Film vs. Digital Wedding Photography
There are so many styles and different approaches when it comes to wedding photography, and even if I want I would not be able to cover all of them in one blog post. So instead I will focus on the problem, that many couples face while choosing their wedding photographer - digital or film.
COVID completely changed the scene in the wedding photography world and now more and more previously film photographers are switching from film rolls to digital cards. One of the most likable and versatile film on the market completely disappeared, leaving wedding photography world in a very hard situation. But there are still photographers like me, who prefer quality over quantity and still invest in that media. With my passion for film you already know what media I will choose, but I wanted to give you some perspective as you search to select a wedding photographer and help you understand why I sincerely believe that film still wins.
It requires skills
Both media required skills, but film photographers need to be more intentional. It is very easy to look at the back of your digital screen and correct mistakes, but with film you have to be sure even before clicking the shutter that this is the frame you would like to have. When you shoot on film you have 16 frames and there is nothing like the “machine” gun which happens in digital photography - with film - you don’t rely on chances, you create them.
2. Quality
Even with the development of modern photo technology - film still creates unrepeatable color, light, and grain. There is this magic that film is able to create that digital still can’t. The colors are alive, still true to life, but with those magical elements, that digital doesn’t have, because of its nature - the image in digital is created mathematically by hundred square pieces, while with the film is like a painting with the light.
3. ARTISTRY
All good things take time. And with the film is the same. You and me, together we are like art directors, creating a vision. And because of the film process, you can’t see immediately what you create. Even after years photographing on film I still have butterflies every time I receive my film scans back from the film lab because I know there will be something magical. So yes, film adds something to the overall experience, and the way it creates the photograph is like poetry.
4. moment of history
Together we build a history. Actually, you are building it, I’m there just as a historian who documents your journey. And there is this moment of nostalgia for the past times, because we are telling story that your parents kept for you. I use the same media to do that, and this is how a legacy is built. I tend to think that the value of photography increases with time and the art that I’m creating is actually not for you, but the generation that is coming after you - your children.
5. Film is Timeless
The film is timeless. You can’t add a filter on it, you just keep it as it is and all those natural approaches actually bring even more value to it. Styles in photography changes - remember the Original Vintage Instagram Filter, and how all of us was using it like crazy? And what was the year 2012? The film can’t do that for you - the film images photographed on Kodak Portra 800 film in 2012 will have the same depth, colors, and grain-like the film images photographed in 2022.
6. Film is soft
The fim has a specific softness, the lines are delicate and the skin tones glow. As an artist I value the softness more than the almost clinical look of the modern digital camera and this is why I choose film to be the brushes that I’m using in my art.
Definitely film is cool, even the celebrities find it epic to use little point and shoot cameras like Zendaya or like Kendal Jenner with her beautiful Contax G2. And there are so many photography groups that are looking for the “ film look “ but created digitally and honestly for me, this is like wearing a fake designer bag. I don’t understand the purpose of that - there is not quality in the material or the craftsmanship, there is just a name tag, a fake name tag. And yes, definitely film is pricey and it eat’s the photography profit, but my personal artist’s choice is to use it and to offer quality over quantity.
As a wedding photographer, no matter if I’m working in San Francisco City Hall or in a rural winery in Mendocino, it is always my goal, when shooting film, to not just create beautiful images, but to create images that relay to my clients how the day truly felt and I feel that film, is the right tool who enable me to achieve that. The film has soul, purpose, softness, and aesthetic that resonate with the clients that choose me. For them the this sort of artistic approach to capturing their wedding day, not only creates an experience for them that is way less rushed and more emotive, it creates epic images in terms of light, color palette and depth.