Analog Photography Templates

I predominantly shoot film when working on photo projects. To keep track of my work, I’ve designed several templates that I print and keep in my Unbound Notebook System.

I use Bible-size pages, so the templates are formatted accordingly. You’re welcome to make your own versions in any size or with any modifications. If they don’t fit your needs, simply use them as inspiration. At the heart of the Unbound System is extreme flexibility.

35mm and 120 Film

Logging 35mm film is a royal pain in the rear, so I try not to track every single frame. Instead, I group them, which is why the universal template has no frame numbers. This way, I can write whatever I deem necessary to track. (Side note: I’ve entirely solved this issue using the excellent GD-2 databack on my Contax G2 cameras.)

I have switched to using the universal film log for 120 film too. It also makes it easy for me to iterate on the design as I do not need to replicate changes on all 120 film size variants.

The 35mm Horizontal template is designed to work with my bulk film canister stickers. The dark area is prefilled while the roll is in the camera, and once I’m done processing it, I put the sticker from the canister and place it on top of the shaded area.

Sheet Film

For sheet film, I also record where I metered and where I placed values on the EV scale for color, or which zone they fell into for black and white.

The darker square is designed so I can make a rough sketch of the scene with metering values mapped onto the scale. Lately, I’ve been photographing the scene with my phone and printing it using my ZINK mini-printer.

Scouting

When scouting locations and photos, I usually don’t carry camera gear, so most of my scouting photos are taken with my iPhone. To track scouted locations, I print these photos using the ZINK mini-printer and glue them onto this template.

Processing

Having exact volumes for a 1+4 dilution for my 600ml Jobo Tank already written down is incredibly helpful. With this template, I can pre-calculate and record developer volumes, dilutions, and exact development times for various types of developers and kits.

Long-Term Projects

I call a group of film rolls or sheets a session. Sessions can be associated with a larger project, but at their core, they represent one concentrated effort of image-making. They usually consist of several rolls of film.

This template helps me keep track of session-associated rolls as well as wild rolls if they don’t have an associated session.

Changelog

v2025.02 (latest):

Changes:

• Unified all Film Roll templates.
• Unified several versions of Sheet Film templates.
• Tidied up grid for two-column rows.
• Introduced darker background for primary information.
• Alternating rows for long lists.
• Reduced column separator prominence to mute visual clutter.
• Standardized Session vs. Project semantics.
• Introduced horizontal layout versions.
• Introduced new visual for checkbox–check circle(?), rather.
• Introduced new icons for development, scanning, archiving, and digital editing.
• Improved frame indicator visuals on 6x17 Roll Film template.
• Added filters field for some templates.

Older Versions:

I keep older versions for posterity. Some might prefer those versions to the current ones, so feel free to use them too.

v2024.12:

v2024.07:

License

These templates are licensed under CC BY 4.0, which means you can share, adapt, modify, build upon, and do pretty much anything you want with them—just mention the notebook system itself somewhere when you publish.