How does film work?

To put it as simply as possible, film is a very thin plastic medium made up of several layers. One or more layers is a gelatin based solution containing silver halide (among other things) called an emulsion. When light hits the emulsion it turns the silver halide into silver crystals. These grains of silver create the latent image. The development process washes away the excess or unused silver halide and makes what was exposed permanent. There’s a lot more going on there, but that’s the gist of it.

Is this what gives film that unique look?

Yes! The crystals of silver are incredibly small so at our scale the chemical reaction has created an image we can see as whatever the subject of our photo is. When you zoom in say 100x into a film negative you can start to see the individual grains of silver which made up the picture. This is the origin of the term ‘grain’ when referencing photos whether digital or analog.

How long does it take to develop film?

This varies. Right around the bleeding edge when digital photography started to make it’s rise it wasn’t uncommon to see big box stores offer services as quick as 1 hour. These days, with the complete dominance of digital photography, photo labs are few and far between. Some labs can be as quick as same day while others may take as long as a week. There is usually a different price point for each speed of service. I am hoping to begin home development once it becomes viable to do so.

Ok, so how much do you charge?

This varies. The price of film has a wide range depending on type or brand, black and white or colour, or film format. The price also varies depending on what quality of scans you want or whether or not you want physical prints (think pictures in paper envelope like back in the day). Furthermore, there is the overhead cost for getting to and from a location along with equipment costs such as camera, computer, software, etc. What I can say is that just the cost of the photo-lab itself can be anywhere from $20-40 per roll. The cost of film starts around $9 per roll and can be as much as $22 per roll. My hourly rate can be negotiable but would need to be enough for me to cover things like fuel, equipment maintenance, software, editing time, etc. In any case, we can certainly work something out well ahead of time so that expectations are well formulated prior to the start of any work.

It’s never fun to talk about compensation, but the reality is that this sort of thing costs money to do. That being said, I am always open to chat about what we can do to achieve our common goal - taking fun, unique, pictures!