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The Digital Photographer’s Introduction to Black and White Film Photography

Chris Gampat
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01/31/2018
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujifilm GW690 III sample photos in color black and whites 1

Last Updated on 01/31/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

Black and white film photography is more complicated than you may have thought.

Black and white film photography is back for sure. And with many folks returning to film photography, I wanted to pass on some knowledge that wasn’t given to me initially. Everyone always used to say, “Go shoot Tri-X,” and that was it. After shooting with other films, all that means to me now is that they didn’t know anything else beyond that. There are so many more films beyond that and so much more you should know.

Another myth is that black and white film is more or less the same when it comes to versatility. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. There are black and white equivalents for negative and positive films. Still confused? We’ll show you the differences. Prepare to be surprised.

In this tutorial video, we explore the differences between a lot of different films and what you should and shouldn’t know. What we’re not telling you is that when you shoot black and white film you need to develop a new type of muscle memory. This memory will let you understand how you should shoot images in black and white. Some folks call it ‘thinking’ in black and white – others refer to it as ‘seeing’ in black and white. What you may come to learn is that what you think won’t always be what you see.

First and foremost the absolute best film to get started on is Ilford XP2 Super. This film has the ability to have ISO 50 to ISO 800 images all shot on the same roll. You’ll learn even more in our video, but for further learning and reviews, you should check out our analog section. Also be sure to subscribe to our channel on Youtube.

black and white black and white film camera film ilford images kodak Photography tutorial video
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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