In this section of our three-part series about traveling with film, we’ll talk about the mode of travel most fraught with peril for film photographers: Flying. Back in the pre-digital days, flying with film was a no-brainer; you could pack your camera gear and buy all the film you needed at your destination (and perhaps get it developed there as well). Today, film is harder to find and airport security is tighter (and potentially more harmful to film), so airborne analog photographers have to do a bit more planning.

(Note that the information in this article is specific to air travel in the United States. Other countries may—and likely will—have different regulations and procedures.)

The primary problem facing film fans who fly

Related: How to travel with film by land and sea

Here’s the big problem for airborne film photographers: The scanners and X-ray machines used for luggage inspection produce light energy to which film is sensitive. These machines can potentially “fog” your film, causing dark spots or waves on the negatives (or light spots on slides) as if the film had been exposed to light. So the challenge when flying is to minimize or avoid situations that could potentially damage your film.

Note that only undeveloped film is subject to damage. Developed negatives, slides, and prints are no longer light sensitive and cannot be damaged by airport security equipment. 

Can you avoid X-rays altogether?

Depending on your destination, it may be possible to avoid bringing film through the airport altogether. If you’re traveling to a big city, you might be able to buy your film locally. If you’re staying at a high-end hotel with a concierge, they may even be able to buy film for you (but beware of hefty prices and fees). You may also be able to mail-order film and have it sent directly to your lodgings; check with the property first to see if they can receive packages (and bring a couple of rolls in case your shipment is lost or delayed). Likewise, if you use mail-order film processing, consider sending the film off for development from your destination before you leave for home.

Never put film in a ‘checked’ bag

Do not put unexposed or undeveloped film in checked baggage, ever. The scanners used for checked baggage are more powerful than those used in carry-on luggage and will very likely fog your film. Film and loaded cameras should always be taken in carry-on luggage.

Related: Going back to film? Here’s what’s changed

A related side note: When booking your airline tickets, beware of “Basic Economy” tickets, which do not always allow carry-on baggage beyond a small personal item. Buyers of these tickets often board last, when carry-on storage is full, and will sometimes be forced to check their baggage (for a hefty fee), where it could be subject to harmful scanning at stopovers. If you are traveling with film, make sure your air ticket allows you to bring carry-on luggage, and pack your film (and cameras) in a bag small enough to join you in the cabin.

Film in carry-on baggage: Ask for a ‘hand inspection’

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says that the X-ray machines it uses for carry-on baggage are safe for photographic film up to ISO 800*. We’ve had slower film scanned with no ill effects, but we also understand that the effects are cumulative and that multiple scans may cause fogging. (We asked TSA if we could run some test scans at our local airport; they politely denied our request, citing security concerns.)

Fortunately, there is one good way to ensure your film will not be damaged: Ask for your film to be “hand inspected,” regardless of its speed.

*Note that at some airports, TSA is introducing more powerful CT scanners for carry-on luggage, which can damage even slower-speed film.

The PopPhoto guide to hand inspections

First: We recommend being patient and polite with TSA agents. Remember that their first responsibility is security, not customer service—and also that they’re subject to a lot of vented frustrations from harried passengers. There’s no need to show fealty; simple politeness and civility will get you a long way.

Film photography is popular enough that most TSA agents should be familiar with hand-scanning requests, but it does slow their workflow. When traveling with film, we always allow an extra ten to fifteen minutes to get through security (a margin we rarely need).

We recommend carrying your film in a clear plastic zip-lock-style bag, with which TSA is familiar. Leave your rolls in their plastic canisters and/or sealed packaging whenever possible. We try to keep our cameras unloaded so they can pass through the X-ray machine, but loaded cameras can also be hand-scanned. Anything you’d like hand-inspected should be kept where it’s easily accessible; a backpack is preferable to a suitcase that must be unzipped.

Before we put our luggage on the belt, we remove our film and loaded cameras, catch the eye of the nearest TSA agent, and say, “I have some film (and cameras) I’d like to have hand-inspected, please.” If asked if the film is under ISO 800 we either say no or (to avoid fibbing) tell them it’s going to be pushed and shot at a higher speed. (They may not know what this means but will generally accept it.) 

After walking through the scanners we try to stand somewhere conspicuous without blocking the flow of passengers. Film is usually checked by the same agents inspecting bags that have been pulled for secondary inspection, so there may be a wait. The inspection usually consists of swabbing the individual rolls, then putting the swab in a machine that checks for explosive residue. We’ve occasionally had requests to open boxes and always say yes (so long as they don’t pull your film out of the canister or unspool your 120 rolls, it’ll be fine). Once the machine gives the agent the green light, you’ll likely be sent on your way. 

Going home: Have all film hand inspected

Once your film has been shot, it’s still sensitive to light and can still be damaged by scanners, so be sure to have all of your film, shot or not, inspected by hand. We must reiterate: Do not put undeveloped film in checked bags. 

If you’ve had your film developed while on vacation, there’s nothing to worry about—as we mentioned earlier, developed film, negatives, prints and slides are not light-sensitive. You can safely put them through the scanners or in your checked baggage.

What about lead-lined film bags?

Several manufacturers offer lead-lined film bags that claim to protect the film from X-rays. (We do not know if these bags protect against CT scanners.) We haven’t tried one in recent years, but if the bags do block X-rays, they will likely show up as a large dark blob on the security scan, which is likely to trigger a secondary inspection. We find it easier to simply request a hand inspection and avoid the inconvenience of having TSA unpack our bags.

Advice for other countries

While we’ve never had a request for hand-scanning denied in the US, we have been refused in Europe, and we don’t know if this was down to security procedures or a language barrier. For this reason, if you do travel with analog cameras overseas, consider bringing a slower-speed film, which is most likely to survive scanning with no ill effects. That said, we understand that some European countries are also introducing CT scanners for hand luggage, which is much more likely to fog film. 

Ultimately, it’s best to check the official website for the security agency of the country to which you are traveling. If they don’t have a clear-cut policy covering film, you might want to consider traveling with a digital camera or making provisions to mail your film home before you leave.

The post How to fly with film appeared first on Popular Photography.

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If you have old negatives or slides that you want to preserve digitally, you probably already know that just throwing them on your flatbed scanner won’t work. You need a bright light source that comes from behind the negative and the multi-function printer/scanner you use to print coupons is seriously lacking in that department. However, if you hack up a bit of silver cardboard and place it strategically over the film strip you want to scan, you can get your film negatives onto your computer.

The technique requires thick silver card stock, over which you print this pattern, before cutting and taping it into the shape you see in the photo above. You position it above the slide you want to save, and during the scanning process, the light from the flatbed bounces up into the wedge, and reflects back down behind the slide, giving you a basic backlight.

Once the slide or negative is scanned at an appropriate resolution, you can invert the colors, and then perform other corrections in order to remove dust or color errors.

The best part? You can tweak the design to fit whatever size film you have lying around. Even if you have a dedicated flatbed film scanner, it can still be difficult to scan negatives bigger than a standard roll of 120 medium format film.

While the results might not be quite the quality of a dedicated scanner, it’s a much cheaper option using materials you can easily and cheaply get, and a piece of hardware there’s a pretty good chance you already have lying around the house.

The post How to scan negatives using a standard scanner appeared first on Popular Photography.

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Super 8’s grainy, nostalgic look is having a moment right now, popping up everywhere from music videos to blockbuster TV shows. But even outside of pop culture, the consumer-friendly Super 8 film format is winning the hearts of amateurs and the analog community. If it’s caught your eye, too, here’s everything you need to know about getting started shooting Super 8 film.

Lead image courtesy of Noah Buscher on Unsplash.

What is Super 8 film?

This format might just be the king (or queen) of home movies. Introduced in 1965 by Kodak, it was a step up from the 8mm film that came before it, both in terms of quality—thanks to its larger frame size—and usability. This led it to be positioned as the new movie-making format of the masses.

More cost-effective than 16mm or 35mm, Super 8 film is housed in inexpensive plastic cartridges, so it’s easier to handle and load, too. These cartridges also convey to the camera important bits of information, like the film speed as well as filter information for B&W film. And in 1975, a magnetic strip was added to the cartridges to capture audio.

With its launch, Super 8 put the power of creativity in the hands of regular people. Suddenly, everyone was a movie maker.

Super 8 film today

Today, the medium is still very much alive—and by many indications—both doing well and picking up steam. Aside from the enthusiasts scooping up used cameras to record their summers, some of the biggest names in entertainment are turning to film—and Super 8 specifically—for their creative projects.

Harry Styles’ Watermelon Sugar, Katy Perry’s Daisies, Chopard’s short film with Julia Roberts, Burger King, and more have used Super 8 footage to create a grainy, vintage, old-school effect. Search for the medium on YouTube, and you’ll find there’s no lack of videos showing off the medium.

What Super 8 camera should I buy?

How much should I pay for a Super 8 camera?

Options are plentiful when it comes to used Super 8 cameras. Major brands still circulating include Canon, Nikon, and the king of Super 8, Beaulieu. Other brands like Minolta and Chinon sell for under $100, while Canon and Nikon Super 8 cameras can run as low as $300, depending on the model. But Beaulieu cameras are sure to command a heftier (over $500) price tag.

You can buy Super 8 cameras pretty much anywhere secondhand electronics are sold, including Ebay, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, and used camera shops (like Pro8mm). But also know that an astute searcher may find luck befalls them at random garage or yard sale. The main thing you want to do when buying a Super 8 camera is make sure the motor works. If it doesn’t, you won’t be able to advance your film.

What to look for when buying any Super 8 camera

Some cameras may have a crank and are completely manual. Others will require batteries. If possible, go for a film-tested camera and always ask to see the footage and any CLA (clean, lube, adjust) certification the seller may have. It’ll be more expensive but save you the agony of wasted money on the back end. Developing Super 8 film isn’t cheap any way you slice it, so better to know you’ve got a working camera beforehand.

Best Super 8 cameras under $100

If you want to get your toes wet, there are Super 8 cameras out there under $100. The Chinon 723 XL is a good option with its autofocusing capabilities, and so is the Minolta XL 400 with its Zoom Rokkor-Macro lens, which has 13 elements. Both will shoot at 18 frames per second (fps).

If you can’t find those exact models, consider also the Bauer C series (A512 in particular), the Minolta Autopak 8 D6, and the Chinon 213 PXL. The Bauer A512 specifically may run you a little over $100.

Best Super 8 cameras under $500

The sought-after brands live here: Canon and Nikon occupy the top end of this range. Particularly, the Canon 310, 514, or 814 series are popular choices and finds. At the time of its release, the Canon 514XL had the world’s fastest lens at f/1.0. While the Auto Zoom 814, which is comprised of an all-metal mechanical design, was the first Super 8 camera to have an 8x zoom range with an f/1.4 lens.

There are also a handful of other Super 8 cameras that fall on the lower side of the spectrum, too, such as the Sankyo Sound SL-60S and Elmo 1012S-XL. The Nikon R8 and R10 would be considered the high end of this range.

Best Super 8 cameras $500+

If you’re sure Super 8 is your medium, you might find yourself fancying the fanciest of them all: The Beaulieu 4008ZM II. With beautiful design and a reputation for being the best Super 8 camera ever created, there’s a lot to its name. Thanks to its built-in rangefinder, plentiful shooting options (you can adjust the frame rate from 2fps to 50fps), and interchangeable lens design, this French-made camera gives creators plenty of control over their vision. Expect to spend at least $600, with mint kits running up to $5,000.

Also on the market are the Beaulieu S2008 and the 5008S, the latter of which is considered the professional model.

Types of Super 8 film and where to buy it 

Kodak is the main purveyor of Super 8 film, and it’s available from major retailers like Adorama, Amazon, and B&H. The options are Kodak Vision 3 (color-negative 50D, 500T, and 200T); Tri-X reversal 7266; and Ektachrome 100D color reversal.

However, you can also find B&W Fomapan R100 film, and Pro8mm packages their own, which you can buy in a bundle to include processing. Film cartridges run about $40 ($27 if you’re going for Fomapan) and can record 2.5 minutes at 24fps and 3.3 minutes at 18fps. Expect to pay at least $25 to process it.

If shooting Super 8 for the first time, we recommend grabbing the Kodak Vision 3 50D and shooting in daylight. 500T and 200T are balanced for tungsten light, and as a color-reversal film, Ektachrome is quite saturated. These might be better to experiment with once you’re more familiar with the medium.

How to use a light meter for Super 8 video 

Most cameras will often come with an internal meter, but unless you’ve confirmed it works, an external light meter is always a solid investment, whether you shoot stills or video. I personally use a Sekonic L358, but we’ve also got a list of best light meters for you to choose from. If you’re not ready to take the plunge on a real light meter, there are some apps, like Lumu, that have a video mode.

To use the light meter, you’d best take a look at the instructions, as each may differ slightly in how to operate the video mode. But, generally, you’ll want it to be in the f/s mode (frames per second), as opposed to A (aperture) or T (for shutter speed). Know that the frame rate you choose will affect how long you can film—at 24fps, you won’t shoot as much footage vs. 18fps.  

Where to get Super 8 film developed

There are still a good number of film processors that will develop (and scan) Super 8 film. A good bet is to see if there’s a local spot in your area that still processes Super 8. If not, see the list below for where to develop Super 8 film.

Pro8mm

Pro8mm has an incredibly robust lineup of offerings, from selling/renting Super 8 cameras to film development packages. They’ve processed film for Harry Styles, Drake, and Katy Perry, to name a few. Their packages include film, processing, development, and color correction. If you find yourself really bitten by the analog film bug, they’ll also do 16mm, double Super 8mm, and Super 16mm films. 

Film Photography Store

The Film Photography Store has many films on offer, from Super 8 to 35mm and 16mm, which they will also develop and digitize. 

Negativeland Film

Negativeland is a motion-picture lab that will process Super 8 and 16mm films.

Color Lab

Working with clients including National Geographic Channel, NBC, HBO, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Color Lab processes 35mm, 16mm, and Super 8 color negative film and Super 8 B&W film.  

BB Optics

BB Optics specializes in motion picture processing for Super 8, 16mm, Super 16mm, and 35mm, also offering color grading services and post-production supervision. 

How to develop Super 8 film at home 

This is a real commitment and should only be attempted if you have prior experience developing your own film. If you don’t, try 35mm first before taking on the (literally) gargantuan task of processing Super 8.

For those who want to take the plunge, any old developing tank won’t do. You’ll need a special drum that will accommodate the reel, which is typically 50 feet per cartridge. A Jobo Super 8/16mm drum kit (drum, tank, and foot pump) will run you about $880—and that’s before you’ve procured the chemicals.

After you’ve picked up the drum, you’ll want to consult the shop on the chemicals you’ll need to process the film. Then, you’ll need to make sure you have space. Practically, will you be able to hang 50 feet of film somewhere while it dries? This video delves into more specifics to consider.

How to convert Super 8 film to digital  

Digitizing film reels is usually included or an optional add-on to the development package at labs. However, if you’re going to shoot a decent volume of film and want to save a little money, you can scan it at home—with less hassle than the development process.

Scanners are available from Amazon, B&H, and other retailers, and Wolverine Data seems to be the brand of choice. The Wolverine 8mm and Super 8mm Film Reel Converter retails for $299.95 and will digitize film at a resolution of 720 pixels. For $100 more, the Wolverine Digital Movie Maker Pro scans at 1080 pixels. Simply load up the film and the scanner does the rest, compiling the footage onto an SD card (that you must provide). This video offers a detailed tutorial on how to set yours up.

Further resources for Super 8

Feeling daunted? Don’t be—at the end of the day, you only need three things: A working camera, film, and a place to develop. Should you be searching for additional resources, try the Pro8mm Super 8 Reference Library, which features tips, a film calculator, education, manuals, and more. Super8camera.com is also a wonderful compendium of the medium. Happy movie-making.

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It’s easy to talk about film as if it’s magic. Many analog shooters will talk at length about how the medium itself gives photography an intangible sense of curiosity and wonder. I’m guilty of it myself. But, in reality, film is the product of hard science. Producing film requires meticulous math and specific chemistry applied on a massive scale. It’s a truly impressive scientific feat. While many photographers could easily pick up and shoot a roll of film, understanding how it actually works is another story. This 24-minute video from YouTube channel Smarter Every Day does an excellent job diving into the chemical mechanisms that go into capturing photos.

Understanding the basics

Film, as we know it, relies on light-sensitive silver suspended in an emulsion made with gelatin. Light hits that silver to create a latent image, which emerges when it crystallized during the development process. The silver stays in the negative when you shoot black-and-white film, which has always seemed very cool to me. It makes black-and-white film harder to scan because infrared sensors can’t penetrate the metal for automatic dust removal. But, each black-and-white negative is, in a way, a very tiny silver sculpture of the scene you saw in front of you. Color developers use bleach to wash the silver off of the film and the color itself comes from dyes instead.

You don’t have to understand all the chemical processes behind shooting film in order to enjoy loading up a roll and heading out with your camera. That background knowledge can come in handy, though. For instance, it explains why it’s hard to overexpose color film. When adding more light just makes the negative denser, you have more flexibility. You can overshoot negative film by several stops and still get a usable image.

Chemistry 201

Once you have a grasp on how typical film works, it’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole of alternative photographic processes. Some photographers are still doing awesome things with old-school photography techniques like wet plates. If you’re looking for something with a lower barrier to entry (and fewer super-poisonous chemicals involved), you can try shooting direct positive images on photographic paper.

Film is very hip right now, but the process of making, shooting, and processing it remains wonderfully nerdy. Check out our tour of the Kodak film factory for an inside look on how it gets made. Or, peruse this list of films you should go and shoot before they go away. We’ve already lost a few good film stocks this year, so now is the time to get your film fix before more great options go off the market.

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One of my many, many pet peeves is folks who discourage would-be analog photographers by telling them film is too expensive. They cite $25 rolls of slide film, $20 E-6 developing, and $40-per-shot drum scans, and declare film as a financial quagmire compared to “free” digital photos.

The fact is that while film can be expensive, it doesn’t need to be. My 35mm B&W photography costs me less than a quarter per frame—not just for film, mind you, but for film, processing, and scanning. And here’s the punch line: I’m actually spending more than I have to. If I did things differently, I could be shooting B&W film for less than 14 cents per photo. And while color film is more expensive, it need not cost much more than what I currently spend on B&W.

Stick with me through this article and a bit of math, and I’ll explain how I do it.

Step one: Save on film by rolling your own

Related – Affordable analog: 10 alternatives to high-priced film cameras

Many popular B&W emulsions are sold in 100-foot bulk rolls, which the photographer winds onto reusable 35mm cassettes. 100 feet yields approximately eighteen 36-exposure rolls. A bulk roll of my favorite film, Ilford HP5 Plus, sells for $89.99, which works out to $5 per 36-exposure roll (about $3 cheaper than pre-rolled HP5+) or 13.9 cents per photo. 

My beloved HP5+ is hardly the least-expensive film on the market. I also like Ilford’s Kentmere 100. At ~$70.00 for a 100-foot roll, it costs just 11 cents per shot. Freestyle’s Arista EDU film costs $51.99 per 100-foot roll—just 8 cents per exposure.

Bulk rolling has advantages beyond costs savings. Chief among them, you’re not stuck with 24 or 36 exposures. When I buy a used camera, I don’t need to burn a whole roll of film to test it out; instead, I’ll whip up a 5-exposure test roll. For general use, I load around 25 exposures per roll, though this does increase my development costs slightly, as you’ll see in the next section.

What about equipment? You’ll need film cassettes, which sell for around $1.25 each. They last for years, making their per-shot costs basically negligible. Some photographers use a bulk loader to wind film onto the cassettes. A loader costs around $50, and if you only keep it ten years—chances are it’ll last five times that long—it’ll add about a third of a cent per frame to your film costs. Me, I don’t use a bulk loader; I simply spool up my film in my dark bag.

My film cost (Ilford HP5 Plus): 13.9 cents per picture.

Buying color film

Color film for still photography is difficult to find in 100-foot rolls; however, you can still save money by buying in quantity. A five-pack can save a couple of bucks per roll, and if you can find a dealer who will sell you a “brick” of film, you can drop your costs much closer to bulk-roll levels.

Step two: Save on film development by doing it yourself

Related: How to change the light seals in an old film camera

I develop all of my own B&W film, and not just because it saves money. I genuinely enjoy the process. If you’ve never done it, don’t be intimidated—B&W development is dead-easy and hard to screw up. Also, it’s a huge cost savings over lab development. 

For those unfamiliar, there are four (or so) types of chemicals needed (developer, stop bath, fixer, and a washing agent) and some basic hardware. Let’s look at the costs of each.

Developer

There are several choices of B&W developer; I’m very fond of Kodak D-76. It’s sold as a $9.99 package of powder, which mixes with a gallon or so of distilled water (about 99 cents). For most of my developing, I dilute this stock solution 1:1 (so, ad another 99-cent gallon of distilled water). If I use my single-roll developing tank, that’s enough for about 23 rolls of film, which comes out to 52 cents per roll. That’s 1.4 cents per frame for 36 exposures, but since I shoot 25-exposure rolls, my cost is 2.1 cents per frame.

Granted, I don’t always spend that much. I have a two-roll tank that uses about 25% less developer per roll than if I develop two rolls individually in a single tank. Besides D-76, I also use Kodak HC-110, a liquid-concentrate developer that costs about 35 cents per roll. And there are cheaper alternatives to Kodak developers: LegacyPro’s L-76, for example, is identical to D-76 and sells for $6.99. (As a former resident of Rochester, New York, I use Kodak developers out of loyalty—or perhaps guilt for shooting Ilford film.)

Other Chemicals

I use Kodak Indicator Stop Bath and Ilford Rapid Fixer, both sold as concentrates that are mixed with water. Stop costs 0.9 cents per roll; fixer, 11.2 cents. I use Kodak Photo-Flo 200 as a rinsing aid, which adds another 3.8 cents per roll. That breaks down to 0.4 cents per frame for 36 exposures or just under 0.7 cents for 25-exposures.

Again, there are more cost savings to be had. Some people use water instead of stop bath (but for less than a penny a roll, I think it’s worth splurging on). I change my stop and fixer every 25 rolls, but they could probably go longer—there’s an easy test for fixer (drop in a scrap of unexposed film and time how long it takes to clear), and Kodak stop bath changes color when it’s done (hence “Indicator” in its name). As with developers, there are cheaper alternatives from brands like LegacyPro and Arista.edu.

Equipment

I was lucky to have my developing tanks, reels, and thermometer given to me. This meant I only had to buy a dark bag/film changing bag (a light-proof bag with arm-holes, used to transfer the film from the cassette to the developing tank), measuring beakers, and bottles for mixed chemicals. (I buy brown bottles of hydrogen peroxide and empty them out.) In all, I spent less than $40, but if you’re starting from scratch, you might spend closer to $150. Most of this equipment will last forever, but if you only get ten years out of it, and like me, shoot about 35 rolls per year, that’ll average out to about 2 cents per frame. (For me, the costs are half-a-penny per photo.)

My developing costs (D-76, single-roll tank, 25 exposures): 3.3 cents per photo.

DIY developing for color film

Color film development used to be so cheap and widely available that doing it yourself wasn’t considered cost-effective. Today you can buy C-41 (color negative) developing kits that contain all the needed chemicals in a single box. Color is a bit more fiddly to develop than B&W—temperature control is paramount—but not much more difficult. Equipment is the same as for B&W, plus something to keep the chemicals warm. Many DIYers use a sous vide immersion cooker, which costs around $75.

CineStill sells a one-liter C-41 kit that costs $39.99 and processes 8 rolls—$3.50 per roll (way cheaper than commercial developing!) or 9.7 cents per frame. Arista EDU makes a one-gallon kit that develops 32 rolls; at $79.99 it breaks down to $2.50 per roll or about 7 cents per frame. (Color processing chemicals, once opened, have a short shelf life, something to keep in mind when choosing quantities.)

Shooting slides? There are development kits for E-6 processing, too. An eight-roll kit from Arista EDU costs around $5.50 per roll, while a 32-roll kit brings the costs down to $3.59 per roll.

Step three: Save On Scanning With Your Own Scanner 

I use a Epson V550 film scanner for all my own film (which has since been replaced by the Epson V600). Some photographers buy third-party scanning programs, but I’ve been happy with Epson’s own software, which I find works well for B&W, color negatives, and color slides. Obviously, the Epson can’t compare to a drum scanner, but I am very happy with the results I get—I think they’re fine for editing and sharing photos online.

I paid $195 for my V550. If I only get five years out of it—I’m hoping for more!—and if I shoot 35 rolls per year, my scanning costs are about $1.11 per roll. At 25 exposures per, that’s 4.4 cents per scan. Of course, if I keep the Epson longer, or if I shoot more film, that lowers my per-shot costs even further.

My scanning costs: 4.6 cents per photo.

Adding Up My Costs—and How I Could Save More

If I shoot a 25-exposure bulk-loaded roll of Ilford HP5 Plus (13.9 cents per frame), develop with D-76 (3.3 cents), and scan with my Epson (4.4 cents), I’m at 21.6 cents per frame. I buy my supplies locally, so I have to add 9.5% for sales tax. Grand total: 23.7 cents per frame, or $5.93 to shoot, develop and scan a 25-exposure roll of B&W film.

Still, I could be spending far less. If I shot Kentmere 100, loaded each cassette with 36 exposures, developed with LegacyPro L-76 in my two-roll tank, and kept my scanner for ten years, my costs would drop to $4.91 per roll—just 13.6 cents per photo. To put that in perspective, for the price of a new Nikon Z7 kit, I could shoot, develop and scan one roll of film per week for twelve years—and still have some cash left over to buy a decent 35mm camera.

Color is more expensive, but not overly so. With bulk purchasing and home developing and scanning, it’s easy to get color negative film down to $10 per roll (27.8 cents per shot) or less. Even the cost of pricey slide film can be greatly reduced.

So the next time you hear someone disparaging film as prohibitively expensive, please help me out by setting them straight. In fact, you might want to ask how often they replace their digital rigs and how much that costs—and then explain how much money they could save by shooting film.

The post How to shoot film on a budget appeared first on Popular Photography.

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Back in the pre-digital days, most Photo 101 classes had students start out shooting B&W film and learning how to develop it. For many who have returned to film photography, do-it-yourself film processing is one of analog photography’s big attractions—it’s easy, it’s good fun, and it’s very rewarding.

If you haven’t considered developing your own film at home, here are 5 reasons you should consider giving it a try.

1. Developing your own film is easier than you think

Related: Everything you need to develop your own film at home

Film processing might seem daunting if you’ve never done it, but it’s really quite easy—remember that back in the day, film developing was a skill easily mastered by school students. Getting the film on the developing reels requires a bit of practice, but the processing itself is dead simple—it’s a matter of mixing up the chemicals, pouring them in, setting a timer, moving the tank around at pre-set intervals, and pouring them out again.

Contrary to what many believe, you don’t need a darkroom to develop film—darkness is only required for transferring the film into the development tank, for which a simple dark bag or dark tent will suffice. After that, everything can be done at your sink with the lights on, and with the chemicals right around room temperature. Color developing is a tad trickier because it requires more precise (and higher) temperatures; still, it’s not brain surgery. If you can follow a simple recipe in a cookbook, you can develop your own film.

2. DIY developing saves money

Related: You should buy a sous vide machine and develop your own color film

Lab developing is often one of the priciest elements of film photography, and doing it yourself can save you a lot of money—in fact, it’s a key element in my strategy for shooting film on a budget. How cheap is it? That depends on what developer you use (and there are a lot of choices), but generally, the costs for chemicals will be between 50 cents and $1 per roll for 35mm, with 120-size film costing just a few cents more. Yes, you read that right—it generally costs less than a buck a roll to do your own B&W developing.

You will need some equipment—developing tanks and reels, a thermometer, a dark bag, and some measurement beakers, which you can buy separately or in a kit—but before you do that, talk to photographer friends to see if they have equipment from their film days that they’d be willing to give you. If you have to buy new, figure on spending between $100 and $150—a one-time investment that will quickly pay for itself in savings over lab developing.

3. There’s a lot of support for home film developers

We fear we’ve made at-home film developing sound more complicated than it is, mentioning all the choices in chemistry and the hardware you’ll need. Don’t worry—the process really is very straightforward, and the Internet means you don’t need to take a photography course to learn (though if you have that option, it’s a great way to go).

Today, there are scores of articles and online videos on YouTube that will walk you through the basic process. Film manufacturers provide data sheets that give specific developing times for different types of developers, while timing for the rest of the processes—stop, fix and wash—are effectively constant. You’ll notice that different photographers may have slightly different methodologies; there’s a little flexibility in the process of processing, which is one of the things that makes it so easy.

Once you start developing, you can experiment with different developers and techniques to find what works best for you. You’ll find lots of help on various film-related forums, and before too long, you may well be one of the experienced film developers sharing your knowledge with other newbies.

4. Developing your own film expands your options

One of the joys of film photography is that you are working directly with light-sensitive media (as opposed to digital, where there’s always a layer of electronic data wizardry between you and your images). That work need not end when you fire the shutter: DIY developing presents all kinds of options to fine-tune your analog photography. How can developing extend your options? Lots of ways. 

With B&W photography, the choice of developer makes a difference as to how your photos will look. Many avid DIYers keep several types of developer on hand. Even changing the dilution of your chosen developer can alter the way your photos come out. There’s lots of documentation and knowledge online, so it’s easy to customize your developing regimen to get the result you want. Developing your own film also makes it easy to push- or pull-process (intentionally under- or over-exposing your film, then compensating by altering the development time). When you do your own developing, you have real control over how your negatives look—control that would otherwise be turned over to your photo lab.

5. Developing your own film feels like magic

Asked anyone who has ever developed their own film: There is no feeling like opening the tank after that final wash, unrolling a bit of film, and seeing an image—a physical image that you physically put there by exposing and developing the film. It’s a sensation of which we at PopPhoto never tire, and that no digital camera or computational process can emulate.

One of the aspects of film photography we love most is that it removes all barriers between the photographer and their image. When you take a film photograph, you are literally working directly with the very stuff of which your photo is made, including selecting how much light the silver halide crystals are exposed to.

Developing your own film lets you complete that process as you literally convert a latent image to a visible image by hand—not 0s and 1s and invisible data, but real silver and dyes you can see with your own eyes. Technically, it’s not magic—it’s science and chemistry—but if film developing doesn’t feel like magic, well, we don’t know what does.

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You pick out a roll of film and load it into your camera. You advance by a few frames. You line up your shot and…*CLICK.* The shutter opens for just an instant, light hits the film, and the moment is captured. All that’s left is to advance to the next frame…Or not?

Shooting double exposures is a classic technique that involves exposing the same section of film twice to overlay two scenes within a single frame. This can be repeated any number of times to create multiple exposures of any amount, but in the interest of keeping this article a bit simpler, I’ll be sticking to just double exposures.

Related: Best 35mm film

Why try double exposure photography

Everyone goes through periods of feeling uninspired, and shooting a roll of double exposures is a great way to get the creative juices flowing again. Personally, I shoot a lot of film and I often revisit familiar locations. There’s certainly no lack of pictures to be taken, but it can be hard to get excited about shooting somewhere you’ve been to countless times before. For me, shooting double exposures is a way to breathe new life into a place; it gets me excited to go out and shoot again.

Another great thing about shooting double exposures is that they’re super simple to try out, but very challenging to master. Double exposures can be done with any film camera and often lead to cool results even without any real planning.

Related: Everything you need to know to get started with Super 8 film

If you do decide to plan though, there are many factors that go into creating that “perfect” image. The type of film, how scenes are metered, and the framing of shots are all essential when trying to create more intentional double exposures. Experimenting is key, and even though there can be a lot of disappointments, it’s worth it when one comes out exactly as you’d hoped.

The science behind double exposures

The way this works is pretty straightforward but requires a basic understanding of how film functions. Film consists of a strip of celluloid coated with chemicals that react to light when exposed (i.e., they are photosensitive). This reaction permanently alters the film such that the specific pattern of light (the photo) can be seen once the film is developed. 

With that in mind, there’s no reason why the same strip of film can’t be exposed to light a second time to re-trigger this reaction, thereby layering two photos into a single frame. Now, this is an extremely simplified explanation, but hopefully it helps give a bit of background to what’s going on when you take double exposures.

A final thing to remember is that the shadows of the first photo will show in the second photo more prominently, and vice versa. This is because the shadows of a photo haven’t been exposed to as much light as the highlights, so they still have the ability to retain an image. For example, consider the following photo:

In this double exposure, the shadows of the first image (the road) show the statue most clearly. Simultaneously, the shadows of the second image (the statue and its base) show the cars and the power lines best.

To plan or not to plan?

Related: Film photography is driving increased silver demand

There are three approaches I like to take when creating double exposures. These are just meant to give you some ideas of where to start and to hopefully get your creativity flowing. The approaches are: Shooting completely random/unrelated images for each photo, shooting with a very loose overall goal (e.g. contrasting city and nature), and precisely planning out frames to achieve a specific vision.

Before showing you some examples, I’d like to mention that it can be easy to overexpose the film unless you have a good idea of what you’re doing. For that reason, I’d recommend starting out by underexposing each individual shot by one stop, then experimenting a bit once you see how that turns out. One easy way to do this is by setting your camera’s ISO to double the film’s ISO. That way you can just meter as you normally would without needing to remember to underexpose when shooting.

With that out of the way, here are a few examples:

Leave it to chance

This double exposure was taken with no plan in mind. I enjoy the unexpected composition here, with the right of the frame being extremely crowded and the left being fairly empty. It’s not something I would have thought to do intentionally.

Keeping in theme

For this double exposure, I shot through the entire roll at separate times with the goal of photographing city scenes on the first pass and nature scenes on the second pass.

Planning the shot

For this frame, I had a specific plan in mind. I wanted to create some ‘artificial street art’ by first taking a photo of a brick wall, then a photo of a sunflower. For metering here, I underexposed both scenes by about a stop, but ensured the sunflower was against a mostly dark background.

How to photograph a double exposure on film

Method 1: Shoot the same roll twice 

If you saw my guide on redscaling film, you’ll be happy to learn that creating double exposures is even easier. Depending on your camera, there are a few ways to achieve this effect.

The first way to take double exposures is to shoot through a roll fully, rewind it, then shoot through the whole thing again. The upside to this approach is that you can do it with any camera, but there are a number of downsides that make it a bit less desirable than the other methods. However, there are workarounds.

With this method, it can be a bit challenging to line up the frames perfectly on top of one another. Doing so involves taking a lot of notes and is very prone to error. You’re also locked into shooting a full roll of double exposures, whereas you can just shoot one here and there when using the other techniques.

 If you are taking this route, the simplest way to align the frames is by marking the film before your first pass, then moving the marking to the same position before the second pass.

Additionally, try to avoid rewinding the leader all the way into the canister after shooting through your roll the first time. Rewind slowly, and wait for a “click” that happens when the film fully separates from the take-up spool. Then you can safely open the camera and prepare for the next set of exposures. If you accidentally do wind it all the way in, there are ways to get the leader back out, but it can be a bit frustrating unless you have a special tool.

Method 2: Shoot the same frame twice

The second method is to manually prevent the film from advancing, while still pushing the advance lever to reset the shutter. This approach is definitely preferable to the first, since it allows you to just do a few double exposures, and ensures that the frames stay lined up. Unfortunately, it is only possible on certain film cameras. To know if your specific camera can do this, you’ll want to start by checking the manual for info related to double exposures (most can be found online here). If there’s nothing in the manual, you may need to search around or try it yourself to see if it’s possible.

Assuming that your camera can do this, all you’ll likely need to do is press down the “rewind button” located on the bottom of the camera before advancing the film. (Depending on your camera, you may need to fully hold the button down while advancing).

Method 3: Use your camera’s double exposure feature 

The final, most convenient method is to use a camera’s built-in “multiple exposure” mode. This essentially works the same way as method two, pressing/holding the button advances the frame count but keeps the actual frame in place. Not many older cameras have this functionality, but plenty of cameras from the 1980s and beyond offer it. If yours does, you’ll want to check the manual for info on how to use it.

Ready to try your hand? 

Shooting double exposures is probably one of the all-time classic film experiments and for good reason! It can be done by just about anyone with a camera, and really makes you see the world differently. Whether you randomly shoot through a roll twice or create extremely calculated images, the results can be spectacular! It’s truly a technique with endless possibilities.

Hopefully, this overview of double exposure on film has inspired you to try it out for yourself.

Be sure to use the hashtag #popphotofilm if you do, so we can see your results. If you’re interested in learning about other experimental film techniques, check out more of my work on Instagram and TikTok.

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The complexity and unpredictability of film fascinates me. As a career software engineer, most of my time is spent in the world of computers. So, after clocking out for the day, I tend to gravitate towards things that are a bit more tangible. When I decided to try out photography, film immediately drew me in. A strip of silver halide crystals can hold extremely high-quality images? This technology has been around since the mid-19th century!? Color film can even exist!?!? Mind-boggling. 

Not only did I want to become involved in each step of the film process, but I wanted to experiment with manipulating these steps to achieve interesting results. One of the first experimental things I tried was shooting redscale film.

Related: A TikTok photographer shot both sides of a roll of film, with otherworldly results

How the redscale film effect works

If you’ve spent any amount of time browsing the web for interesting films to try, you may have stumbled upon any number of “redscale” films on the market. Lomography, CineStill, and many others have released their own versions of redscale films. At first, I thought this was a style of unique film emulsion, but I quickly learned that it’s actually much simpler than that.

Redscale films are all created the same way–by rolling any regular color negative film into a canister the wrong way, so that when the film is exposed, light travels through the base side first instead of the emulsion side first.

The reason this works the way it does is because of how color film is structured. Simply put, color film consists of a series of photosensitive layers, each responsible for replicating a particular color. Typically, the red-sensitive layer is exposed to light after the blue and green light has been retained by their respective layers. But when you shoot through the wrong side of the film, everything happens in reverse. This results in the red-sensitive layer being by far the most dominant, leading to images with a strong red/orange/yellow cast.

Related: Best color film

Supplies needed to redscale film

Redscaling your own film is a straightforward process that is absolutely worth trying at least once. There are just a few supplies you’ll need to get started:

• Some fresh film that you want to redscale
• A camera that allows you to manually set the ISO/film speed (this is technically not a requirement, but it makes things a lot less confusing)
• A pair of scissors
• Some scotch tape
• An empty film canister with a small “tail” (if you don’t develop your own film, just ask your lab to give your empty canisters back for “hand-rolling” film)
• A way to label your film (I use a marker & painter’s tape)
• A light-proof “changing” bag or a thick blanket and a reasonably dark room.

Related: How to edit your digital photos to look like film

How to redscale film

Once you’ve collected these supplies, flipping the film around is simple. For the steps below, note that the roll of Fujifilm is the film that I’m redscaling, and the roll of Kodak is my empty canister.

First, cut the leader off the film you want to redscale, so the edge is straight.

Then, get your new film and the empty canister, and orient them such that the same sides are touching if you line them up (e.g., the base side of the fresh film is touching the base side of the empty canister’s tail).

Next, line up the first or second set of holes on both films, then tape them together. Make sure they’re taped securely, since this tape will be the only thing keeping your film attached to the canister when you’re shooting.

Soon you’ll be transferring the new film to the old canister, which must be done in complete darkness. Just before doing this, I like to carefully get the end of the new film into the opening of the old film canister. I find this can be a bit of a pain to do in the dark because the film tends to catch on the edges when going in.

Now comes the most important part, moving the film from the new canister to the old one. Put your film into your lightproof bag if you have one. If not, just go into a dark room and tightly wrap a blanket around your arms and the two film canisters. Then, turn the knob on top of the old canister counterclockwise so that the film is pulled from the new canister into the old one. Once you can no longer twist the knob, it’s safe to bring the film back into the light.

Once you’re in the light again, just cut the two rolls of film apart (ideally leaving a tail on the formerly full canister for future re-use). Your redscale film is now ready to go in the old canister!

The final thing you need to do is pull a bit of the now redscaled film out of the canister and cut a new leader into it. I also usually label it at this point, so I don’t think it’s just a regular roll when I go to shoot it.

Tips for shooting redscale film

Before you load it into a camera, make sure you’re able to manually set the film speed (ISO). If not, grab an external light meter or download an app for your smartphone. My personal favorite is myLightMeter PRO, but there are plenty of free options out there.

Redscale film needs to be overexposed because light will pass through the film base before hitting the emulsion, so less light will make it to the photosensitive layers. Typically, you’ll want to overexpose redscale film by two to three “stops.” To calculate what speed to shoot it at, halve the ISO listed on the film for each stop you want to overexpose by.

For example, I redscaled a roll of Fuji Superia Xtra 400, so one stop of overexposure would be 200 ISO, two stops would be 100 ISO, and three would be 50 ISO.

The exact amount of overexposure you’ll need really depends on the film and the look you’re going for. I’d recommend playing around with it and taking some notes when shooting your first roll so you can get an idea of what you like best. For this roll, I shot a few frames at one stop (200 ISO), two stops (100 ISO), and three stops (50 ISO) overexposed. Here’s an example photo of each (note that these photos are unedited from the original scans):

Personally, I liked my results at 100 ISO (two stops overexposed), but you may find you prefer something else. Don’t be afraid to experiment and find what you like.

If you enjoyed this guide on how to redscale film yourself, I often experiment with film on my TikTok and Instagram pages, so check those out if you want more analog photography tips. Be sure to tag #popphotofilm so we can see your results.

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This post has been updated. It was originally published on December 17, 2008.

Got stacks of slide carousels loaded with holiday, vacation, and other family memories? Those trays hold too much personal history to be tossed, but in their current analog state, all those images are just too bulky, dusty, and, well, old-fashioned to bother with. Luckily, if you want to digitize slides, the options are plentiful.

Digitizing and storing them in the cloud or on a flash or external drive will reduce clutter and preserve the memories. You have three choices: digitize slides by using a slide duplicator on your digital camera, scanning them, or outsourcing the task to a slide duping house.

Related: How to edit your digital photos to look like film

Slide duplicator

Selling for about $70, a slide duplicator (or “duper”) is a cylinder that attaches to your camera’s lens mount using a T-mount adapter ring. Duplicators are relatively small, rugged, and easy to store and transport. Unlike scanners, they don’t require electricity or a computer.

Dupers have a lens mount on one end of the cylinder and a sliding gate that holds two slides on the other. The duper focuses a slide’s image onto your camera’s sensor using an internal lens that has a fixed aperture and focusing distance.

Most duplicators today also have a zoom mechanism that lets you continuously crop into the center, eliminating up to 50 percent of the image area. The slide gate adjusts in four directions, letting you crop left, right, top, or bottom. It also twists to level a horizon line. When you achieve the desired crop, lock the gate into position with the two thumb screws, and you’re ready to dupe.

A downside to duplicators: If you’re working with a non-full-frame camera, you may be forced to crop into the image. With some slides, that can be an improvement, but for scenes that were carefully composed in-camera, it’s a deal-breaker.

To digitize slides, start by dusting each slide front and back with bursts of canned air before duping. We found it easiest to work with our camera on a tripod, which we placed about 10 inches in front of a bare 150-watt tungsten light bulb that served as both a viewing and taking light. Because the unit’s fixed aperture is small (to assure adequate depth of field for sharpness), the viewing image is very dim, necessitating a bright source to see the slide and confirm that it’s correctly positioned in the gate.

Once you’re setup, duping goes quickly, thanks in part to your camera’s rear monitor and histograms, which make finding the right exposure a snap. Your camera’s auto white-balancing feature also comes in handy. In the film era, matching the color palette of your duping film to that of the light source was a major consideration. With auto white-balancing, you can use almost any common light source so long as it’s bright. With our duping system finalized, we were able to knock out six or seven slides per minute.

You may lose some sharpness with a duper but overall, this is a quick and easy method for creating reasonably high-quality scans at home. Of course, it does require you to own a digital camera.

Bottom line: A slide duplicator is an affordable way to digitize slides. However, your scans will only be as high-quality as your camera sensor’s resolution.

Pro: Inexpensive and relatively fast.

Con: A digital camera (ideally, full-frame) is required.

Digitize slides with a scanner

Related: Best 35mm film

The good news: Film scanners have become ultra-sophisticated, ultra easy to use, and reasonably affordable. Depending on resolution settings, as well as noise and dust reduction options, scanning each slide can take several minutes or longer.

Your scanner should offer a resolution of up to 6400 dpi (noninterpolated) for sharp, crisp photos. We also highly recommend scanners that have dust-removing Digital ICE technology, as well as those with noise-reducing multisampling modes.

If you have medium-format or B&W negatives in addition to slides to digitize, look for scanners like the Epson V600, which accommodates 35mm and 120 film and 35mm slides. It also employs Digital ICE to remove dust and scratches.

If you don’t already own a good image editor, you may want to invest in a subscription to Adobe Photoshop or Capture One (or you could just use Photoshop on the Web for free). You will need it for cleaning up dust spots and other imperfections in your scans.

If you have literally thousands of slides to scan, get a larger unit with an accessory batch loader. They’re bulky—storing them can be an issue—and may add to your start-up costs (Nikon’s SF-210 runs about $1,709), but will save you many hours in the long run. Pacific Image PowerSlide X ($999.99) can batch scan 50 slides at a time.

Bottom line: Film scanners aren’t as quick as digitizing slides with a slide duplicator but they do provide users with a lot of control over the final output. Also, built-in dust and scratch-removing software saves editing time.

Pro: Extensive control over resolution and image quality.

Con: The cost of the scanner may be high and they take up space.

Slide scanning service

If you want to digitize slides with low effort, consider a slide scanning service. Before you resort to them, if you live in a metropolitan area that has custom labs, make the rounds to check on local availability and pricing of the service. Virtually all retail photofinishers that use digital mini labs (the majority today) can digitize slides at moderate resolutions.

The pricing will vary, but can be as little as $0.25 per slide. Be sure to do your research and verify all costs. Vendors with low per-slide charges, for instance, may tack on fees to cover the cost of an SSD card or file transfer service. When selecting a vendor, confirm that it cleans and scans each slide individually and avoid batch scanners.

Scanning services now generally offer scans at a resolution fit to print and view digitally. Some may provide a discount should you choose lower-resolution scans—but be forewarned that prints may not be possible.

Before submitting your slides, dust them off with canned air and pack them up carefully. If you’re mailing them, use dust-free protective padding like packing paper or bubble wrap, and put the slides in resealable plastic bags to lock out dust and moisture. Don’t ship loose slides as the mount from one can easily gouge the emulsion of another, and don’t wrap slides in paper towels, which shed dust and lint. Wrap stacks of slides in dust-free paper or aluminum foil and rubber band them together, writing some form of ID and your name and telephone number on each stack.

If you’re submitting hundreds of slides, save yourself future headaches and batch them by subject and label each group with a short, descriptive term (Holidays 2005, NYC Vacation, etc.). Ask the vendor to put each group of scans in its own folder on the resulting SSD card or file-sharing service and request that your descriptive names be carried over to the folders. Although there may be an extra charge for this, you will locate images much more quickly later.

Bottom Line: While sending slides out for duping is, from a labor standpoint, the easiest way to bring your slides into the digital era, it’s probably also the most expensive.

Pro: Little labor on your part.

Con: Can take weeks, is expensive, and affords you little control over the image quality.

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Analog photography has been experiencing a renaissance over the past several years, yet despite an increase in demand, film prices are sky high and availability is scarce. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to edit digital photos to look like film.

We chatted with portrait photographer and editor Dustin Stockel, who started The Archetype Process (TAP), a company dedicated to creating realistic emulations of classic film stocks in the form of camera profiles. Prior to founding TAP, Stockel worked as a photo editor in film labs and for private clients.

Profiles vs. presets 

Related: Going back to film? Here’s what’s changed

There’s no lack of choice on the market when it comes to emulating film in post. Both Mastin Labs and Noble Presets have made names for themselves as some of the leading preset makers on the market. But how do presets differ from profiles? While both are intended to be applied to Raw files, they actually work in quite different ways.

Presets are exactly what they sound like. When using a Raw processing platform like Lightroom or Capture One, a preset is applied to an image or series of images with just a few clicks of the mouse. This automatically adjusts various editing parameters—like exposure, contrast, grain, etc.—within the platform to mimic a specific film look. Once applied, these parameters can be dialed back down (or up) as the user wishes.

Color profiles, on the other hand, are generally applied to images right after they’ve been ingested and before any edits are applied. In most Raw processers, users select a color profile from the top right of the edit panel before fine-tuning their shots with the various parameters available. Working with a film-emulating color profile, right from the start, offers users the advantage of potentially being able to dial in a more nuanced celluloid look, more quickly, compared to presets alone.

Both are effective options in your editing workflow, though, and combining them might be the missing piece to the aesthetic that just one or the other won’t provide. In addition to TAP, other analog-mimicking profiles include Digistock’s Kodachrome and The Digital Darkroom’s Chroma and Aero Infrared, among others.

Get to know the film you want to emulate

This might feel like a no-brainer, but Stockel notes that it is a common error. To accurately recreate the film look, you’ll ideally want to shoot some film first. If you don’t know how your preferred film stock responds in a given situation, it will be difficult to emulate it digitally or know if you’re on the right track. Though shooting film will require an investment of time and money, familiarizing yourself with the stocks you want to work with can save you frustration in the long run. 

“Understanding the process of working with a film lab and getting film scans back that [you] like goes right along with that,” he elaborates. “Another mistake I see is thinking that a specific film has a locked-in or predefined look. In reality, there are so many variables that the photographer and lab control that are actually responsible for that look.”

Tips to edit pictures to look like film 

When testing film, it’s important to make sure the shooting conditions you’re experimenting in match those you’ll likely be working in. “The biggest thing a photographer can do to recreate the look of film scans is to shoot the same way or in a similar way that they would shoot film,” Stockel shares. “More specifically, shoot in the same amount and quality of light.”

Another thing he recommends is to understand that a film stock doesn’t have a predefined “look.” Depending on how it’s shot, a film stock can produce a wide range of results. TAP’s profiles are meant to give photographers leeway to achieve any of the diverse options possible. Applying a profile or preset will put you in the ballpark of where you want to be, but then it’s up to you to dial in the settings to get the exact look you’re after.

The 1, 2, 3 process 

Often, Stockel will advise photographers on what he calls the “1, 2, 3 process.” Step one is the vision. What are you trying to create? Once you have an idea, you can then move to step two. Think about how you’ll record all the information required to achieve the look. This includes the cameras, lenses, location, light, and the exposure triangle, just for starters. 

When looking to emulate film in post, it’s best to capture Raw files that contain as much exposure information as possible, which is why your exposure parameters in step two are so important. When in doubt Stockel recommends underexposing an image rather than overexposing.

“I don’t think there’s anything unique to shooting to emulate film that needs to be done,” Stockel says. “Simply exposing to the right is still the best overall way to record the data needed to get the look that one wants.”

The last step is where profiles come in. Now that you’ve got a Raw photo with plenty of exposure data, it’s time to pick your profile, make your adjustments, and see your analog-emulating vision through.

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