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5 Film

If you look at a cross section of film under the microscope, you can see that it consists of multiple layers. First, there is the film base. Early types of film often had a base of highly flammable celluloid that made photography and storing film somewhat dangerous. Today, film does not explode any more because triacetate and polyester are used as film bases, instead.

During production, the film base is coated with several very thin layers of emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halides suspended in gelatin. Even black-and-white film usually has several layers of differently sized or individually shaped silver halides that ...

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