INTRODUCTION
‘The Film Book’ was written by Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz and was published back in 1994. Nearly a decade have passed since it was first written, so everyone would have expect a significant improvement in film technology have progress since the book was written. In actual fact, it is true that films exist today is much better than films available back in 1994, and I believe no one want to debate about this. Although there is numerous improvements made in film technology over the years, the concept behind the film remain unchanged.
This book will provide a good start for anyone who wants to know more about choosing and using different types of films available in the market.
DESCRIPTION AND CONTENTS
‘The Film Book’ came in paperback version, slightly larger than a B5 size paper.
It consists of 160 pages and the contents in the books is as follows
01) Change Your Film and Change Your Life?
02) Terms and Conditions
03) Processing
04) Film Sizes and Packings
05) Metering and Exposure
06) Black and White Films
07) Colour Print Films
08) Colour Slide Films
09) Workroom Films and Special Techniques
10) Polaroids and Other Instant-Process Films
There are many pictures of illustrations in the book that make understanding easier.
BOOK REVIEW
CHAPTER 1
From the very start of the book, it addresses the idea of ‘Universal’ Film and ‘Semi Universal’ Film. These are terms used to describe using one type of firms for all types of purposes and one type of firms for a few purposes respectively. The writer commented on the Pros and Cons of using such ideas.
Next into discussion is the adoption of ‘Palette’ Approach, meaning photographer will use a particular type of film for a particular type of situation. This is the most extreme method of choosing film, which has the idea of getting the best effects for the situation.
The end of the chapter comes to a very important issue of choosing the best films. In the section, it might not give you the answer to which film is best to any situations, but more of an approach to get the best, in your own opinions, for any situations. The approach given is very good, but it will take some time before you will get an answer to your question. As the films available today is so much different from those available in 1994, there is no need to take any notice from the film discussed in the section. Most of it was already non-existence in the market by now.
CHAPTER 2
This chapter comes into the technical discussion of the film. It is a very dry topic that discussed about all the technical terms and principle of films of common kind. Although the book does not go into great details of every single portion, but it still takes some time to understand what it is trying to bring across. In fact, it might some basic science knowledge to know what it is talking about.
Area of discussion includes the followings,
01) Structure
02) The Emulsion
03) Multi-Layer Films
04) Colour Films
05) Emulsion Thickness
06) Speed
07) The ‘Sunny f/16’ Rule
08) Running Out of Light
09) Going Outside the ISO 100 to ISO 400 Range
10) Colour Sensitivity, Speed and Reciprocity
11) True Speed and Shadow Detail
12) Nominal, Actual and Effective Speed
13) Latitude
14) Grain
15) Sharpness
16) Contrast
17) Colour Saturation
18) Colour Balance
19) The D/LOG E Curve
20) Magic
As seen in the above lists of topics in discussion, it basically covers a very wide range of topics that relate to films in very layman terms. I have read books that go into deeper details, but are much harder to understand. This chapter is written in very easy to understand manner, and will provide reader a general ideas regarding films.
CHAPTER 3
The third chapter of the book discussed about the Film Processing.
For a start, it discussed about the way to process your film, for example like
01) Choosing a Lab
02) Mail Order
03) Reprints and Enlargements
04) Pull and Push Processing
05) Cross Processing
06) Reverse Processing
Other portion of the chapter discussed the different types of film and their process, like Colour Print Film, Colour Slide Films and Black & White Films.
This chapter will give you a general ideas of film processing of different type of films, as well as the number of processing method available to get the results you want.
Although most photographers can only send their film (Black & White film can be done personally, but need some skill and practice) to laboratory for processing, it is still good to understand the concept of film processing.
CHAPTER 4
The fourth chapter of the book discussed about the Film Size and Packings available in the market for use.
We are all very familiar with the normal 35mm film cassette we used everyday, but in fact there are many more other types of films size and packings available in the market.
CHAPTER 5
The fifth chapter of the book discussed about the technique of Metering and Exposure with different type of films, especially for Black & White, Colour Print and Colour Slide. As the nature of these films is different, exposure method tends to be slightly different.
In this chapter, some basic points were discussed, together with the introduction of some instruments like Light Meters, Fill-In Flash and Reflectors.
CHAPTER 6, 7 & 8
These 3 chapters discussed about the Black & White Films, Colour Print Films and Colour Slide Films respectively.
CHAPTER 9
This is a very interesting chapter, which talk about Workroom Films and Special Techniques. Although most of the technique discussed in this chapter will not be used for amateur photographer, it is still very good to go through the chapter to know the type of Special Techniques available in the market.
CHAPTER 10
The last chapter of the book discussed about the Polaroids and Other Instant-Process Films. It is good to notice that Instant Process Films is popular even today as a good way to review a photo. It is widely used even by professional around the world for a quick review of the exposure settings as well as composition.
SUMMARY
This might not be the best book available in the market for films, but I believe it will give a very good introduction to a very complex technology. The Film Book will not give you all the insights behind the film, and definitely not the latest film technology available in the market at the moment, which in fact is too complicated for us to appreciate.
This book is still worthy for a read through for some basic understanding. But if you are looking for greater insights, look elsewhere.