Exposure Time
Exposure time is the length of time light can fall onto the film. Depending on the camera, the exposure time can be very short or also long.
Example: 1/1000 second is shorter than 1/2 second
Aperture
The aperture regulates how much light falls through the lens onto the film. A large aperture, through which a lot of light passes, is described with a small aperture number (f-number). With a small aperture, the aperture number is large.
Example: At an aperture number of f/2, more light falls onto the film than at an aperture number of f/16
Bulb
Many analog cameras have a Bulb mode or simply “B” mode. This allows for long exposures. On most cameras, the shutter remains open and light falls onto the film as long as the shutter button is pressed.
C-41
C-41 is a standardized development process for color negative films. The name comes from Kodak. Depending on the manufacturer, it has a different name, e.g. CN-16 (Fujifilm) or AP-70 (Agfa).
You can also process slide films, which are normally developed in the E6 process, in C-41, keyword cross-processing. Depending on the film, you get strong contrasts, high color saturation, and/or color shifts this way.
You don’t necessarily have to send your color films to a lab for development; processing at home is also possible.
For this, special sets are offered, e.g. by Rollei (Digibase C41) or Tetenal (Colortec C-41).
However, developing color films is somewhat more demanding than processing black and white films.
You should have some experience or read up on it beforehand and familiarise yourself with the subject matter.
Cross-processing
Cross-processing (crossing, x-pro) involves processing a film in a different development process.
Most often, this term is associated with developing slide films in C-41.
Many of the typical Lomo photos were created this way.
Double Exposure/Multiple Exposure
With double exposure, the film is exposed twice.
This can create very interesting shots by overlaying different subjects using this method.
In principle, multiple exposure is the same thing, but this term is used when the same piece of film is exposed more than twice.
Another term in this context is “MX”, which simply stands for “multi exposure”.
E6
The E6 process is a development process for reversal films (slide films) to get color slides.
Expired
Expired films are films that have gone past their expiration date, meaning they have exceeded their best before date.
While films don’t go bad in the sense of food, they can change over time.
So you should expect things like color shifts, coarse grain, lower sensitivity, and the like.
As a rule of thumb, you can say the higher the sensitivity, the faster a film loses it.
Depending on storage, expired films can still deliver top results well beyond the BBD (Best Before Date).
You can continue to use expired films, but you should expect not necessarily to get the advertised characteristics.
The exciting thing about the whole matter is the surprise; you can get really great pictures or just junk.
ISO
The ISO value indicates the light sensitivity of the recording medium, i.e. the film or, in digital photography, the sensor. The higher this value is, the less light is needed to get a correctly exposed image.
For everyday photography, you usually choose something in the range of 100 to 400. Especially in film-based photography, however, you can also push a film to ISO 3200 and more, or just shoot a redscale film at ISO 12.
A disadvantage of film photography, however, is that you cannot simply change the ISO value in the middle of the film.
In digital photography, you can simply take a photo at ISO 100 and choose ISO 6400 for the next one. When shooting with film, you have to decide at the beginning and then shoot the entire roll of film at that sensitivity. Depending on the film, a different sensitivity is indicated, which you set on your camera.
But you can also overexpose or underexpose a film, for example, by exposing a black and white film at ISO 1600 instead of ISO 400. In this case, however, you should also develop it accordingly, either slightly longer or shorter.
Rodinal
Rodinal is a black and white developer from Agfa. Rodinal is no longer sold under the name Rodinal today.
However, the developer is still produced. You can buy it under various names, including Adox Adonal or R09 One Shot.
Vignetting
Vignetting usually refers to a darkening of the corners of an image. While this is usually considered an optical aberration, it can also give an image a certain something and draw the viewer to the center of the image.
A typical camera that produces vignetting or is known for it is the Lomo LC-A+. In general, vignetting is a popular stylistic device in Lomography.
