Types of Film: Color Negative, Slide Film and Black and White

Every roll of film falls into a handful of families, and each needs its own process and responds differently to exposure. Knowing which you are holding tells you how to meter it, where it can be developed, and what the results will look like.

Color negative film

Color negative film produces a negative with reversed tones and complementary colors on an orange base. It is developed in the C-41 process, which almost every lab still runs, and then scanned or printed to a positive. It has very wide exposure latitude, especially toward overexposure, and handles high-contrast light gracefully, which makes it the default choice for most photographers.

Professional stocks such as Portra 160, Portra 400 and Ektar 100 are tuned for skin tones or saturation; consumer stocks such as Kodak Gold 200 are cheaper with a warmer, punchier look.

Slide film (color reversal)

Slide film, also called reversal, transparency or chrome film, develops directly into a positive image you can view on a light box or project. It is processed in E-6. Slides have rich saturation, deep blacks and a look no scan of a negative quite matches, but the film has a short tonal range and very little latitude: about half a stop of error shows. Meter carefully, usually for the highlights.

Current examples include Fujichrome Velvia 50, Provia 100F and Kodak Ektachrome E100. Kodachrome, which used its own complex K-14 process, was discontinued in 2009 and can no longer be developed in color.

Black and white film

Traditional black and white film forms its image in metallic silver. It can be developed at home in simple chemistry, tolerates a wide range of developers and development times, and is the film of choice for the Zone System and the darkroom. Classic grain films such as Tri-X and HP5 Plus sit beside modern tabular-grain films like T-Max 100 and Delta 100.

Panchromatic and orthochromatic

Almost all black and white film is panchromatic, sensitive to all visible colors, and must be handled in total darkness. Orthochromatic film, such as Ilford Ortho Plus, is blind to red: red lips and skin render darker, blue skies render light, and it can be developed under a red safelight.

Chromogenic black and white film

Ilford XP2 Super is a black and white film that forms a dye image instead of silver and is processed in C-41. Any color lab can develop it, and like color negative film it has generous latitude. It scans easily because there is no silver grain for dust removal to struggle with.

Cinema film (ECN-2)

Motion picture color negative stocks such as Kodak Vision3 are designed for the ECN-2 process. They come with a black remjet backing that must be removed in processing. Cinestill sells Vision3 with the remjet removed so it can run through C-41, which is why Cinestill 800T shows red halos around bright lights: without the remjet there is no anti-halation layer. The "T" means it is balanced for tungsten light.

Daylight and tungsten balance

Most color film is daylight balanced, at about 5500K. Under household incandescent light it records orange; tungsten-balanced film records correct color under 3200K light and turns blue in daylight. An 85-series amber filter corrects tungsten film for daylight; an 80A blue filter corrects daylight film for tungsten.

Infrared and specialty film

Infrared black and white film, such as Rollei Infrared 400, is sensitive into the near infrared. Shot through a deep red or opaque infrared filter, it makes foliage glow white and turns blue skies nearly black. Specialty films such as redscale (color negative exposed through the base) and extended red films like SFX 200 trade accuracy for character.

Cross processing

Developing film in the "wrong" chemistry is called cross processing. The classic version is slide film in C-41, which gives saturated, contrasty negatives with unpredictable color shifts. It is an effect rather than a technique, so shoot a test roll before relying on it.