I work with digital, which allows me to take a LOT of pictures (sometimes I can make over 10,000 shots in one day!). But, if you want me to work with film, I offer an option. In addition, with the digital pictures, I bring my old Mamiya 645, some black and white rolls, and I take great pleasure in using them! Film brings the vintage charm. It’s a fancy option. But I won’t realize all the reportage in film. Otherwise, I must add a zero to the total price!
Table of Contents
The trendy film effect.
Around 2005, a trendy effect was to use Instagram filters that give the pictures an old-style effect. They were inspired by a post-production filter named the cross-processing effect (dark becomes blue, white becomes yellow). The cross-processing is an old effect used in the fashion industry in the 70s. The trick was made by developing a positive film (slide film) in a chemical solution for negative film.
I think that today, the trendy effect is the film effect. You can see it everywhere, on wedding blogs and in several wedding magazines. What’s amazing is that they are not only looking for a film-like effect, but they are looking for a badly scanned film effect. Black is not black (it is gray), and white is not white (it is light gray). And, in digital, a lot of photographers apply a post-production effect to their digital pictures! You can judge that when you see all the post-production companies like VSCO.
I consider that something trendy today will look outdated tomorrow. That’s why I do not offer film in my package.
Don’t misunderstand me. I enjoy working with film. For my personal work, I used to work with film. But for a wedding, I consider that there are many more advantages to working with digital.
Let’s make a list quickly of all advantages to working with digital.
- I can take many more images (100x to 1000x more), which allows me to capture THE right moment. That allows me to shoot more in order to catch the perfect moment.
- I can go much faster in post-production.
- I don’t have to pay $30 for every film to shoot and scan (cheaper package).
- During the wedding, I can adapt my ISO and White Balance each time as needed.
- During a wedding, I can control what I do (check if something is wrong).
- I can take an airplane without being afraid that an X-ray machine destroys all my films (even if most X-ray machines are now “film-friendly”).
- For high ISO (over 1600), the digital quality is much better.
- I don’t need to stop shooting in order to change my film, so I don’t miss any moment.
Is film photography better quality than digital?
It’s a huge fantasy! Many people think that traditional film photography is better than digital. Well, it could be true and false at the same time. It was maybe mostly true in the past, but now technology has significantly evolved.
If we want to answer the question properly, we should consider several parameters:
- The latitude of exposure
- The resolution
- The sensitivity
- The definition
- What type of film and digital are you speaking about?
Latitude of exposure: Digital vs. Negative vs. Positive film.
You have probably heard of positive film and negative film. You can find them in color and black and white. They exist for 35mm cameras, medium format (120mm), and for sheet film (for view cameras).
The range of ISO for positive film spreads from 100 to 400 ISO (or ASA). For negative film, it goes from 25 ISO to 3200 ISO. The higher the ISO, the more noise appears and the poorer the colors become.
The latitude of exposure is the width of spectrum used to record information. It’s the amplitude of light that you can record, from the dark areas to the highlights.
We measure the latitude of exposure (the dynamic range of a sensor) in stops. A stop is a quantity of light entering the camera. It’s directly related to the lens opening and the time of exposure.
Most film has a dynamic range of 13 stops. Today, the best sensors are 14 stops, and some even 16! That means, if you correctly expose your pictures, you have an amplitude of 7 to 8 stops below and above the original exposure.
Having a large latitude of exposure allows photographers to correct images in post-production. For instance, if you underexpose a shot, you can still push it brighter if you have enough information.
Capturing scenes with high dynamic range
More than just “saving” a missed shot, the capacity to record a high dynamic range of light allows photographers to render images that look closer to reality.
Indeed, there are a lot of scenes featuring a huge difference in lighting.
For instance, if you take a portrait of your friend with strong 12 PM backlighting, you will have to choose if you want to expose your shot for the face (and then the blue sky behind will look white), or if you want to expose for the blue sky (and then the face will be completely dark).
With a high dynamic range, the photographer will be able to expose for the face and bring back texture and color in the sky.
It might seem anecdotal, but that’s extremely important to render scenes that have a high dynamic range.
Positive
The positive film is very sensitive and requires perfect exposure. You cannot correct your exposure afterward, even if you make a small mistake when you take your shot. That’s why the technique of 1/3 stop bracketing became popular.
Negative film
In contrast, negative film can restore information even if the exposure is approximate. They both exist in color and black and white. Each brand, each model has a specific look.
Digital sensor
Professional photographers massively started using digital cameras around 2000. At this time, the latitude of exposure of sensors was lower than film.
In 2010, NASA scientists created a sensor with a higher dynamic range than film.
Today
So, of course, it will depend on the sensor of the camera.
Fifteen years ago, let’s say digital sensors had a tiny dynamic range, and they could not reproduce enough color information. The result was disgusting. Today this is not the case anymore.
Sensor, film size and quality.
Quality of film pictures will vary according to the size of the film used. Is it 35mm? Is it medium format or a view camera? The bigger the film, the better the quality. If we speak about resolution of the pictures, we can say that today a good professional digital camera is as good as film pictures. It means that with the same equivalent film-digital comparison, you will be able to print a poster of the same size.
Quality of lens and sharpness.
First, let’s say that if you are looking for the sharpest lens, today, you can find old film lenses that are very good and sharp for a very cheap price. (So people love to say film gear is better and cheaper.) But there is one big point that we often forget: the autofocus system. And for weddings, it’s a must-have!
Then, the wider the lens opening, the more blur you will have in the background. That blur creates an “artistic” effect. We also call it bokeh.
And here again, film gear is cheaper for the same wide-open aperture.
Sensor size and bokeh.
To make it simple, the larger the sensor size (or film size), the more bokeh you will have. Wedding photographers look for this blurry effect on the background. This allows them to isolate the bride and groom from the background. Thus they highly appreciate medium format.
And here again, film gear for medium format is much cheaper than a digital one.
To summarize on the quality.
I think that today, digital quality is as good as film and sometimes even better.
For people who really like the medium format camera bokeh, it could make economic sense to use film medium format (it’s still cheaper than the same gear in digital, but that may change in the near future with a brand like Hasselblad). But it will really not make sense to shoot with a 35mm camera in film.
I think the old-style trendy effect will pass, while “regular” colored pictures and black and white photographs will never pass.
I understand why people believe that a photographer who shoots in film is better: because it’s more difficult to shoot in film (you cannot control it), and it’s rarer (it’s also much more expensive).
And I also understand that negative film is something real, that you know you will easily keep safe for years. In a world where everybody takes a lot of pictures every day but no one prints them, we see a resurgence of proper material values, like Polaroid and films.
