Analog photography is photography that uses a progressively changing recording medium, which may be either chemical process based (e.g., photographic film or plate) or electronic (e.g., vidicon or CCD sensor). Analog photography has come to mean anything that is “not digital” despite some of controversy over the question of whether the use of film is a true analog process.

In a film camera that uses the gelatin-silver process, light falling upon photographic emulsions containing silver halides is recorded as a latent image. The latent image is subjected to photographic processing, which makes it visible and insensitive to light.