Film Photography & TLR Cameras
A 19-lesson mini-course. Start from the physics of light, work through optics and exposure, trace the history of photography to the twin-lens reflex, then follow your film from shutter click to finished print.
Unit 1 — Light & Optics
- 01What Is Light? Electromagnetic spectrum, visible light, color temperature, and why it all matters for photography.
- 02How Lenses Form Images From pinhole to refraction to multi-element designs. Focal length, magnification, and the thin lens equation.
- 03Lens Design & Manufacturing Triplets, Tessars, Planars — how lens formulas evolved. Grinding, polishing, coatings, and quality control.
- 04Aperture The mechanical iris, f-stop numbers, depth of field, and how aperture shapes your image.
Unit 2 — Capturing Light
- 05The Shutter Leaf vs focal-plane, mechanical escapements, flash sync, and why TLR shutters are special.
- 06The Exposure Equation Stops, reciprocity, equivalent exposures, and the elegant math behind every photograph.
- 07Measuring Light Light meters, reflected vs incident metering, exposure value, and the history of the EV system.
- 08Film — The Chemistry of Silver Silver halides, emulsion layers, latent image formation, and what ISO really means.
Unit 3 — A History of Seeing
- 09Before Photography Camera obscura, Niépce, Daguerre, wet plate collodion, and the race to capture light permanently.
- 10The Birth of Portable Photography George Eastman, the Kodak Brownie, roll film, 35mm, and how cameras became personal.
- 11The Twin-Lens Reflex The Rolleiflex in 1929, the golden era, Vivian Maier, Diane Arbus, and the great TLR photographers.
- 12After the TLR SLRs, autofocus, digital photography — and why the twin-lens reflex endures.
Unit 4 — The TLR System
- 13Anatomy of a TLR Viewing lens, taking lens, mirror, ground glass, parallax correction, and how it all fits together.
- 14120 Film — The Medium Format Advantage Paper backing, spool design, frame formats, and why bigger negatives make better photographs.
- 15Using a TLR in Practice Loading film, metering, composing on the ground glass, shooting technique, and common mistakes.
Unit 5 — After the Click
- 16Development Darkroom chemistry, developer formulas, temperature control, agitation, and the magic of seeing an image appear.
- 17Printing The enlarger, test strips, dodging, burning, contact sheets, and the craft of the darkroom print.
- 18The Zone System Ansel Adams, previsualization, tonal zones, and how to control every shade from black to white.
- 19Scanning & Hybrid Workflows Flatbed vs dedicated scanners, resolution, color management, archiving, and bridging analog to digital.