Film Lab 35 is a darkroom in your pocket. This is not a filter app, this is a physically-informed simulation of real film photochemistry, built from analyzing over 1,500 real film scans.
Select a film stock. Watch your photo develop. Save your frame to your own local Lightbox.
15 ICONIC FILM STOCKS
Color Negative
- Kodak Portra 400 - The gold standard for portraits
- Kodak Gold 200 - Warm, nostalgic, everyday magic
- Kodak Ektar 100 - Vivid saturation, fine grain
- Fujifilm 400 - Clean, cool, natural
- Fujifilm disposable 400 - That summer camera look
Slide Film
- Fujichrome Velvia 50 - Landscape legend, electric greens and blues
- Kodak Ektachrome E100 - Clean slide color, cool neutrals
Cinema
- CineStill 800T - Signature red halation, tungsten balance
- Kodak Vision3 250D - Hollywood's daylight stock, shot as stills
Black and White
- Kodak Tri-X 400 - Iconic punchy contrast
- Ilford HP5 Plus - Soft, nuanced, open shadows
- Ilford Delta 3200 - Huge grain, glowing highlights, the night stock
Instant
- Polaroid 600 - Warm, faded, dreamy
- Fujifilm Instax Mini - Clean instant snapshots
Experimental
- LomoChrome Metropolis - Desaturated, moody, cinematic
REAL PHOTOCHEMISTRY
Every stock is built on a 13-stage rendering pipeline that simulates actual film behavior:
1. Linearization of your input
2. Log exposure mapping
3. Film density curve (Hurter-Driffield)
4. Emulsion layer cross-talk
5. Decode back to linear light
6. Two-layer grain synthesis
7. Per-channel characteristic curves
8. Color chemistry simulation
9. Scanner simulation
10. Print stage (paper contrast and crossover)
11. Halation glow
12. Output encoding
13. Optical finish (bloom, vignette, softness)
Learn more about the process in the in app Science tab.
THE DEVELOPING RITUAL
Watch your photo develop through every stage. No instant filters. A tactile, intentional experience that honors the craft.
DATA-DRIVEN AUTHENTICITY
Each stock profile was developed by analyzing over 1,500 real film photographs where we measured shadow color, highlight behavior, saturation, contrast, grain texture, and color temperature across multiple exposure conditions. Every parameter is informed by real measurements, not aesthetic guesses.
ALL LOCAL, ALL PRIVATE
Your photos never leave your device. No cloud processing, no data collection, no tracking. Everything runs on-device. No cloud, ever.
GENTLE POST-PROCESSING
Once your photo is developed, optional fine-tuning lets you adjust brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, and grain from clean to a pushed-negative 400 percent. The Darkroom section adds real lab controls: push and pull development, printer lights, highlight compression, and a film format dial. These adjustments sit on top of the "photochemical" render and they don't break the emulation.
YOUR LIGHTBOX
Every developed frame is saved to your personal local Lightbox: a collage of your film work, arranged like prints on a table.
WHAT YOU GET FREE
Start with three iconic stocks:
- Kodak Gold 200 (warm everyday)
- Kodak Tri-X 400 (classic B&W)
- Fujifilm Disposable 400 (summer vibes)
Unlock individual stocks for $0.99 each, or get all 15 plus future additions with the Full Lab bundle.
Film stock names referenced in this app are trademarks of their respective owners. Film Lab 35 is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed by any of these companies. Our emulations are original artistic interpretations.
This app is awesome! I love being able to take pictures I have and give them an additional dimension. It’s super straightforward and user friendly. I enjoy getting to “develop” my pics and see how they turn out! I do film photography and you really get a taste of the intentionality you have with film. Highly recommend to photographers, folks wanting to up level their photo game, or just the average joe who wants to have some fun.
Beginner friendly
FilmNovicee10
I was pleasantly surprised to find this app in the store. As a lover of film but generally a little overwhelmed by the lack of accessibility, this app caught my eye. I love that it is not only scientifically accurate with plenty of film options, but also provides a ton of context as to the actual science for the lovely imperfections that occur in film. Looking forward to exploring more!
Finally a true mobile emulator
RRTrivedi
as a filmmaker that does a lot of film emulation extensively in Davinci — but also just likes taking and editing pictures on his phone, this is genuinely the first app that doesn’t feel like it just slaps on a filter. dang!!
Cool film app!
Alessa Farinella
Really cool film app!! I love all the different stocks, and I loved learning about the science behind how film develops. Really cool!! I would definitely recommend if you want to turn your basic photos into something shot by film. Great to step up your photography game
SHARE THE DEVELOP
- Export frames: a clean darkroom print border, or a full 35mm negative strip with sprockets and edge print
- Quartz date stamp, straight off a 90s point and shoot
- Before and after export: the photo you started with next to the film it became
- Light leaks: orange blooms burned in before development, so the film chemistry shapes them. Reroll until you like the accident
IN THE LAB
- Velvia 50 holds its highlights harder, the way slide film really clips
- Tri-X and HP5 shadow tones re-matched to the datasheets
- Portra grain slightly finer, Gold slightly coarser, matching their published grain indexes
Version 1.2.1
The developer, Arjun Gupte, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Arjun Gupte
Size
8.5 MB
Category
Photo & Video
Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
