Phim Kodak
Nadia Summerhill
CineStill is a film manufacturer based in Hollywood. They convert motion picture film into still picture film. They are quite a new name on the film scene compared to some of the other more historic brands. CineStill were established in 2012 by the Brothers Wright, and have quickly built themselves a fantastic reputation world wide for their innovative approach for fulfilling our analogue needs!
CineStill specialise in converting rolls of cinema film (designed for movies, hence their name CineStill FIlm), into batches of 35mm and medium format film. Their passion is for everyday photographers who buy CineStill film to have the same access to high-quality emulsions as Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and The Coen Brothers!
CineStill 800t is arguably what the film brand is most well known for. Beta testing for the film began in 2012, after shooting Kodak Vision 3 for their own photography and loving the results. The Wright brothers did this by shooting a roll of bulk vision 3 film after establishing a relationship with a local motion picture lab. Other photographers began contacting them saying they loved the film and would also love to shoot it, so the brothers set out to find a way to make it usable in standard 35mm canisters and with standard C41 developing.
In order to do this, the brothers needed to find a way to remove the remjet layer. A remjet layer is a protective layer on motion picture film that protects from light piping, scratches, static and halation of lights in exposure. It was needed for movie films that would be shot under big artificial lights, to prevent any of these effects showing up in the final movie. Films with a remjet layer also require a special ECN-2 chemical processing, which is difficult to do with the short lengths of film used for still photography processing.
This is where CineStill 800t was born! A movie film with the remjet layer removed and it is consistently one of our best selling films. It has high light sensitivity and is balanced for natural colours and skin tones under artificial light (tungsten). It is the perfect roll of film for capturing your world at night. Due to the remjet layer being removed, it creates gorgeous soft glows around artificial lighting. Photographers lean into these halations and you will often see it being used to shoot neon signs which amplify this effect.
With 50D you can achieve beautiful photographs by rating it anywhere between 12-100 ISO, without the need for push processing. So it is a great film to experiment with on sunny days. No matter how you meter, you will see almost no grain, but incredible colour, shadow detail and great rendering in the highlights. If you expose at a lower ISO you will get warmer images with greater halation in the highlights. (If you want to learn more about shooting at different ISO then check out our article "Film Speed Explained")
CineStill 400Dynamic is a daylight-balanced colour film. It is a fine grain film promising to deliver a soft colour palette with natural saturated colour, and warm, rich skin tones. The film has a wide dynamic range, with a box speed of 400 ISO but it can be rated from 200-800 and pushed up to 3200! It is a highly versatile film, suitable for virtually any lighting situation or event and can be used either outdoors or indoors under studio lighting.
Lomography is another wonderful company producing lots of different colour and experimental films. They are a great brand to try for the creative and experimental photographers amongst you! Lomography is an Austrian company that has been producing films for years, but are also very well known for their cameras such as the Diana F+ and LCA camera.
Lomography produces a range of colour negative films in 100, 400 and 800 speeds. You can expect vibrant colours and great sharpness. Choose their faster films for moderate grain and great low light performance, or opt for their color negative ISO 100 for fine grain and crisp detail.
Redscale film is a fun and creative way to experiment with colour photography. Normal colour negative film is loaded back to front in the canister, so you shoot through the back of the negative. This creates an atmospheric red glow to your images, as you shoot through the colour negative which picks up the orange-red tint of the plastic film backing. You can vary the intensity of the red hue depending what ISO you shoot it at.
Lomochrome Metropolis brings a unique grungy look to your photos. It produces destaurated, high contrast photos that have been fine tuned to mimic the colour of old-time movie theatres and photobooks- very different to the fresh colour emulsions on the market today.
Finally, Lomochrome Turquoise- this film was reintroduced earlier this year and should be arriving with us to Analogue Wonderland very soon! This film offers beautiful turquoise tones across your photographs. This was a much loved film and there was a huge amount of excitement when Lomography promised to bring it back this year!
Lomig, the creator and inventor behind one of our favourite independent film brands- Washi, has out done himself again! This year he released a beautiful colour emulsion, Washi X! Washi films include a range of speciality black and white films that have been repurposed from industry to take still photos. This includes old x ray film, surveillance films and even sound recording film! Washi X is the latest release from Lomig, it is a technical colour film with no orange mask that gives beautiful warm tones and highly saturated images.
"This kind of colour film stock is very specific because there is no orange correcting mask (invented by Kodak in 1947) which gives to the picture very rich and warm tones. It really takes us back to the days of early colour films like the first Agfacolor"
We know this article is about alternatives for shooting Kodak colour films, but black and white is still a wonderful and viable option. There is a plethora of black and white films available, all of them boasting very different looks and finishes.
Ilford is one of the most iconic names in black and white film, they have a wonderful range of black and white emulsions all the way from ISO 50 up to 3200. You can get varying grain, contrast, sharpness and a wealth of different finishes depending on what emulsion you go for. Although there may be a shortage of colour films available, this is also a great opportunity to give black and white photography a go!
You can also experiment with available black and white films by pushing them! Pushing film is where you shoot it at a higher ISO than normal to increase the films sensitivity to light. This is compensated by longer developing times, and can result in beautiful, grainy negatives. To learn more about pushing, check out our blog here.
"Silberra pan 50, camera is placed on a tripod and three frames are taken using a 720nm (near) infrared filter, then a green filter then blue. The black and white photos are then each stained their respective color and relayed together to create a color image which looks very similar to kodak aerochrome"
What is causing the colour film shortage? Firstly, this is a global issue that is affecting shooters everywhere. There are a number of reasons we are experiencing a colour film shortage at the moment: shortage of raw materials, covid related supply and shipping issues, the cost of living crisis, limited factories and film making facilities and the fact that film is incredibly complicated to produce. If you would like some more information, watch the video below where Andy Church from Kodak joined us on our YouTube channel and went into some of the problems facing the film industry right now.
And the good news is, that once Kodak get ahead with their production (fingers crossed), there will be lots more other colour films available too. Many independent film brands such as Dubblefilm, revolog, BKIFI, and Hanalogital rely on Kodak colour films for the base emulsion of their creative colourfilms. So, once supply is back on track, there should be more colour film available across the industry- no pressure Kodak!
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