Film Photography

There's a lie we tell ourselves about photography equipment: that the camera doesn't matter. It's a comfortable fiction that lets us sleep at night, convinced that our artistic vision transcends mere machinery. But here's the uncomfortable truth that every photographer who lived through the transition from point-and-shoot to SLR knows deep in their bones: the moment you first wrapped your hands around a "real" camera, everything changed.

Picture this: You're standing in perfect golden hour light, watching a bride and groom share their first dance as married partners. Your light meter reads perfectly, your Nikon F4 is loaded with fresh Kodak Portra 400, and you've got exactly seven frames left on the roll. Seven. The pressure in your chest isn't just excitement—it's the very real anxiety that defined an entire generation of photographers who learned their craft when every single exposure had tangible, immediate value.

Film photography made a big comeback over the past decade, but where does it stand today, in 2025? The journey of film's revival and its current relevance is something worth understanding, especially if you're considering picking up an analog camera.

CineStill has just launched a revolutionary set of tools that redefines the film-to-digital workflow: the CS Negative+ Convert Tools, powered by its cutting-edge SpectraCOLOR™ technology. These free tools offer photographers a faster, more accurate way to convert color film negatives into vibrant digital positives that stay true to the analog essence.

The Hasselblad Xpan remains one of the most coveted and controversial cameras in film photography, commanding prices between $4,000 and $7,000 for a body and lens. This panoramic 35mm camera promises a cinematic shooting experience that fundamentally changes how you approach composition, but the question remains whether it lives up to the massive investment.

Before everyone became a photographer, there was a little yellow box that made everyone feel like one.

Walk into any modern home and observe where family photographs live. They exist as ghostly presences scattered across hard drives, trapped in smartphones, or floating in cloud servers owned by distant corporations. The physical photo album—once the sacred repository of family memory—has virtually disappeared from domestic life, taking with it an entire ecosystem of memory-making rituals that shaped how families understood their own stories.

In a culture of sensational media competing for our attention, an obvious path to dramatic images is to point your camera at dramatic stuff. But this photographer wants to show us the compelling beauty of the banal and the everyday that is, for most of us in this busy world, hidden in plain sight.

Shooting street photography on film offers a unique way to engage more deeply with your environment. Film requires intentionality and mindfulness that digital doesn't always demand, making it especially rewarding when done thoughtfully.

Mistakes are an unavoidable part of film photography, often teaching lessons far more memorable than successes. You may be all too familiar with the frustration of putting effort into your photos, only to ruin the results later in the development stage through impatience or oversight.

Maria Santos learned to stop looking at faces.

Always photograph with the end in mind. Make life easier for the guy in the darkroom, or the person in Lightroom—usually you.

Film choice makes a bigger difference than you might realize. Picking the wrong film stock can leave you frustrated with results that don't match your expectations or your budget.

Imagine taking a photo and not seeing it for a week. Imagine every click of the shutter costing real money. Imagine gathering your family around the kitchen table to pass around actual printed photographs, holding them up to the light, flipping them over to read date stamps printed in orange numbers.

Film photography can feel intimidating when you're getting started, but by nailing down a few essential aspects, you can significantly boost your skills.

The RolleiFlex 3.5F, with its classic Schneider lens, holds a special place in film photography—when it works. Reliability can be tough, but photographers keep coming back because when it's good, it’s outstanding.

You can’t argue that the world of film is making a comeback in a big way. This begs the question: Is shooting film an artistic and bold choice or just a trendy throwback?

Several years ago, I got a call one morning from the head ranger at Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming. He was inquiring if I would be interested in participating in Bighorn National Forest’s initial Artist in Residence program. That was during the COVID shutdown, and my state was really locked down—we couldn't even go camping in a state park! So, yes, absolutely yes.

Camping across Europe, camera in hand, can teach you a lot—not just about traveling, but about taking meaningful photos. Beyond gear choices or film types, it’s about developing a mindset that ensures your photos reflect genuine experiences instead of mere tourist snapshots.

It takes a combination of courage, self-confidence, and a relaxed, easygoing nature to feel comfortable approaching and photographing strangers. For some of us, this comes more naturally than for others, but is this a skill that we can develop with a view to becoming better street photographers?

KEKS has announced their new M-Meter, a modernized version of the old analog Leica M-Meters, and I can’t help but think of that line from the Bob Fosse biopic All That Jazz: “Everything old is new again.”

Capturing reality was never photography's sole purpose—it always flirted with imagination. But in an age dominated by digital tools and AI, how far can we push photographic art before it stops being photography?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes, a few of those words need to be cut. Cropping isn’t just about trimming an image—it’s about sharpening the story you want to tell.

Photography gear is constantly evolving, redefining what it means to be “professional.” Once, carrying massive DSLRs and powerful flashes was the mark of a serious photographer—now, smaller, more efficient setups are taking over.

Venturing into the world of film can be daunting, and choosing a camera to get you started can be a challenge. Here’s a recommendation that might save you some time.

The way people shape the landscape reveals what they fear and value. In places like Southern California, where natural conditions are harsh, you can see clear signs of these priorities. Fireproof landscaping, seismic retrofits, and massive infrastructure projects that bring water and power to Los Angeles all tell a story of control, adaptation, and sometimes exclusion.

What if you could control perspective distortion and focus with pinpoint accuracy at any aperture? Dive into the world of tilt/shift lenses and learn how pros use the Scheimpflug Principle to create stunning images.

Half-frame cameras are seeing a burst in popularity. Here are six compelling reasons to add one to your arsenal.

Canadian photographer Greg Girard left Vancouver in the 1970s to explore Southeast Asia with his camera. His colorful, atmospheric landscapes showed us a very different and unfamiliar part of the world that, for Westerners at that time, was much less traveled and even less well known.

There are a ton of obscure cameras out there, but typically, there’s at least some documentation buried in a weird corner of the internet. Unfortunately, obscurity does not guarantee performance, as this photographer finds out.