Subscribe

A personal blog from a small flat in Lisbon: everyday life, home cooking, slow travel, books and photographs.

Subscribe Now Member sign in

A beginner’s guide to 35mm film

By Millie Hart • • Runtime 15 min
A close up of a reel of film

Teo Crawford’s beginner’s guide is the film I send to anyone who has just found an old camera at the back of a parent’s cupboard. He walks through loading a roll, what ISO and box speed actually mean, how a light meter thinks, and why you should never open the back halfway through.

He talks like a friend who happens to know a great deal, and his own example frames have exactly the grain and colour you’re hoping to get yourself.

Why I keep rewatching it

Most days I shoot digital on the X100V, but once a month I put a roll through an old film camera for One Roll a Month. I rewatch this before every new roll, mostly to remind myself to check that the rewind knob is turning as I wind on. I have already lost one roll to impatience. Teo’s calm voice is a good antidote to my habit of rushing to the last frame.

Share X / Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
Millie Hart

Millie Hart

I’m Millie, a Manchester-born writer and copy editor living in Lisbon since 2019. I write about small-flat life, cooking, books and slow trips.

More stories by Millie Hart
Keep watching

More films

All videos
Train between buildings

Lisbon, with Rick Steves

A gentle half-hour tour of Lisbon’s lanes, viewpoints, trams and fado from Rick Steves’ Europe.

|25 min
Low-angle photography of gray and white concrete building at daytime

Porto in three minutes

Rick Steves’ Europe squeezes Porto’s bridges, river and port lodges into one lovely three-minute postcard.

|3 min
Brown cupcakes on silver tray

How to make pastéis de nata

Cupcake Jemma bakes Lisbon’s famous custard tarts at home, scorched tops and flaky spirals included.

|12 min