“WTF?!,” a Game for Film Photographers Is Now Live!

What The Film?! is a new (free) web game built for film photographers by film photographers. You can try it today. 🎉

How to play.

Challenge your knowledge of black-and-white film or just browse the community submissions in a fun web interface. There’s no app to download.

1) Go to analog.cafe/app/what-the-film (make sure you’re signed in to your Analog.Cafe account — it’s free).

2) Get ready. Once you press “Play,” you’ll see a series of (3) black-and-white photos. Your task will be to guess which film was used in the camera for each. Correct answers will give you the most points; guessing quickly will give you some extra points. If your score is in the top 100, it will be entered into the rankings table.

3) Advance through multiple levels. The first three photos should be relatively easy to guess for experienced film photographers. You can improve your score by moving to the next few levels, each harder than the first but with more points up for grabs and more photos!

👾 Bonus: You can help us build more levels for the game by submitting up to 3 of your best, labelled black-and-white photos. See instructions on the game’s home screen.

Don’t worry about the score!

While testing this game, I got just 27% of the film brands correct, many thanks to chance. I also had two film photography experts (Daren and Yvonne) try this and they did no better.

It’s difficult to guess black-and-white film brands because developing, scanning, and printing necessarily change their look. We may also be overestimating our ability to recognize grain characteristics and contrast profiles.

Despite looking kinda similar, black-and-white films are not all the same for reasons I explain in this article: “How to Choose Black and White Film for Photography.”