So you have bought your first ever film camera and want to get a new box of film ready to pop in so you can join the world of analogue photography. Let us show you how to load film into a camera. This guide is for traditional 35mm SLR (single lens reflex) cameras rather than the rangefinder (Leica) style body. If you’re not sure what camera to get, see our guide here.

So what film should I buy?

Photographic film comes in 3 main types. Colour negative, colour transparency (known as “tranny”) and finally black and white. The films also have various sensitivities to light. These are measured in ISO. The higher the number, the more sensitive the photographic film is to light but the more grainy the image will appear. Most black and white film starts from around ISO 50. This is known as a ‘slow’ or a ‘low grain’ film. At the other extreme there are ISO 3200 films. These are very light sensitive but have a very pronounced graininess in the image. These are called ‘fast’ or ‘high grain’ films. Most people tend to choose a ‘normal’ film of around 125 or 400 ISO.

35mm film brands

So what film brand? Well there are quite a few brands available and each has there own subtle characteristic but I would suggest starting with one of the main ones. Kodak Tri-X or T Max, Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5, Ilford Delta or even Fuji Neopan. Any of those will be an excellent start.

How to load film into a 35mm camera

Open the film from its iconic little black plastic container.

Pull the film just a little – about a couple of inches. Now open the back of the camera by pulling up the winder (rewind knob) – normally on the left hand side of the camera. It will give you a satisfying click and the back will pop open.

Now look at the sprocket on the right hand side inside your camera. You will see that there’s a slit in it. Place the cut-off end of the film, into the slit.

Then with your thumb, wind the bottom of that sprocket to the left, or using the film advance lever, just a little to ensure that the film has ‘caught’.

Place the film canister into the slot on the left hand side – you may need to pull it a little more to the left for it to reach.

Close the back of the camera – ensure it ‘clicks’ shut and ensure the winder is down. It’s a good idea to very gently wind the winder clockwise a little, to take up any slack of the film.

Then make sure that the winder is pushed back down in its place.

Now you need to move the film on a few shots to ensure that any exposed film is out of the way. Do this by pushing the shutter and winding on with the winder until the counter shows ‘0’. This will usually be about 3-4 clicks.

So now you know how to load film into a camera, get out there and create some awesome images! And remember … you can’t check the back to see how your image looks! If you’re not sure what makes a great black and white image, read more here.

How to unload film from a 35mm camera

When your film finishes, it will tell you as you won’t be able to wind it on anymore. Depending on how you loaded, occasionally you could get thrifty and manage to get an extra image out of your 35mm film.

To unload your film from a 35mm camera, turn it upside down and push the small button on the bottom right in.

Now wind the rewind knob clockwise until you feel the film release. You can now open the back and remove the film. You can wind the film all the way back in if you wish. BUT, if you do decide to leave a small tail, it’s best to fold it over, so you know it’s been exposed. Leaving a tail can help you or the people who process your film.

If you do shoot any film, do let us know. If you stick with digital, check out our post on converting colour to black and white.

The post How to load film into a camera – 35mm film photography appeared first on ImageExplorers.

Have you ever seen beautiful old photographs with a blue tone and wondered how you could create the same? A romantic cyanotype photo can look so stunning yet is so easy to do digitally. Let me take you through the process and have you creating an amazing cyanotype photo in minutes. It’s a bit messy but oh so worth it.

Traditionally, a cyanotype photo print is usually created using ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide chemicals. The original process was invented by an astronomer, Sir John Herschel, around 1839. Of course, this was and still is a very messy process requiring coating paper with chemicals. This paper is then allowed to dry and then contact-printed (using your negative) onto the paper using a UV lamp or sunlight. It is washed and then dried. Lots of trial and error and not to mention cost. I want to show you how to get the same result digitally. It would be a shame however not to get your hands a little dirty so the first part of the cyanotype photo in digital will still require a bit of mess.

Some totally useless geeky info

Copies of architectural plans were named ‘blueprints’ because they originally used the Cyanotype process resulting in blue prints – now you too can impress your friends…

The preparation process or, as I like to call it, “Woo-hoo – I’m 5 again”

Ink, heavy duty paper and a brush is all you really need. I poured some ink onto the paper and painted it, making sure not to be too neat with the edges. When it had dried, I scanned the painted page in at a high resolution. I use 600 ppi at A4 as this translates into 300 ppi at A3 size. You can always photograph the paper if you don’t have a scanner. (Just make sure the camera is parallel to the inked paper.)

Cyanotype photo process – preparing the paper

Let’s get toning

While traditionally a cyanotype is Prussian blue and white, you can also achieve a slight yellow in the highlights by bleaching and toning. This split tone look is the one I am going for here.

Open your chosen image in either Adobe Photoshop Raw, Lightroom or Affinity Photo. I will be demonstrating in Photoshop Raw.

Original Image

After you have got your settings for lightness, darkness and shadow detail correct, you will need to click on the black and white photo button. Of course you can then still lighten and darken certain areas with the Black and White control sliders.

Converted to Black and White

Next step is to choose the toning tab. I added a small amount of yellow in the highlights, and more blue in the shadows.

Split tone sliders in raw for cyanotype colour

With Cyanotype photo colour tone

Creating the digital painted frame look

Open up the scanned image in Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo. Bring in your toned image. Drag or copy/paste the scanned inked paper onto the toned image.

Paste Painted paper scan onto cyanotype photo

Now for the magic … set the paper layer mode to Screen. Ta-da. A beautiful cyanotype photo with a hand painted paper edge replicating hand-made sensitised paper.

Set layer to screen for Cyanotype photo emulsion look

Useful Geeky Info about Modes

Simply put, the Screen mode hides the black on the layer. It is the opposite of Multiply which hides the whites.

Cyanotype photo with emulsion paint effect

A Reversed Background

The reversed background is nothing like a Cyanotype photo but still quite cool. If you wished to have the image look like it was painted onto a black background you could invert the paper layer and then set the paper layer mode to Multiply.

Original paper layer as used in cyanotype print

Paper layer as used in cyanotype print inverted

Convert mode to multiply for cyanotype on black paper

Variations on the theme

This Cyanotype photo technique has so many variations when it is done digitally. Why not try painting on various surfaces to get interesting textures on you photographs. Create other interesting split tones or even use it on full colour images. As always remember. A Black and White toned image will not rescue a boring photograph but a good photograph can be made even better with sympathetic tones. Mostly, have fun.

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