Filmnegativ

Filmnegativ, or film negative, is a strip or sheet of photographic film on which an image captured by light exposure is recorded with inverted tonal values. In a traditional negative, the brightest areas of the scene appear darkest, while shadowed areas appear lighter. The negative serves as the source from which positives—prints or transparencies—are produced, either by printing in the darkroom or by digital scanning and inversion.

Most traditional film negatives consist of a transparent base, originally cellulose-based and later polyester safety film, coated on one side with a light-sensitive emulsion. The emulsion contains silver halide crystals dispersed in gelatin. In color negatives, multiple emulsion layers are used to record color information, and dye developers form a dye-based negative image that will be printed or scanned to produce a color positive.

The image on a negative is formed when light exposes the sensitive emulsion in the camera. During development, exposed silver halide crystals are chemically reduced to metallic silver, increasing density where light hit. Unexposed crystals are removed by fixing. The resulting negative is then processed further for printing: it can be used directly for contact printing, projected and illuminated onto photographic paper, or scanned for digital workflow.

Common formats include 35mm film, as well as larger roll and sheet films. Black-and-white negatives rely on silver-based emulsions, while color negatives use the C-41 process and dye-based color reproduction. In the digital era, negatives remain important for archival purposes and as a stylistic choice, with many institutions preserving and cataloging their collections.