Film photography has a timeless charm that continues to captivate photographers, offering a unique blend of artistry, texture, and storytelling. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, shooting on film can be incredibly therapeutic, especially when you’re in a creative rut—it encourages patience, presence, and a fresh perspective.
In this master guide by Harry Sohal (@harrysohalphoto on Instagram), we’ll explore everything you need to get started, from understanding film camera formats to selecting the perfect film stock for your creative vision. You’ll also learn practical tips on mastering exposure and metering techniques. And while film photography is a rewarding process, some brands and clients may require digital work too—so Harry has a few tricks up his sleeve to help you navigate both worlds seamlessly.
Exploring the Art of Storytelling Through Film Photography
In my photography, storytelling is central to everything I do, and film plays a key role in enhancing that narrative. The grain, the way light interacts with the medium, and the organic texture of the film all contribute to images that feel deeply connected to a story.
I also love how film encourages a slower, more thoughtful process. Since you can’t instantly review your shots, each frame requires more intention and consideration, often resulting in more deliberate and meaningful compositions. This limitation becomes a strength, pushing you to focus on the emotion and atmosphere within a scene.
Storytelling in photography often shines brightest through specific projects or series. Lately, I’ve been capturing behind-the-scenes moments of my filmmaking journey, integrating them into a larger narrative rather than treating them as isolated images.
For example, I took a series of portraits of a friend casually having a smoke. Instead of focusing on individual standout shots, I aimed to convey the mood of that particular day—the atmosphere behind the scenes of a video shoot. This approach transforms simple moments into a cohesive visual story.
If you’re looking to strengthen storytelling in your photography, start by focusing on authentic moments—those quiet, real instances that feel genuine. Whether you’re shooting portraits or landscapes, aim to capture a mood or emotion that resonates with the viewer. Film, with its rich texture and timeless depth, is an incredible medium for creating images that truly connect.
Understanding the Basics of Film Cameras & Formats
A key starting point for anyone exploring this medium is understanding the various film camera formats available and their distinct characteristics. Each format has its own strengths, making it essential to choose the one that best fits your creative goals and shooting style.
Let’s begin by breaking down the differences between 35mm, medium format, and large format film cameras—how each suits different photography styles, whether you’re capturing portraits, landscapes, or candid street moments. This will help you make an informed choice that elevates your work and brings your vision to life.
- 35mm – My favorite format because it strikes the perfect balance between detail and texture, offering a slightly grainy, organic look that complements my storytelling style.
- Medium format – Often ideal for more curated portraits or fine art projects, as its larger film size provides stunning detail, smooth tones, a shallow depth of field, and superior dynamic range compared to 35mm, adding a professional, polished look.
- Large format – Delivers unparalleled detail but is best suited for technical, studio-based work and landscapes. It captures incredible resolution, dynamic range, and precise perspective control, making it perfect for expansive scenes.
As you can see, the main differences between 35mm, medium format, and large format film cameras are film size, image quality, portability, and ease of use.
For beginners, I always recommend starting with 35mm because it’s accessible, affordable, and forgiving—great for experimenting and mastering the fundamentals of film photography. It’s especially useful for daily photography, as it’s lightweight, portable, and quick to shoot, allowing me to capture candid, authentic moments without intruding.
My connection to 35mm also feels personal, as it takes me back to my early days shooting with a Yashica camera.
With an understanding of formats and their applications, the next step is choosing a reliable camera to bring your ideas to reality.
Choosing the Right Camera for Film Photography
For someone starting in film photography, I recommend choosing a reliable camera that allows you to focus on your vision rather than chasing the “best” gear.
My Go-To Film Cameras
- Canon A-1 – A dependable choice for learning, with both manual and auto-exposure modes. I still keep mine around!
- Leica M6 – My personal favorite. This minimalist rangefinder encourages you to slow down, think about each shot, and truly enjoy the creative process.
Other Great Beginner Options
Each of these cameras offers a solid foundation for exploring film photography while keeping the focus on your artistic vision.
Tips for Choosing the Right Film Stock for Your Creative Vision
Film stock plays a crucial role in defining the aesthetic and mood of your photography. Each film has its own unique character—color tones, grain, and exposure latitude—making it suited to different scenarios.
While there are countless film stocks to explore, having a few favorites can help simplify your workflow and ensure consistency in your results. Understanding how to choose the right film stock allows you to tailor your images to your creative vision—whether you’re shooting vibrant landscapes, intimate portraits, or dramatic black-and-white scenes.
Film is forgiving and has naturally beautiful colors, so almost any stock can look great in any situation. However, small details—like grain, color tones, and contrast—truly define a film’s character and impact the final look.
Some film stocks resonate with me so much that I’ve even created accurate digital presets inspired by them, allowing me to bring their unique aesthetics into my digital work.
My Top Three Film Stocks
- Kodak Ektar 100 – For vibrant, saturated colors and fine grain. Perfect for landscapes and golden hour scenes.
- Kodak Portra 400 – My go-to for soft, natural colors and versatility, ideal for portraits and capturing warm, relatable daily moments.
- Ilford HP5 – A classic for black-and-white photography, with grain, contrast, and forgiving exposure latitude that create timeless, moody images.
For a budget-friendly yet classic option, Kodak ColorPlus 200 always delivers.
Choosing the Right Film Stock for Your Conditions
Ultimately, selecting the right film stock is about knowing the look you’re after and choosing one that enhances the story you want to tell.
It’s also important to consider the film’s ISO to match your lighting conditions:
- ISO 100 – Best for daylight, offering fine grain and vibrant colors.
- ISO 400 – A versatile choice that handles a wider range of lighting conditions, making it ideal for portraits or indoor shoots.
- ISO 800 – Perfect for low-light situations, adding contrast and grain for a moody, atmospheric look.
Each film stock brings something unique, so it’s about finding the one that best enhances the feeling you want to evoke.
Mastering Camera Settings, Exposure, and Metering Techniques for Film Photography
Understanding how to control your camera settings, exposure, and metering techniques is essential for creating consistently stunning film photographs. Film has a unique quality, but it requires a more deliberate approach than digital photography, especially when it comes to handling light and capturing detail. By mastering these fundamentals, you can unlock the full potential of your film camera and elevate your creative process.
Key Camera Settings
When shooting with film, especially for beginners, it’s important to focus on key settings like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO:
- Shutter speed – Controls how long the film is exposed to light. A good rule of thumb is to set it at least equal to the focal length of your lens to avoid motion blur.
- Aperture (f-stop) – Determines the depth of field and how much light enters the camera. For beginners, starting with a middle range like f/8 or f/5.6 is a good idea.
- ISO – Determines light sensitivity and grain and should match the ISO of the film you’re using. Some film stocks, like Kodak Portra 400, have better exposure latitude, so I often shoot 1–2 stops overexposed, which helps bring out softer tones and more detail in the highlights.
Understanding Light Metering
Once you’ve grasped the basic camera settings, learning how to meter light accurately is the next critical step. I often approach metering by focusing on the shadows first, which helps avoid the faded or underexposed look. By metering for the shadows, you ensure that the detail in darker areas is captured.
There are two primary metering methods:
- Reflective metering – measures the light reflected off the scene. This can sometimes overexpose or underexpose depending on the scene, so being mindful of how you meter can make a big difference in achieving the mood or look you’re going for.
- Incident metering – measures the light falling on the subject.
In high-contrast situations, I’ll take multiple readings—one for the highlights and one for the shadows—then meter somewhere in the middle to strike a balance. This helps preserve detail in both bright and dark areas.
Avoiding Underexposure
Since film is more forgiving, it’s easy to think small mistakes won’t matter, but underexposure—often caused by not accounting for the unique characteristics of film stock—is one of the most common exposure mistakes in film photography.
Underexposure can result in muddy, grainy images with little detail in the shadows. Even experienced photographers sometimes miscalculate film exposure, but thankfully, these errors can be avoided with the right knowledge and techniques.
To prevent underexposure, I recommend metering for the shadows and even intentionally overexposing by 1–2 stops for a more balanced exposure.
Lightroom Step-by-Step Guide: Color Grading for a Film Look
Now, shifting from the tactile beauty of film to the digital realm—let’s talk about recreating that timeless film aesthetic in digital images. While shooting on film has its own magic, sometimes digital is necessary for flexibility, client work, or creative projects. The good news? With the right approach, you can bring the warmth, texture, and emotion of film into your digital photos through color grading.
For me, achieving a film-inspired look often involves warm tones, subtle contrasts, and balanced colors that evoke emotion and nostalgia. Below, I’ll break down the step-by-step process of using Lightroom to bring your creative vision to life—fine-tuning RAW colors and achieving a cohesive, film-like aesthetic for one of my favorite shots.
Before making adjustments, it’s important to understand the base colors in your image. Here’s a breakdown of the key tones in my RAW file:
- Muted Taupe: #8d837e
- Very Dark Brown: #1b1916
- Soft, Warm Beige (with pink undertones): #b69a8a
- Deep Brown (with hints of gray): #3d3730
- Pale Cream: #fbf5ef
These colors serve as the foundation for the final look. Warm tones, like oranges and yellows, are integral to my style, evoking a sense of nostalgia and vibrancy. I often shoot during golden hour, which naturally provides these colors, and in post-processing, I enhance them to emphasize the inherent warmth and depth in my images.
Now, here’s how I achieved my vision!
Step 1: Basic Adjustments – Setting the Mood
The first step is fine-tuning exposure and contrast to build the base for your color grade. Here’s what I adjusted in Lightroom’s Basic Panel:
White Balance
- Temperature: 6,200 (adds warmth)
- Tint: +7 (slight magenta shift for balance)
Tone
- Contrast: -39 (softens the overall look)
- Highlights: -43 (recovers bright areas)
- Shadows: +35 (brings back details)
- Whites: +35 (adds brightness without overexposing)
- Blacks: +7 (deepens shadows slightly)
Presence
- Texture: -10 (reduces crispness for a softer look)
- Clarity: -30 (smooths out details for a dreamy effect)
- Dehaze: -15 (mimics the natural haze of film)
- Saturation: -15 (tones down the intensity of colors)
These adjustments set the groundwork for a filmic feel—soft, balanced, and atmospheric.
Step 2: Fine-Tune Contrast with the Tone Curve
My favorite editing technique for achieving a film-like aesthetic is the tone curve—it’s essential for fine-tuning contrast and tonal range. Here’s the tone curve I applied:
Step 3: Adjusting HSL
Next, we refine individual colors using the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) Panel to bring everything into harmony.
Hue Adjustments
- Red: -17
- Orange: -6
- Yellow: -19
- Blue: +4
- Purple: -2
- Magenta: +6
Saturation Adjustments
- Orange: -3
- Yellow: -26
- Green: -22
- Aqua: -3
- Blue: -50
- Purple: -26
- Magenta: -18
Luminance Adjustments
- Red: +5
- Orange: +5
- Yellow: +10
- Blue: -14
- Purple: -6
Step 4: Color Grading – The Filmic Touch
Now, let’s bring in the signature film tones with Lightroom’s Color Grading Panel. This is where you can inject depth and mood into your image.
- Midtones: I shifted the mid tones towards a warm orange-brown (803307).
- Shadows: I also tinted the shadows warm, leaning towards a dark mustard, golden brown (82640d).
- Highlights: I introduced a cool blue-green hue (02517f), contrasting with the warm mid-tones and shadows and adding a slight pop in brighter areas.
This interplay of warm shadows and mid tones against cooler highlights mimics the look of classic film stock.
Step 5: Final Tweaks with Calibration
The Calibration Panel is the last step in achieving a truly cohesive color grade. These adjustments subtly shift the entire color balance:
- Shadows: Tint -1
- Red Primary: Hue -5, Saturation +10
- Green Primary: Hue +7, Saturation +13
- Blue Primary: Hue -10, Saturation -5
The Finished Image
After all these adjustments, here’s the final color scheme of the edited image
- Dark Brown: #1f160a
- Soft, Warm Gray-Beige: #998b80
- Warm Brown (with hints of red): #785945
- Warm Beige (with pinkish undertones): #cbaa94
- Muted Peachy-Brown: #d69472
With this method, you can achieve a timeless, film-photograph look that feels authentic and stands out.
Wrapping Up
What truly inspires me about photography is finding beauty in unexpected places. Film photography takes this to another level – it’s about embracing imperfections, being patient, and appreciating the process as much as the result.
If you’re considering diving into film, take your time, experiment, and let it teach you to see the world differently. The raw, authentic beauty it captures will be worth every frame.
Harry Sohal, Photographer & Creative Director
Harry is a photographer and creative director who turned his college hobby into a thriving career. Rediscovering his passion during the pandemic, he honed his ability to capture authenticity while developing techniques for brand promotion. With a signature film-like aesthetic, he shares insights into his creative process and the tools that bring his vision to life.