No matter how it looks, this is the story of the photographs I didn't make this year. On January 1st, 2018 my colleague, the military photojournalist C.S. Muncy, presented me with a gift: a small, handmade box he'd crafted out of salvaged wood. Muncy, a film lover, had given to me, an unquestioning digital-age professional, a box full of 35mm film.
Kodak Ektar is the reason I fell in love with film photography. My first roll completely blew all of my digital shots out of the water. I was used to the ugly JPEGS that my old Nikon D40 spat out and Ektar just gave me what I wanted -- sharp pictures, with silky grain and a look that I didn’t know how to edit for.
Photographer Mario Cipriano has started a new project titled "Light Sounds Light" using a technique he calls audiophotography. Cipriano is using a digital audio recorder to capture the sound context behind each of his film photos, resulting in a fascinating way of experiencing the photographer's work.
Looking to get started in film photography and hunting for your first camera in the used marketplace? Photographer Casey Cavanaugh made this helpful 9-minute guide containing 5 tips to ensure you find a good one.
I recently did a comparison between old and new Kodak Ektachrome E100 film. But first an amusing story about how these two rolls met.
I'm sitting in the end zone and Tennessee's quarterback is ready to throw for a touchdown against Missouri. There are only three frames left on my roll of film and I think to myself, "That's more than enough."
In 1966, photographer Jay Maisel spent $102,000 buying a 6-floor, 35,000-square-foot, 72-room building in New York City that would become his home and studio for the next half-century. In 2015, he sold the building for $55 million. Now a new documentary film is offering an inside look at the artist's final days inside the one-of-a-kind space.
While scanning through my Facebook feed, I saw that my friend Ruby had shared some pictures of a party, all taken on Kodak Ultramax. One of her friends, however, pointed out something that I had never thought of...
Heads up: if you enjoy watching documentaries about photographers and photography, there's a great one that's now free. Cheryl Dunn's highly-regarded 2013 documentary Everybody Street is now free-to-watch on YouTube with ads. You can watch the 1.5-hour film above.
Here's a new short film titled "Peripheral" by freelance film photographer and cinematographer Casey Cavanaugh. An interesting thing about it is that the story is told entirely through the ground glass viewfinder of a Hasselblad 500C/M.
In this article, we are going to be talking about 3 different ways you can set the right exposure for film. The biggest thing for beginning film photographers is to learn is how to meter your film properly. For our example today, I’m going to be shooting on Portra 400 and Fuji 400, and the Portra 800.
In 2017, I began playing around with a 35mm film camera I had received from my grandparents. This Pentax Spotmatic was simple to use (although the light meter did not work) and it gave me a wonderful sense of accomplishment when I finished a roll of 36 photographs, each one being carefully thought out, more-so than when shooting digital.
When Kodak needed experienced photographers to beta test its new Ektachrome 100 film before it launched, one of the few people it chose was award-winning travel photographer Peter Guttman.
Holga's recently-announced Holga Printer will let you turn smartphone photos into Instax prints without needing a battery, but that printer will cost at least $48 and won't arrive until after March 2019. KiiPix is a $40 analog printer that's essentially the same, and it's already available.
ADOX, the world's oldest photographic materials manufacturer, has announced a new monochrome film called HR-50 that will be available in 35mm, 120, and 4x5 formats.
If you’re a film enthusiast, you probably love watching Kodak make a comeback. When Kodak filed for bankruptcy back in 2012, it seemed like the end of an era. Luckily it wasn’t so.
After nearly two years of building up anticipation, Kodak Alaris has just announced that it has started shipping Kodak Professional Ektachrome E100 film worldwide. If you've been dying to get your hands on the film stock again, you'll be able to very soon.
While Nikon's new Z7 full-frame mirrorless camera is the Z Series flagship, the cheaper Z6 is designed to be a low-light powerhouse. Bulgarian filmmaker and photographer Marin Marinov got to test a pre-production Nikon Z6, and he ended up shooting this 1-minute short film titled "Dreaming."
Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable is an upcoming documentary film about the life and work of famous American street photographer Garry Winogrand. You can watch the 2-minute trailer above.
After originally being announced back in January 2017, the return of Kodak Ektachrome film is inching closer: rolls of the film are now landing in the hands of beta testers around the world.
Fujifilm killed off the last of its black-and-white film and photo paper back in April 2018. For many film photographers that news was like a dagger to the heart, but there is hope yet: Fujifilm is reportedly considering bringing its B&W film back.
Film is on the resurgence as of late. Transparency film is another option from your regular negative film, but what is it exactly? When would you use transparency instead? How does it compare to C-41 or print film? And what is the dynamic range of transparency film? In this article, we'll answer those questions and more.
The Standard 4x5 is a new 3D printed large format camera that's perfect for aspiring large format photographers on a budget: the camera comes as an IKEA-style assemble-it-yourself kit that costs just $320.
My photo project Wildlife is a series of black-and-white film photos showing some of the most amazing and beautiful animals in the world. But these photos aren’t what they appear to be.
Recently, we (Steven, John, and Bill of the podcast Studio C-41) traveled to Rochester, New York, to interview Josh Coon with The Kodakery (Kodak's podcast) and "EKTACHROME Super Fan" Matt Stoffel. We learned about George Eastman, how film is made in the Kodak factory, and Kodak’s response to the film resurgence.
Here's a 16.5-minute video by OWL BOT in which photographer Omar Kenji demonstrates how you can develop C-41 color film in your own bathroom instead of passing it to a photo lab.
Kodak has shared a new sneak peek of its upcoming Ektachrome slide film relaunch, posting several test photos captured on the film using "pilot-scale equipment."
It's the end of an era: Leica has discontinued the M7 film rangefinder, the last numbered M series camera before the Leica M8 brought the iconic line into the realm of digital photography.
As Eastman Kodak Company transforms its legendary manufacturing complex, once devoted exclusively to the production of photographic equipment and materials, the management of the Eastman Business Park reached out to me (Professor Frank Cost at RIT) to involve students in learning opportunities centered in a new customer-education and workforce development center planned for the Park.
If you're looking to get into shooting medium format film but aren't sure which film stock to start with, check out this helpful 16-minute video by The Slanted Lens. Photographer Jay P. Morgan purchased all the B&W and color 120 film rolls he could get his hands on and did a shootout to compare the different looks and qualities.
What do you get when you cross process the most popular negative medium format film on the market? I asked myself that question after having a crossing run-in with Fuji Pro 160, a film that I normally avoid. The photos were out of this world and I wondered what would happen to Kodak Portra 400.
Photographer Irene Rudnyk often receives questions about film photography, including from people who wonder why it's even worth doing when you can slap a VSCO filter onto digital images these days. To answer these questions, Rudnyk made this 6.5-minute video comparing film vs digital through a portrait shoot.
In the era of the “selfie”, of the relentless click-and-publish images on social media, of the mega sensors replete with megapixels, we are witnessing an unpredictable resurgence of many ancient photographic devices and techniques.
LEX is a new prototype open source film camera that features a E-mount, allowing Sony photographers to use their existing collection of lenses.
My name is Patrick Keenan, and I'm a photojournalist in Australia. I have been using Ektachrome 100ASA underwater in my Nikonos cameras and SB-105 flash since the 1970s and was disappointed to see production end in 2012 because of the digital revolution.
If you want to see an example of passion and talent rolled up into one photographer, look no further than landscape photographer Christopher Burkett. PBS NewsHour just aired this wonderful 8-minute segment on Burkett's life and work.
Just as vinyl records have made a comeback as of late, film photography has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Film is Still Alive is a 10-minute miniature documentary that explores why film photographers these days are still in love with their medium despite the camera industry moving to digital.
"Ah, s**t!" Andrew Rogers shouts as he spills developer all over the table and onto his vintage yellow Kodachrome film shirt. Hidden in the back corner of the semi-popular "video game" bar, The Grid in Mesa, Arizona, he and three fellow film fanatics mix chemicals and develop E6 color positive film. The bar, named after the computer world in the cult-classic Disney movie, Tron, hosts a plethora of video games, board games, and of course, alcohol.
The folks over at Negative Feedback recently paid a visit to one of the hallowed grounds of film photography: Kodak's sprawling headquarters and film factory in Rochester, New York. In the 12.5-minute video above, photographer George Muncey and his crew take us along on the private tour they were given.
Fujifilm today officially announced that it will be discontinuing its popular Neopan 100 Acros film in October 2018, bringing an end to the Acros line. This news confirms what was reported from dealers in Japan a week ago.
It may soon be time to say goodbye to another popular film among analog photographers. A new report is saying that Fujifilm's Neopan 100 Acros will be discontinued in October of this year.
Lead by spunky frontgirl Ashley Miles, Vinyl Rhino is my favorite cover band in Frederick, Maryland. For years, they’ve rocked our bars with high energy hits from the 80’s to what’s current. Saturday night they stopped by Champions and blew the roof off the place. I was there to capture it on the newly re-released Kodak TMAX P3200.
Netflix purchased the rights for the upcoming movie Kodachrome in September 2017, and today it just released the film's 2.5-minute trailer. The movie is a story that's centered around the final days of Kodachrome film.
I've been shooting analog for almost four years now, and all I can say is: analog has truly changed my life and what I think about what it means produce photo imagery. My first deep contact with analog photography was during college, and back then I would never imagine I would be shooting film today, in 2018.
I don't usually go the negative Nellie with anything photo related, sometimes it's best to keep your mouth firmly shut. But I'm not going to take it anymore, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm going to lean right out the window and shout it to the world, enough, I'm done with rubbish samples of film technology on the Web.
How much sharpness and detail can you extract out of 8x10 large format slide film? Photographer Ben Horne was able to explore this question recently after he had one of his landscape photos digitized using a drum scanner. In the 10-minute video above, Horne pixel-peeps the massive 709-megapixel photo at 100% to analyze the sharpness.
Back in December 2016, we featured the work of Kurt Moser, an ambrotype photographer who turned a Russian truck into a massive camera for his glass plate photography. After seeing the article, the team at Valkyr Productions connected with Moser and created this beautiful 9-minute video profile about the photographer and his work.
Film Washi V is probably the most unusual film announced in 2017, and I had the privilege of being present when Lomig, the founder of Washi Film, introduced it at the Salon de la Photo in Paris last year. Since then I have always wanted to try it and see what it's like to shoot with this very special film.
Ilford recently released a popular 8-minute video on how to process black-and-white film yourself, and now the film company is back again with another helpful crash course on how to make a black-and-white print in a darkroom. If you've never worked in a darkroom before, this intro is a great way to see what it's all about.
If you've never tried your hand at black-and-white film photography before but would like to learn the basics of developing your own film at home, here's a great 8-minute primer that'll get you up to speed.