Camera-Oid

35mm Film

The standard. 24x36mm frame on 135 cartridges. Oskar Barnack invented the format at Leitz in 1913 when he built the Ur-Leica to test 35mm cinema film. It became the world's most popular format. 36 exposures per roll. Cheap, available everywhere, and thousands of cameras shoot it.

Stocks to try: Kodak Portra 400, Ilford HP5+, Fuji Superia 400, Kodak Gold 200, Cinestill 800T

120 / Medium Format Film

Roll film on a paper-backed spool. No cartridge. The negative is 2-4 times larger than 35mm depending on the camera format (6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9). More detail, shallower depth of field (meaning the background goes blurry while the subject stays sharp), more tonal range (the range of light and shadow the film can capture). The quality jump from 35mm to medium format is like going from DVD to 4K.

Stocks: Kodak Portra 160, Ilford Delta 100, Fuji Provia 100F, Kodak Ektar 100

Black & White

The soul of photography. B&W strips away colour and leaves you with light, shadow, form, and texture. Easy to develop at home with basic chemicals: developer, stop bath, fixer. A changing bag, a tank, and a thermometer is all you need. Ilford HP5+ pushed to 1600 is the look. Tri-X 400 is the American classic. Develop in Rodinal for grain, in XTOL for smoothness.

Classics: Ilford HP5+ 400, Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford FP4+ 125, Fomapan 400

Slide / Reversal Film

E-6 process (a chemical developing method for slide film). Produces a positive transparency (a see-through image you hold up to light) instead of a negative. Hold a Velvia slide up to the light and the colours glow like stained glass. Zero margin for exposure error — nail it or lose it. Fuji Velvia 50 has the most saturated colours in any photographic medium. Provia 100F for accuracy. Ektachrome for warmth.

Stocks: Fuji Velvia 50, Fuji Provia 100F, Kodak Ektachrome E100

Instant Film

Polaroid invented it. Fuji Instax perfected the modern version. The magic of watching an image appear in your hands never gets old. Instax Mini is the gateway. Instax Wide for bigger prints. Original Polaroid 600 and SX-70 film is being made again by Polaroid (formerly The Impossible Project).

Formats: Fuji Instax Mini, Fuji Instax Wide, Polaroid 600, Polaroid i-Type

The Exposure Triangle

Aperture (the hole in the lens that lets light in — f-stop is its size: f/1.4 = big hole, dreamy background blur; f/16 = tiny hole, everything sharp). Shutter Speed (how long the camera's eye stays open) controls motion: 1/1000 freezes movement, 1/30 shows blur. ISO/ASA is your film's sensitivity to light: 100 = fine grain in daylight, 400 = versatile, 1600+ = low light but grainy. These three work together. Change one, compensate with another. Once you feel it intuitively, you're a photographer.

Zone System (Ansel Adams)

Adams and Fred Archer created a system of 11 zones from pure black (Zone 0) to pure white (Zone X). Meter the shadows, place them in Zone III, and develop to control the highlights. "Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights." The zone system is why Adams' prints have detail from the deepest shadows to the brightest peaks. It works with any camera and any film.

Darkroom Printing

Enlarger, easel, timer, three trays (developer, stop, fix), safelight. Put the negative in the enlarger, focus the image on the baseboard, expose the paper, then watch the image appear in the developer tray under red light. That moment never stops being magical. Dodging (blocking light to lighten areas) and burning (adding light to darken areas) are where craft becomes art.

Street Photography

Zone focus your lens at f/8, set a distance of about 3 metres, and use a fast enough shutter speed. Now you don't need to focus at all — just lift, frame, and shoot. Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" method. A 35mm or 50mm lens on a small camera. Shoot from the hip if you're nervous. The best street photos are the ones where you weren't noticed.

Home Development

You need: a developing tank, a changing bag (or a completely dark room), film reels, developer, stop bath, and fixer. B&W is easy to start with. Load the film onto the reel in the dark, seal the tank, then everything else happens in daylight. Developer (5-12 mins depending on stock and developer), stop bath (30 secs), fixer (5 mins), wash (10 mins), hang to dry. The whole process takes about 30 minutes and costs pennies per roll.

Composition

Rule of thirds is a starting point, not a law. Leading lines draw the eye through the frame. Negative space gives the subject room to breathe. Frames within frames add depth. But the best composition advice: shoot a lot of film, look at a lot of photographs, and trust your eye. Edward Weston said "Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk."