Photographic film

Photographic film is a flexible roll or sheet coated with a light-sensitive emulsion that records an image through exposure to light. In most traditional films, development converts the latent image into a visible negative or positive.

Silver halide: A light-sensitive family of silver compounds used in photographic emulsions to form latent images. Silver halide crystals are the principal light-sensitive ingredient in most black-and-white and color films.
Photographic emulsion: A light-sensitive coating containing silver halide crystals or other photosensitive compounds suspended in a binder. The emulsion is the layer where exposure records the photographic image.
Color negative film: Color film that records a scene as complementary colors and tones reversed from the final positive image. It is designed for making color prints and tolerates a relatively wide range of exposure.
Digital photography: Photography that captures images as electronic data using an image sensor. Unlike film, digital capture stores sensor measurements as data rather than a chemical image.
Eastman Kodak Company: An American photography company founded by George Eastman that helped popularize roll film and consumer cameras. Kodak commercialized roll-film systems that made photography accessible beyond specialist practitioners.
Latent image: An invisible change in a photosensitive material caused by exposure to light or other radiation. Exposure creates this image within the film before chemical processing makes it visible.
Film base: The transparent or translucent support on which a photographic emulsion is coated. Its flexibility, stability, and thickness determine how film can be stored and transported.
Reversal film: Film processed to produce a positive image directly on the original film, often as a slide. It provides a viewable positive transparency rather than a color negative.
Image sensor: An electronic device that converts incoming light into electrical signals for image capture. A sensor replaces the emulsion as the light-recording surface in digital cameras.
George Eastman: An American inventor and entrepreneur who developed practical roll-film photography and founded Kodak. His roll-film innovations helped replace cumbersome plate-based photographic workflows.

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