Newbie question: Which side of film is emulsion side?

[Graeme]

I don't know if this will add to, or reduce the confusion, but here's the way I think of it:

When you're looking at the emulsion side, the corner nearest to the notches will be in a clock wise direction from the notches.

The orientation of the film (vertical, horizontal etc) then becomes irrelevant. (In practice, my routine is to hold the film horizontally with the notches lower on the right hand edge.)

[Doug Paramore]

Andy: Quit worrying about "public ridicule" and enjoy this forum. Everyone on the forum had to learn the ins and outs of LF, and as you found out, some of the little things are not so obvious. Although we do get a bit silly once in a while, everyone on the forum is willing to help you get into LF. Unlike smaller format photography, you often cannot go to the local film shop for answers. We LF shooters are rather thin on the ground in many places. I have been shooting LF since the 1960s, and I still learn stuff from this forum.

Regards,

[Erik Ryberg]

I had the hardest time figuring out why my negs were so underexposed when I began LF. I was loading with the notch in the upper right corner, just like the book said. But I assumed since most pictures are taken horizontally, that's how you were supposed to orient the film when you selected the right corner. I figured it was my development technique and took a bunch of holders to my father for a lesson. Boy did he get a good laugh at me when he started removing the film in the darkroom. It turns out you can get an image with the emulsion side loaded toward the holder, but you need to overexpose by four or five stops or so.