2023-03-28
This is written as a pre-cursor (and "handout" I suppose?) for 2023's UQ Photography Society "Film Basics Workshop" that I am organizing and running. I concede that there are probably some errors here, and it's certainly not complete, but I hope that it is at least informative enough for a beginner film-photographer to not feel entirely lost and incredibly overwhelmed with choices. Just somewhat lost and a little overwhelmed.
In general, different films can be classified by size/format, or by the "stock" (i.e., what chemicals are used to make it, which influences the final result).
The most formats are
INSERT FILM SIZES GRAPHICS
Again, film stocks can be broken down in to colour negative, colour positive, and black and white.
Once the lab is done scanning your photos, they'll typically email you a link to download to photos online; usually .jpg files, or .tiff if you spend a little extra (.tiff is a much bigger file but it stores more detail about colours, so if you want more control over the final result I'd recommend trying it).
EDIT YOUR FILM PHOTOS! There is a stigma that editing your film photos makes them "not true film" anymore or something similarly silly. This is plain false - film photos have been "edited" in a sense since long before digital scanning came around.
In the "dark room", where film is developed and proper prints are made (that is, prints on photo-sensitive paper, as opposed to the modern scan and inkjet printer method), too many methods for me to list here were used to get the exact results out of the film negatives that the photographer wanted. So edit your scans!
The most popular software for editing photos would have to be Lightroom which is great but expensive. If you just want to do some subtle touch ups on your phone, an app like Snapseed or VSCO (or even Apple Photos) is more than enough.