I’m frequently asked about my thought process when it comes to selecting a specific film type for a scene. I already have a regularly updated article on color film choices, but I think it’s worth expanding a bit into what actually goes through my head in the field and why I reach for a certain film. In many ways, this topic will be highly subjective and frequently comes down to a “gut feel” on location, but I’m going to attempt to distill my thoughts and provide some useful insight to help you choose the right film for a particular image. If you haven’t yet read my article on color film choices, you may want to do so first as it speaks about the qualities of each film type.

The Sheet Film Advantage

First of all, it’s important to point out the benefits of using sheets when it comes to experimenting with different film types. There is no commitment to an entire roll, so it’s easy to change the film type with every shot and even photograph the same scene on different films in just seconds. Of course there are medium format cameras that have changing film backs which allow for the same thing, but I’m not sure how many people are actually carrying around multiple film types loaded in several backs at once. In my day hiking backpack I generally have access to five different film stocks (Velvia 50, Provia, E100, Ektar, and Portra 160), and when it comes to backpacking I narrow that down to just two for ease of packing extra film in boxes. It’s truly a buffet of options at my disposal for most hikes.

“Montana Pond Morning” - Velvia 50 4x5, 90mm lens - 1/2 second at f22, no filters. Having a variety of film types ready to use allows me to constantly experiment and see different results. Prints available.

This allows me to make a decision at the very moment of shooting, rather than some previous time when loading a roll. I can consider several factors and reach for the film I want just for that image, and often I will shoot on multiple types. Sometimes I do this just to have a backup. Not that I ever really have problems, but for a critical image it can be comforting to have a sheet of color negative and slide which will be stored in separate boxes and developed in separate batches. Other times I just want to see an image on two different film types. I’m still figuring out what all I can do with the new E100 (as it turns out, pretty much anything!) and even though my experience with these film types is extensive it’s nice to just try something different occasionally.

“Black Canyon Sunset” - E100 4x5, 75mm lens - 5 seconds at f32, no filters. E100 showing off its impressive capabilities in very dynamic light. Prints available.

Since most people reading this will likely be shooting rolls and need to commit to one film type for several images, we should take that into consideration. Generally speaking, I stick with safer films that can handle a greater range of contrast when thinking of rolls. Negative films and E100 for slide are great choices, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use some of the Fuji offerings. When writing this article, I will inherently be coming from the perspective of someone who can change film with every shot, but will also make notes to help out roll film users. Roll film also comes in a greater variety of options, as well as some high speed types that are helpful for handheld use.

“Read” the Scene

Before we can think about which film to use, we need to consider what we are photographing and how we want it to look. Consider the environment: is it a grand landscape with sky or an intimate forest scene? Contemplate the light: is it the soft glow of twilight or harsh late-morning light? And finally, what is the desired end result: high contrast, powerful color, or endless subtleties and lower contrast?

“Bowman View” - Ektar 100 4x5, 75mm lens - 1/4 second at f16, 2 stop soft GND filter. Think about the variations in brightness throughout an image. A dynamic scene like this has everything from dark greens in the forest to bright sunset skies, so a film like Ektar is a good choice to handle the extremes of contrast. Prints available.

I think one issue people have with reading a scene is that it’s not always a very mathematical process, in fact for me it is not at all. As soon as I find something interesting, I generally have a good idea of how I want it to come out and which film(s) might work best. But this has come from years of experience, which in all honesty I did through experimentation rather than precise metering and crunching of numbers. As many of you know, I also use an old small digital camera to do all of my metering and composition finding. My metering process really is this simple: point camera at scene in average meter mode, shoot image at the settings the camera tells me. I will fiddle around a bit with exposure compensation (such as +1 or higher for snow) but really that’s about it. I spend very little time metering a scene, and don’t meter all around the place aside from images that require obvious GND filter use due to bright sky and dark foreground.

An example of the histogram views I may see on my digital light metering camera. Even if you don’t use my metering method, an app such as *Light Meter* for Android will show you a real-time histogram view. Point it and a pile of autumn leaves and you’ll see a nice bell curve like the example on the left, point it upward and include some sky and you’ll see the graph spread out as seen on the right.

Now, there is one caveat that I have discovered in recent years. Since my digital metering camera is so old (circa 2012), the electronic viewfinder is really quite lousy. This works to my advantage as the dynamic range is so terrible that it perfectly mimics slide film. I actually end up using the viewfinder to judge the brightness and overall look of a scene, and this just plain doesn’t work with newer digital cameras that have way more dynamic range in the viewfinder and appear closer to our eyesight. If you’re using a newer digital camera to do my light metering method, you’ll have to judge a scene based on the histogram rather than the viewfinder or the LCD on the back of the camera. For example, a slide film might be a better choice if the histogram shows a nice bell curve that only takes up a portion of the graph. If the histogram shows a wide range of peaks all over the entire graph, you’ll be better off choosing a negative film to handle all the contrast. This leads us to our next topic in choosing the film for your scene:

Slide or Negative?

The biggest choice when it comes to a color film is whether you want to go with slide (E6) or negative (C41) film as these two have wildly different characteristics. For me, there are really just two main factors that make me choose one over the other: color accuracy and dynamic range. Slides excel at color accuracy and are easy to scan, but are very limited when it comes to dynamic range. Color negatives can handle a huge range of contrast, but color accuracy is more of a challenge and you’ll likely have to fiddle with them more while scanning.

“Matanuska Autumn” - Example showing the difference in dynamic range between Ektar and E100. Even though Ektachrome is quite impressive, my pick for this image was the Ektar sheet as the extra shadow detail in the foreground really pulled the image together. **Prints available.**

Color Accuracy

In my opinion, the most difficult colors to nail on negative film are in the cyan to blue range. Colors such as a glacial lake (a unique range of greens to blues), the cyan hail core inside of a thunderstorm, or even just general blue sky can be the hardest to get right on Ektar and Portra. It’s very possible that this is subjective, and some photographers may find more struggles with other hues. Slides may exaggerate the saturation of many colors, but the hues - once white balance is taken into consideration - are often quite realistic especially in relation to other delicate hues in the scene. This can also be helpful when photographing a scene with a lot of similar colors in soft light, such as autumn leaves littered on the ground in shade. With a negative, it can be difficult to pick apart all the nearby colors tones when inverting the scan, and the extremely low contrast of the scene amplifies the problem. A slide film makes this kind of photography as easy as possible. Shaded, soft light intimate nature scenes are the one time where I won’t even bother trying a negative film unless that were all I had with me.

“Desert Maples” - Provia 100f 4x5, 125mm lens - 4 second at f32, 81b warming filter. Slide film is an absolute win when it comes to capturing the fine details and minor color variations of nature closeups. Prints available.

So in short; if color accuracy and the separation of similar color hues is a top priority a slide film is probably going to be a great choice.

Dynamic Range

The other huge factor is the dynamic range you want to capture in your image. Strong sunlight makes for some very intense shadows in the middle of the day and even into golden hour. Slide film has a very poor dynamic range, usually only about 5 stops while maintaining detail and color. Negative films can handle so much more. I really don’t have the methods to test this, and the extremes of what is considered “acceptable” for detail can be rather subjective, but negatives often can handle roughly twice the dynamic range. Most of the added detail is in the highlights, which is why it’s generally safe to overexpose negatives.

You can choose to meter around the scene to see what sort of dynamic range you’re working with, or you can go with a gut feel. I use a mix of experience along with my digital metering camera’s viewfinder to judge the contrast of a landscape. Just because it’s midday doesn’t mean you can’t use a slide, but just be aware that you may have to sacrifice something either in the shadows or highlights. The choice of which is more important will be up to you. An evenly lit midday scene with no huge areas of shadow (think like a field of golden wheat against blue sky) doesn’t actually have very much contrast so a slide can work wonders here for punchy colors and a rich blue sky.

“Grain and Sky” - Provia 100f 4x5, 210mm lens - 1/15th second at f22, no filters. An example of midday light (right around noon) that doesn’t have all that much contrast because there are no large shadow areas. Fuji slides have a beautiful way of capture blue sky, so Provia was a perfect choice. Prints available.

If you’re working with harsh backlight in the forest or deep mountain valleys with tons of shade and a bright sky, you’ll probably be safer shooting a negative film. And don’t forget that we can also use GND filters to help mitigate contrast problems!

Ektachrome (E100): The Wildcard

While we haven’t really gotten to individual film types yet, I think it’s worth taking a moment to talk about E100. To me, it seems to bridge the gap between slide and negative. While you don’t get as much punch from the saturation as Fuji slides, the colors are still accurate. However, the dynamic range is just crazy particularly in the highlights (for a slide). In some ways it’s sort of a slide film that behaves like a negative. It has enough color and contrast to work very well for low contrast intimate scenes, but it can also easily tackle more intense golden hour light. Just like a negative, as the highlights get extremely overexposed the color saturation will fade away but the details and textures hold up very well. I’ve written a full blog post about this film that may be worth your time, but keep this one in mind if you want the look of a slide but want a little more flexibility when it comes to contrast.

“Ruby Range Sunbeam” - E100 4x5, 200mm lens - 1/2 second at f32, no filters. With such intense range of contrast in this scene, I was surprised to see any detail in the highlights on a slide film. You can notice that there isn’t much color saturation in the clouds, but the texture is still there. Prints available.

Which Film Stock?

Now that we have an idea of which scenes may work best for a slide or negative, how do we choose the best film stock for the scene? While my other film choice article talks about each film’s qualities, this time we’re going to cover types of scenes and I’ll mention my ideal film picks. This should be a good exercise to discuss practical shooting situations and my approach to choosing a film.

General Landscape and Mixed Use

I’m going to start by thinking about those who use roll film, or people who want to keep their film situation simple by only carrying one or two types. I often do this while backpacking just to keep the number of boxes I need to carry down. My general preference is to carry one slide film and one negative film, and I think this would be a good strategy for most roll film shooters as well. After a few years of shooting the new Ektachrome, it handily wins for a general purpose slide. Enough saturation and contrast to handle closeup nature details, plenty of dynamic range to make those grand scenic images sing.

“Nebo Paintbrush” - E100 4x5, 75mm lens - 1/8th second at f22, 812 filter. E100 makes a solid slide choice for general purpose landscape photography throughout the day. Prints available.

For a negative film? Ektar is my go to for a mountain backpacking trip where I want more saturation from the meadows, forests, and high peaks of these varied landscapes. Portra is more likely to be my negative film choice if I want subdued saturation. This works well in mountains made of light colored stone, the desert, and the prairie. These are times when Ektar’s wild color casts can be a little less desirable. People have more trouble making Ektar scans work the way they want to, so if you’re new to film I think Portra is a more friendly choice to a beginner in either the 160 or 400 flavor.

“Nahsukin Sunset” - Ektar 100 4x5, 200mm lens - 1 second at f32, 2 stop soft GND filter. Ektar is generally my choice for a negative film when backpacking, though for some mountain ranges I may choose Portra. **Prints available**.

Golden Hour and Sunset

For many sunsets, my personal preference is to shoot a sheet of E100 and Ektar. I often just like to see both, even though I very rarely do anything with both sheets. Once I see one that provides the desired results, I scan it and never touch the other one. It seems to be about 50/50 that I go with the slide result or the negative for these types of scenes. The slide is easily judged on the light table, and if it falls short in shadow or highlight detail my general process is to just skip it and move on to the negative for scanning. The added benefit of this is that I have a slide to use for color reference, and E100 has a color palette that runs surprisingly close to my interpretation of negative film.

Shooting both is going to be impractical for most roll film shooters, so my advice would be to go with the one you’re most confident in for the dynamic light of golden hour and sunset. Some people gravitate more towards slides due to the easy scanning process, and others prefer negative film because exposure errors are much more forgiving. Once again, E100 and Ektar will win as my two choices, with Portra being excellent if you prefer a bit less saturation.

“Pawnee Yucca Sunset” - Ektar 100 4x5, 90mm lens - 2 seconds at f22, 2 stop soft GND filter. A negative film like Ektar can do a great job of maintaining luminosity and color saturation throughout a huge range of contrast, making it perfect for vibrant sunsets with a relatively dark landscape. A graduated ND filter was still used to control sky brightness. **Prints available.**

Intimate Nature and Forests

These are the scenes under even light, usually in shade or cloud cover. There shouldn’t be a whole lot of contrast, so for this reason I typically only work with slide film for these images. Even films like Velvia and Provia can easily work under soft light, and the extra punch of color looks great. For autumn foliage in particular I will reach for either of the Fuji slides, there is something special about the way they render those intense leaf colors against white aspen trees. E100 is a good alternative if you can’t get your hand on either of the Fuji offerings.

“Moose Creek” - E100 4x5, 125mm lens - 1/4 second at f22, 812 filter. A slide film is great for this soft, shaded, even light. While Provia or Velvia would have been a good choice, E100 was what I had with me on this long backcountry trip and the results were exactly what I hoped for. **Prints available**.

Since the contrast is so low and the delicate colors of utmost importance, I don’t even consider negative film for these images unless it were all I had on me. Achieving the perfect color and contrast when scanning a negative can be really challenging when there isn’t much separation in tones to start with.

Twilight

Once the sun sets under fairly clear skies and a few more minutes go by, the landscape starts to glow with warm hues and incredibly soft light with minimal shadows. This lovely light is best seen when looking away from the sunset or at least towards the side, you won’t really see any twilight glow if you look in the direction of the setting sun. Due to the low contrast nature of this light, I tend to lean on slide films. Provia is an absolute champ in this situation since it doesn’t need any adjustment for reciprocity as the exposures get long. E100 is also a great second choice, with a more natural color palette and less exaggerated magenta hues when compared to Provia or Velvia. Since twilight is also known as the “blue hour,” the color palette can get very cool in tone. With Provia I will use an 81B filter, and with E100 I go with an 812 filter.

You can certainly go with a negative film for twilight, but keep in mind that the colors can get a little wonky as the exposures get long. The reciprocity failure is quite terrible for negatives, often requiring a doubling of exposure time at a meter reading of just 30 seconds. Make sure to add extra exposure time to account for this, and consider using Portra rather than Ektar to reduce some extreme color casts in the shadows. I’ve had success with many Portra images at twilight.

“Elevator Twilight” - Portra 160 4x5, 210mm lens - 10 minutes at f22, no filters. The glow from a nearby bar combined with twilight made for some strong colors on this long exposure image. My meter was reading closer to 3 minutes, but as light faded I just kept adding time. Prints available.

Reflected Canyon Light

This is another situation where I don’t really consider negative films. This is that magical glowing light that happens inside canyons, where direct sun is hitting one red wall but we are photographing the other canyon wall that is catching the reflected light. This light is warm and casts warm colors onto an already red-orange rock. With so many delicate hues in one narrow band, it’s hard to pull it all out of negative film when scanning. Just go with whatever slide you can get your hand on, with my preference being the Fuji offerings. Nothing quite extracts all the blue, red, and magenta colors of canyon country the way Provia or Velvia do.

“Canyon Cottonwood Glow” - Velvia 50 4x5, 200mm lens - 2 seconds at f22, no filters. Velvia pulls some wild colors out of canyon country, from blue in the shadows up to warm oranges and magentas in the reflected light. Prints available.

Grand Desert Scenes

The desert is often a land of harsh and cloudless light, but I find the contrast to be not as extreme as landscapes with more vegetation. There are a lot of rocks and twisted juniper tree skeletons that are close in brightness, so to me the desert works well on both types of film with a slight lean towards slide. Around sunrise and sunset the shadows calm down and it’s easy to use Provia or Velvia, sometimes with a GND filter to help reduce sky exposure. On sand dunes I rely heavily on slide film to reveal the endless textures and tiny variations of contrast in ripples and patterns of sand.

“Sweeping Dunes” - Provia 100f 4x5, 210mm lens - 1/4 second at f32, warming polarizing filter. Slide film is excellent for strong shadows and detailed texture in sand ripples. Prints available.

In desert environments with more varied light, deep shadows, and dark canyons, a negative film can be a very good choice. Expose with the shadows in mind and let the highlights melt away into the endless dynamic range for a bright, hot, desert feel. Ektar or Portra do well here, that will be up to your color saturation preference.

“Chisos Sunset” - Portra 160 4x5, 200mm lens - 1/2 second at f22, no filters. Even shooting straight into the sun was no problem for a film like Portra. Prints available.

Grand Mountain Scenes

Mountain scenes with sky often include light toned rocks near the peaks, patches of snow, brilliant sky, and dark green forests down below the treeline. This can be truly overwhelming when it comes to dynamic range, and the varied shapes of peaks can create challenges for using GND filters. For mountain scenes I encourage people to seek out quality light. Think about the angle of light at sunrise and sunset, and how that will spill onto the landscape. It’s very hard to shoot into the sunset with a dark unlit peak looming overhead, so try to position yourself in areas where the mountain in view will catch the final minutes of sunlight.

“Pocket Lake Sunset” - Ektar 100 4x5, 75mm lens - 1 second at f32, no filters. I prefer not to use any filters when the sun might graze the lens to prevent flare issues. I had good confidence that Ektar could do the trick without a GND filter and it came through as expected even in such crazy light conditions. **Prints available.**

Even in the best of light, you will still probably want to seek out a film that has an extended dynamic range. Negative films like Ektar are extremely useful here, and if you just wanted to bring one type of roll film on a backpacking trip you really couldn’t go wrong with Ektar. Don’t let the shadows get too dark, as you can find unreasonably saturated green forests and blue valleys. Let the extended highlight range take care of the mountain peaks and sky details.

If you want to roll with the look of a slide film, E100 is a big winner in the mountains. Natural greens, warm sunset hues, and a few extra stops of dynamic range in the highlights than anything from Fuji. I have pretty much stopped carrying Fuji slides on my backpacking trips as E100 continues to amaze me.

Snow

Snow is a good time to think about subtleties in the highlights, so a film with less color saturation can be very rewarding here. E100 (with the 812 filter that I normally shoot it with) renders snow scenes like nothing I’ve ever seen before. A true white with lovely fine textures, and the deep blue skies of a slide film. Every time I use this film in the winter I’m happy with the results.

Portra is a great negative option, with Ektar being likely to introduce unwanted colors in snow scenes. If I’m working with a mountain scene that has a mix of deep shadows and sunlit snow, I’ll probably reach for some Portra over a slide so I can feel safe that the full range of contrast will be captured. No matter which film you choose for snow, don’t forget to add a significant amount of exposure to make it appear nice and bright.

“Railcar Fog” - Portra 160 4x5, 210mm lens - 1/4 second at f32, no filters. With its soft rendering of highlight details and low saturation, Portra is an excellent negative choice for the winter. Prints available.

Does any of this matter if you’re going to scan and edit after shooting?

Of course it does! Otherwise I wouldn’t carry all of these film types around. The difference between a negative and a slide is just plain huge, so it’s always worth carrying one of each for my style of landscape photography. Does it matter so much which exact film you decide to go with? That’s a bit more subjective.

The difference between Velvia and Provia is notable, but could probably be virtually removed by someone who is handy at Photoshop. Fuji slides have a similar look, both leaning heavily on the color magenta and a hearty approach to color saturation. If you like that level of magenta, you’ll be very happy with Fuji slides, but it can be really hard to reduce that hue while maintaining an image that makes sense to the eyes. E100 is such a different animal. Just put a sheet on a light table and you can see it looks a bit more flat in comparison, more subtle saturation and neutral color. Once scanned, Ektachrome seems to be much more workable since it doesn’t rely so heavily on magenta. You have a little more freedom to correct color balance and add contrast to taste, since it’s always easier to increase contrast and very hard to reduce if the film was already a bit crunchy.

Different compositions, but the same scene and light on two film types. Notice how different they look, and how truly magenta the Velvia slide is. If you decide you don’t care for a boat load of magenta, I find it very difficult to reduce after scanning. E100 is much more workable.

The differences between color negative stocks may be a bit more blurry. While Ektar is certainly more colorful than Portra, a delicate touch could probably make them look fairly similar when scanning. I still find them different enough to choose one over the other for various images as outlined in this article. And don’t forget that your exposure choice does a lot to the color saturation of negatives; overexpose for creamier, soft color and underexpose for intense saturation.

Too Long, Didn’t Read:

Well, if you made it this far and just want the skinny on which film to cram into your camera… get some Portra and have a great day! It’s extremely versatile and there is something to be said about limiting yourself to just one film. You’ll learn everything about it and become a master.