In this article we teach you what 35mm slide film is and how to shoot it. Colour slide film is used by many professional photographers as it produces the best colours.
In a world where your smartphone can crank out perfectly lit photos in cascades of computational HDR bursts, shooting film might make you feel like a caveman (or cave lady).
I totally get it! I’m not one to throw out a good iPhone shot #Instaiphone #instaapple #iOs.
Before we roll if you are interested in seeing some of the best film cameras to pair your slide film with then check out this post.
- Extremely fine grain (rms 8) film, with a lower D-min for whiter, brighter whites, and an improved tone scale.
- 3 pack Kodak Ultra Max 400 Color print film 36 exp. 35mm DX 400 135-36 (108 pics)
- Country of Origin:China
- Package weight:4.0 lb
- Package dimensions:4.32"L x 9.65"W x 19.05"H
- World's finest grain color negative film
- Extraordinary enlargement capability from a 35mm negative.
- Ultra-vivid color and optimized sharpness.
- Distinct edges and fine detail.
- Incorporates entertainment imaging's KODAK vision film technology. Micro-structure optimized t-grain emulsions.
Why shoot 35mm Slide Film?
Film photography is a completely different animal, though. It’s less of a skill and more of a craft, and it needs your love and your dedication to being an artisan. But if you want to fully understand light and how to master it in your photography, then this is the medium for you.
Fundamentally, photography is about building an image in your head before pushing that button. Shooting film teaches you to do that – by force because there is simply no way to review the image. Your mistakes are costly and permanent. So, you should think about every aspect of the image before hitting that shutter button. After your first few rolls, your spidey senses will start to tingle, and you’ll start to notice clouds moving in front of the sun, light sources that you’d otherwise stroll past and other little details that will make or break your images. Your skills will improve by leaps and bounds.
If you’d like to read more about why shooting film is magical – I’ve written an article about it here: why shoot film?
Positive vs Negative Film?
Do you remember nervously flipping through National Geographic magazine when you were waiting at the dentist as a kid? Most of those (now probably traumatic) images were shot with slide film. Kodachrome film — discontinued back in 2009, but never forgotten — is one of the most superior films of all time.
Related: We have reviewed the best 35mm film available today here.
Ektachrome, a slide film from Kodak, became extremely popular with National Geographic photographers, on account of the rich colours and fine grain. Those visits to the dentist and the beauty of Ektachrome inspired me to start taking photos all those years ago.
A regular colour film, or print film, produces a negative colour film that when displayed through an enlarger allows you to print the positive colour image. However, when prints or scans are done from negative colour film, there is a massive variance in how the final images turn out. Each print shop gives a slightly different result based on the chemicals they use to convert the negatives into a positive image
Slide film, or colour reversal film, produces colour positive transparencies, or, more simply, slides. They can be loaded directly into a projector and displayed as is. What you see on the film is what you get. It’s a professional grade film with vibrant colours, contrast, sharpness and very fine grain.
You can also check out our How To Load Film here.
As such, you’ll need to be familiar with your camera to use it. Black and white film has 5 stops of dynamic range (latitude). This means you can forget to set the exposure and still end up with an image. Colour negative film has a 3 stop range. But slide film only has 1.5 stops of dynamic range, so you need to make conscious decisions about what to meter for in the image.
Advantages of colour slide film
- The colour and contrast that comes from slide film are second to none. Even modern digital cameras, namely Fuji cameras, include built-in film simulations to replicate the look produced by these films. Nice try, but nothing is better than the real thing.
- Being able to see the results is a huge advantage. You can pick up the film and see exactly how the images turned out. You can then scan them directly, take photos of them or use them in a projector.
- Slide film lasts forever. It’s the ‘80s Toyota Land Cruiser of film. We’ve all found boxes of photos at home that are faded, creased and full of mystery stains. Well, slide film will sit quite happily in a box for years without any loss of colour, contrast or quality.
- You can cross process, which means developing the slide film using the C-41 method. This can produce some funky colours. Anyone who’s spent at least 5 minutes on Instagram will know all about filters. Well, those faded, blue-toned, “washed out” images were originally created by cross processing slide film.
Disadvantages of shooting 35mm slides
- Slide film only has around 1.5 stops of latitude. This means that a slight over (or under) exposure could make you lose all of the information in the highlights (or shadows).
- It is expensive! These days it is getting harder and harder to get your hands on slide film, and when you do, you might need to dip into your children’s college fund.
- Once you have it, you need to find someone that can develop it. You need to search for a lab that can do E6 development. Don’t worry. There are also a lot of mail-in services that are available, just look online — or you can go all-in and learn developing film at home.
- It’s not your everyday film as sometimes the saturated colours are just too wild. For example, Fuji Velvia is great for landscape shooting, but if used inside for portraits, you’ll end up with some strange colour casts. Grandma’s 60th birthday photos might have her looking like Snooki from Jersey Shore.
Let’s face it, shooting film isn’t for everyone and slide film is a bit of a black sheep. But if you, like me, love learning all things photography, shooting slide film is a must.
Lessons from Shooting Slide
Low light is difficult. Unless you are confident about your ability to measure the light, you’re not going to have a good time. Most slide film is ASA 200 or lower. This gives fine grain, excellent colour and contrast, but slow shutter speeds.
If you are shooting people, then err on slightly underexposing the background and adding a bit of light to the subject. To do that, you can use a flash, a reflector or even a cell phone light.
In the beginning, try to bracket your images. Take one photo a half a stop underexposed then shoot again, half a stop overexposed. This will ensure that you’ll get something usable in the end.
Bright sunny days naturally have a wide dynamic range. The difference between the brightest brights and the shadows can be over 10 stops. You need to decide if you want to lose the shadows or the sky. The earlier you think like this, the more keepers you’ll get.
The Best Slide Films You Can Buy in 2026
Here’s the honest state of slide film today: only three colour reversal stocks are still in production. Fujifilm has trimmed its once-mighty lineup down to two slide films (and even those disappear from shelves for months at a time — when you see stock, buy it), while Kodak’s revived Ektachrome has gone from comeback story to the most reliably available slide film you can buy. Velvia 100 is no longer sold in the US. Everything else — Astia, Provia 400X, Elite Chrome and friends — is expired-roll territory on eBay.
Kodak Ektachrome E100
The film that started my whole photography journey via the pages of National Geographic, brought back from the dead by Kodak in 2018 and still going strong. E100 gives you clean, vibrant-but-believable colour, very fine grain, and a slightly cool, neutral rendering. It’s the easiest of the three to actually find in stock, which in 2026 counts for a lot. If you’re shooting your first-ever roll of slide film, start here. Check price and availability here.
Fujichrome Provia 100F
The film I shot my first slide rolls on — every photo on this page is Provia 100F. It’s the all-rounder of the pair: accurate, natural colour, fine grain, and the most forgiving exposure latitude you’ll get from any slide film (which is still not very forgiving — meter carefully). It also handles long exposures unusually well. Check price and availability here.
Fujichrome Velvia 50
The legend. Velvia 50 is the in-camera equivalent of pushing the saturation slider to the right — impossibly rich greens, glowing reds, and ultra-fine grain that landscape photographers have sworn by for three decades. It is a specialist tool: magic for landscapes in good light, unkind to skin tones, and slow at ISO 50, so pack a tripod for golden hour. Check price and availability here.
All three earn a place in our guide to the best 35mm film, where we compare them against the colour negative and black and white stocks we’ve shot.
Final Words
It’s clear that shooting slide film isn’t for everyone. However, I’ve learned that there’s something very special about holding those developed slides in your hand. Knowing that you’ve carefully captured these images and they’re now printed directly onto the film is astounding. It’s simply analogue photography at its finest.
So, thank you very much for reading this far into our slide film adventure. As usual, we would like to put out a challenge to our readers. If you have a film camera lying around, then please pick up a roll of slide film and shoot. You’ll be more careful in taking the images, more thoughtful about the compositions and more impressed with the results.
Check out one of the best film scanner for more information on how to digitise these slides.
My First Roll
