eli5 why are films photos negative?
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For slide film, the developed image is a direct positive so that it can be projected straight from that original piece of film onto a screen.
But where the end result is intended to be printed on paper, it makes more sense for the developed image on the film to be a negative so the image can then be projected (using an “enlarger”) onto light-sensitive paper. This paper is initially white and responds to light falling on it by going darker. This means that light (i.e. transparent) regions on the negative will let lots of light pass through and be projected onto the paper, making those projected regions go darker on the paper. Darker regions on the negative will tend to block the light so less light will hit the paper and that region won’t be darkened by the paper’s reaction to light, so that region in the image on paper will stay lighter. In this way, the negative image on the developed film becomes a positive image on the paper.
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