Reference
Film photography glossary
28 essential terms every film shooter should know, explained simply.
- ISO / Film Speed
- A film's sensitivity to light. Doubling the ISO (100→200) is one stop, meaning half the light is needed. Higher ISO means more grain.
- Grain
- The texture of light-sensitive silver crystals visible in a film image. Faster films show larger, more visible grain.
- Exposure Latitude
- How far a film can be over- or under-exposed while still yielding a usable image. Colour negative film has wide latitude; slide film is narrow.
- Colour Negative (C-41)
- The most common colour film type, developed in the C-41 process. Forgiving latitude and easy to scan.
- Slide / Reversal (E-6)
- Colour film that produces a positive transparency, developed in E-6. Vivid and high-contrast but with narrow exposure latitude.
- Push / Pull Processing
- Rating film at a different ISO than box speed and adjusting development to match. Pushing gains speed and contrast; pulling reduces contrast.
- Box Speed
- Shooting film at its rated ISO as printed on the box, without pushing or pulling.
- Reciprocity Failure
- In very long exposures, film loses effective sensitivity, requiring extra exposure. Amount varies by film.
- Halation
- A glow around bright light sources, most famous on CineStill film where the anti-halation layer is removed.
- Colour Cast
- An overall colour bias in a film's rendering — warm (amber), cool (blue), or green — that shapes the mood of an image.
- Dynamic Range
- The range of brightness from shadows to highlights a film can capture, measured in stops.
- 35mm
- The most popular film format, with a 24×36mm frame and typically 36 exposures per roll.
- 120 / Medium Format
- A larger roll film giving frames like 6×4.5, 6×6 or 6×7 cm — cleaner and more detailed than 35mm.
- Sunny 16 Rule
- A metering guideline: in bright sun, use f/16 with a shutter speed close to 1/ISO.
- Bracketing
- Taking the same shot at several exposures to ensure one is correctly exposed — useful for slide film.
- Contrast
- The difference between the darkest and brightest tones. High-contrast film has punchy blacks and whites.
- Saturation
- The intensity of colours. Films like Velvia are highly saturated; Portra is more restrained.
- Tabular Grain (T-Grain)
- Flat, aligned silver crystals (as in Kodak T-Max, Ilford Delta) giving finer grain and sharper detail.
- Redscale
- Shooting colour negative film through its base side, producing warm red-orange tones.
- Cross Processing
- Developing film in the wrong chemistry (e.g. slide film in C-41) for shifted colours and contrast.
- Zone System
- A method of metering and development that maps scene brightness to print tones (Zones 0–X) for precise control.
- Tungsten / Daylight Balance
- Colour film balanced for a light source — tungsten (3200K, warm indoor) or daylight (5500K). Wrong balance shifts colours.
- DX Coding
- The checkerboard barcode on 35mm canisters that tells the camera the film's ISO automatically.
- Light Seals
- Foam strips that keep a camera's film chamber light-tight. They perish with age and cause light leaks.
- Rangefinder
- A focusing system using a superimposed double image rather than through-the-lens viewing, as on the Leica M and Contax cameras.
- SLR
- Single-lens reflex: a camera where you view through the taking lens via a mirror and prism.
- Half-Frame
- Cameras that expose half a 35mm frame (18×24mm), doubling shots per roll to ~72.
- Anti-Halation Layer
- A coating on film that absorbs stray light to prevent halos. Removing it (as in CineStill) creates the red glow.