Black and White Film Types for Film Photography

There are a number of black and white (b&w) films available for 35mm film cameras and medium format film cameras that can still be found in film photography stores. While there are also a number of special films that require unique processing, it would be best to work with the basic black and white film types and learn how the film works before using these special films. The two major brands of black and white films are Kodak and Ilford. Unfortunately, the best advice for any beginner using black and white film, like color film or slide film, would be to try a variety of brands and subtypes within those brands to find the right film for you.

How Black and White Film Works for Film Photography

The image on a black and white film negative is actually the inverse of the actual image. That is to say, all the areas that show white on the negative will be black on the print, and all black areas of the negative will show white. When printing onto photo paper, light is able to pass through the white areas of the negative, resulting in more light hitting the paper, and leading to a dark spot. Of course, black areas of the negative are the opposite, results in less light hitting the paper to produce a light spot.

Simple black and white films are made of three layers. First, there is a light-sensitive emulsion layer that captures the image that will result in the film negative after processing. The emulsion contains grains of silver salt that are able to absorb light and react with a developing chemical to break down into pure silver and remove to reveal an image on the negative. Second is a layer of plastic to support the emulsion. Third is an anti-halation layer that is used to capture light and refrain it from bouncing back to the emulsion. This final layer eliminates blurry images or foggy film.

The amount of grain helps make black and white film that is more or less sensitive to the light. Fine grain film will require more light to produce an image and large grains will require less light to produce an image. The amount of grains on the film help determine the ISO film speed of the black and white film. Fine grain leads to slow film and large grain leads to fast film. To learn more, please see the ISO film speed page of this website.

Black and White Film Brands and Types

Brand	Name	ISO	Grain	Notes
Ilford	Pan F	50	Extremely Fine	Very fine detail and lack of grain; good for fine art photography.
Kodak	T-Max 100	100	Extremely Fine	General purpose film, narrow exposure range.
Ilford	Delta-100	100	Fine	General purpose film, wide exposure range.
Kodak	Plus X	125	Fine	General purpose film, slightly flexible.
Ilford	FP 4	125	Very Fine	Can be underexposed by 2-stops or overexposed by 6-stops.
Kodak	Tri X	400	Fine	Ideal for low-light or outdoor scenes, can be pushed 2-stops.
Kodak	T-Max 400	400	Fine	Dim lighting or fast action, can be pushed 2-stops.
Ilford	HP5	400	Fine	Ideal for low-light or outdoor scenes, can be pushed to 3200.
Ilford	Delta-400	400	Fine	Flexible film for fine art photography.
Kodak	T-Max	1200	Fine	Designed to be pushed to 3200 film speed.
Ilford	Delta-3200	1200	Fine	Designed to be pushed to 3200 film speed.

Black and white film is also available in C-41 processing films. This is not true black and white film and will not give you good results and should be avoided at all costs. If you plan to create or have a black and white darkroom, you will not be able to process this film with standard black and white processing and will have difficulties printing it as it is color-based emulsions.