearing.[8] Lomography started manufacturing updated versions oftoy cameras likeLomo LC-A (as Lomo LC-A+),Diana (as Diana F+),Holga,Smena andLubitel.
Film photographers started experimenting with oldalternative photographic processes such ascyanotypes,double exposures,pinholes, andredscales. Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is observed on the last Sunday of April, every year.[9] Organizations such as Roll4Roll spread the artistic movement of double exposures.[10]
Film Photography Project, a website dedicated to film photography, announced in 2017 the comeback oflarge-format camera by a new startup calledThe Intrepid Camera Co.[11]
For those who are keen to work with, or do work with more traditional types of photography, dedicated online communities have been established in which like-minded individuals together share and explore old photographic practices.[12] Film photography has become much more popular with younger generations who have become increasingly interested in the traditional photographic practice; sales in film-based cameras began to soar, and youth were seen to embrace some 19th-century technology.[13] Young photographers say film has more 'soul' than digital.[14] Camera manufacturers have also noticed the renewed interest for film, and new simplepoint-and-shoot film cameras for beginners, have started to appear.[15]
Polaroid was once a power in instant photography. Facing the digital revolution, Polaroid stopped production of instant film in 2008. A new company calledImpossible Project (now Polaroid through brand acquisition) acquired Polaroid's production machines to produce new instant films for vintage Polaroid cameras and to revive Polaroid film technologies.
The revival of film photography has resulted in new art forms and photo challenges, as the technical limitations and constraints of film are used as parameters of the art. In the 36 (or sometimes 24) frames challenges, a single roll of film must capture a specific event, time period or as exercises to improve photography skills.[16][17]
In contact sheet photography, the traditionalcontact sheet is used as a way to make pictures consisting of partial photos. The resulting image spans the whole sheet, divided into squares by the black borders of the film.[18]
Film photography does not just mean photographic film and its processing with photo chemicals.[dubious –discuss] Itself a science and a craft of its own, changes in chemistry and developing time will affect the end result. An example istintype photography. A tintype, also called ferrotype, is a positive photograph produced by applying a collodion-nitrocellulose solution to a thin, black-enameled metal plate immediately before exposure. The tintype, introduced in the mid-19th century, was essentially a variation on the ambrotype, which was a unique image made on glass instead of metal. Just as the ambrotype was a negative whose silver images appeared grayish white and whose dark backing made the clear areas of shadows appear dark, so the tintype, actually negative in its chemical formation, was made to appear positive by the black plate.[20] These methods were not abandoned when film came to dominate photography.
Instant film develops an image automatically, and soon after it is ejected from the camera without any processing by the photographer or by a photographic lab.Photographic paper, however, must be processed after exposure in a dark room or photographic lab.
Black-and-white negative film may be processed using a variety of different solutions as well as processing time control, depending on the film type, targeted contrast, or grain structure. Many B&W processing developers are still available commercially, among them are Dektol, D-76, Rodinal and Kodak HC-110. Color negative film often uses theC-41 process,however film shot for movies is usually developed using the ECN-2 process. Color positive film uses theE-6 process which yields color slides. In the past,Kodachrome was developed with a specialized color process usually done at labs operated by kodak themselves. One developer bath was used per each color layer, this process is no longer commercially available.
Some photographers experiment with different processes such ascross processing which can yield unnatural colors and unexpected contrast. Cross processing film is when you develop film using a process it was not originally intended for, such as devoloping Color Positive film in C41 chemicals producing a negative rather than the intended positive, or color negative film in E-6 chemistry to get a positive.
Film processing does not use digital technology, since information is not translated into electric pulses of varying amplitude or binary data.
Films can be any of the following types:
Silver-based film supports come in various formats, of which the following are still in use:
A selection of Black-and-white films still produced as of 2026 include:
Color films (mostly 135 and 120 formats) sold on the market in 2020 are:
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