Say every frame you shoot.
Film hands you a beautiful negative and not one byte of data. No shutter speed, no aperture, no note about the light. Bulb is the thing you talk to while the camera is still at your eye, and it writes every word into your scans before they reach Lightroom.
IPTC:Caption-Abstract.
A negative remembers the light. It forgets everything else.
Six months later you have a scan you love and no idea how you made it. Which lens. Whether you pushed it. What that filter was. Digital shooters get all of this for free, written into the file at the instant of capture. Film shooters get a paper envelope and a good memory.
The usual answers are a notebook you stop filling by frame nine, or a phone app you thumb-type at while the light goes. Bulb takes the third route: you say it, once, out loud, and carry on shooting.
You speak, it reads
Hit the mic on your keyboard and talk normally. “F 8 at thirty seconds, plus one stop, the pier at Kalk Bay.” It pulls out the shutter, the aperture, the compensation and the filter, and keeps the rest as your note, capitals and all. No forms, no dropdowns, one hand.
It knows the long ones
Past a second your meter starts lying. Bulb corrects for it per stock, using the manufacturer's published curve where one exists and telling you plainly when it is using community numbers instead. Tap the correction to take it.
It ends up in Lightroom
When the scans come back, point Bulb at the folder. It writes capture time, shutter, aperture, EI, camera, lens, your notes, keywords and GPS straight into the files. Import them and the roll is simply there, on the frames, searchable.
Sourced numbers, and an honest label on each.
Most apps that touch reciprocity quietly invent it. Bulb tells you where each figure came from, because a guess dressed as a datasheet is worse than no number at all.
| Stock | Metered | Expose | Model | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ilford HP5 Plus | 30s | 86s | power ^1.31 | Datasheet |
| Ilford FP4 Plus | 30s | 73s | power ^1.26 | Datasheet |
| Kodak Tri-X 400 | 10s | 40s | F-4017 table | Datasheet |
| Fujifilm Acros II | 100s | 100s | none to 120s | Datasheet |
| Fujifilm Provia 100F | 60s | 60s | none to 128s | Datasheet |
| Kodak Portra 400 | 30s | ≈41s | interpolated | Community |
| Ferrania P30 | 30s | bracket | no data exists | Unknown |
Swipe the table to see the model and source
Tri-X also wants its development cut, and Bulb says so at the moment it matters rather than in a manual you will not read.
Load it
Name the roll, pick the stock from the list, say what you are metering it at. The box shot for that stock shows up so you know at a glance what is in the camera.
Shoot it
One frame, one sentence. Bracket by saying “same again minus one stop”. Add a phone snap as a reference if the scene needs it. Tag the spot if you want the coordinates.
Sync it
Scans back from the lab, point Bulb at the folder, check the pairing, write. Then import in Lightroom and every frame carries what you said.
- What it costsNothing. There is no account to create, no plan, no upsell.
- Where the data isIn your browser, on your device. Rolls never leave it. There is no server holding your shooting log, because there is no server.
- What you needA phone for the field. A computer for the sync step, where Chrome or Edge can write into the files where they sit; other browsers hand you tagged copies instead.
- Who it is forPeople shooting film who want the frame data to survive the lab. It is honest about being early, and it is built by someone who uses it on his own rolls.
- AccessThe log is invite-only while it is being tested. You sign in with the email address you were invited on, using a code sent to that address.