Skip to content
1 viewer
Courses
Silver Room Classes · Course

Black & White Film: Camera to Contact Sheet

Four weeks, four live sessions, one roll a week: expose, develop, read and contact print.

Taught by CRE8 Sites

Lessons
12
Length
8 h
Level
Beginner
Price
180 CRE8
Sign in to enrollSee the lessons

What you'll learn

  • Set exposure by eye with the sunny 16 rule and know when to give more
  • Develop four rolls to the same density
  • Tell an exposure fault from a development fault by looking at the negative
  • Make and read a contact sheet
  • Keep records good enough to repeat a result

A cohort course for sixteen people. Each week has two short lessons, one roll to shoot and a live session where we look at everyone's negatives together. By the end you can expose film without a meter, develop it consistently, diagnose a negative and make a contact sheet. The in-person printing afternoon at the end is optional and included for anyone who can get to Durham.

Who it's for: People with a working film camera who want to stop guessing at exposure and stop paying a lab to develop.

What you'll need

  • A 35mm or 120 film camera with manual exposure
  • Four rolls of Ilford HP5 Plus or Kodak Tri-X 400
  • The home developing kit from the free course
  • A phone or webcam for the live sessions

Enroll to open every lesson.

The lessons

4 sections · 12 lessons · 5 h 53 min

01Week 1: Exposure3 lessons · 1 h 31 min
  1. 1. Sunny 16 and its neighboursReading · 9 min
  2. 2. Expose for the shadowsReading · 7 min
  3. 3. Live: reading the first rollsReading · 1 h 15 min
02Week 2: Consistent development4 lessons · 1 h 30 min
  1. 4. The four things that change densityReading · 7 min
  2. 5. Keep a negative logReading · 5 min
  3. 6. Check: developmentQuiz · 3 min
  4. 7. Live: four tanks, one timeReading · 1 h 15 min
03Week 3: Reading negatives2 lessons · 1 h 23 min
  1. 8. Thin, dense, flat, harshReading · 8 min
  2. 9. Live: negative clinicReading · 1 h 15 min
04Week 4: The contact sheet3 lessons · 1 h 29 min
  1. 10. Making a contact sheetReading · 9 min
  2. 11. Choosing the frameReading · 5 min
  3. 12. Live: contact sheets and what's nextReading · 1 h 15 min

Live classes

  • Starts Tue 3 NovTue 3 Nov 2026 · 7:00 pm ET to Tue 24 Nov
    16 seats left
See the class schedule

Your teacher

CRE8 Sites

Teaches at Silver Room Classes. More from Silver Room Classes →

Discussion

  • No messages yet. Start the conversation.

Sign in to join the conversation.

Sign in