Best Film for Landscapes and Nature Photography
Capturing landscapes and nature on film creates a timeless connection to the world. Unlike digital, film renders light, color, and texture with a unique depth that makes mountains, forests, and oceans feel alive. Choosing the right film stock can define how your images convey mood, atmosphere, and detail.
Color Film for Vivid Natural Scenes
Color film is ideal for outdoor photography, especially in bright sunlight. Kodak Gold 200 offers warm, natural tones with balanced saturation and smooth grain, making it great for capturing landscapes with a classic, inviting feel. Fujifilm 400 delivers versatile performance across varied lighting, reproducing subtle greens, blues, and earth tones beautifully while maintaining fine detail in foliage, water, and rock textures. Both films preserve the depth and warmth characteristic of film photography, allowing your landscapes to feel alive and true to the scene.
Black and White Film for Texture and Mood
Black and white film emphasizes composition, contrast, and texture in landscapes. Ilford HP5 Plus 400 provides flexibility and rich tonality for varied lighting, while Kodak Tri-X 400 adds a classic, dramatic quality to mountains, forests, and stormy skies. These films help photographers focus on shape, shadow, and light interplay, producing images that are elemental and striking.
Specialty Films for Creative Outdoor Work
For photographers seeking unique effects, specialty films offer creative opportunities. Kodak Ektachrome delivers vivid, true-to-life colors with fine grain and moderate contrast, ideal for sunsets, bold landscapes, and painterly natural scenes. Lomography Color Negative 800 and expired film stocks can also introduce color shifts and distinctive grain for more experimental results.
Marley Yanow, Landscape, 2023 | Shot on Kodak Portra 400, Developed & Scanned and Hand Printed by NICE
Tips for Shooting Nature on Film
Use polarizing or graduated filters to enhance skies or water reflections.
Shoot during the golden hour for soft, directional light.
Bracket exposures in high-contrast scenes to preserve highlight and shadow detail.
Experiment with multiple film stocks in the same location to see how each interprets color and texture.
Recommended Film Stocks at NICE Film Club
Kodak Gold 200 – Warm, natural tones with smooth grain for classic landscapes.
Fujifilm 400 – Versatile color and fine detail for varied outdoor lighting.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 – Flexible black & white with deep, rich contrasts.
Kodak Tri-X 400 – Timeless black and white for dramatic natural scenes.
Kodak Ektachrome – Slide film for vibrant color and painterly landscapes.
Lomography Color Negative 800 – Creative effects for experimental photography.
Leandro Miyasaka, Marin Headlands Horses, 2024 | Shot on Kodak Portra 400, Developed & Scanned and Hand Printed by NICE
Conclusion: Capturing the Outdoors on Film
Shooting landscapes and nature on film is an exercise in observation and patience. Each frame requires intentionality, rewarding photographers with images that feel alive, tactile, and timeless. With the right film stock, from Kodak Ektar 100 to Fujifilm Velvia 50, photographers can create work that captures not only the scenery but the mood, texture, and spirit of the natural world. Explore these films at NICE Film Club and bring your landscapes to life, one frame at a time.
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Thanks for being here.
— The NFC Team
