Do you shoot film? Digital? What’s the difference?
I am a hybrid wedding photographer. No, that does not mean that I’m half alien or something akin to The Incredible Hulk. Rather, it means that I’m able to shoot both film and digital images on your Day.
While shooting for Canon last Sundance Film Festival (V & I were the in-house photographers for the Canon Creative Studio private lounge), I heard one of their senior film & television advisors say the following: “film will never look as good as it does right now, and digital will never look as bad.” That line resonated with me. Enormously. Because I believe it to be true. About two years ago, I started googling googling googling to find the types of images that most moved me, most inspired me, and I’d study them like crazy, trying to determine the je ne sais quoi that kept me coming back to them (whether pulling my hair out in envy or soaking my eyes in affected tears). Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the majority of the images that really caught me were shot in medium format film. The texture, color, creamy-gauzy-luciousness of film became a sheer phenomenon to me, and I spent another year trying to figure out how to best make my digital images echo that film-y quality.
I actually think I’ve gotten pretty good at mimicking the film look in my digital images; but, of course, nothing compares to the real-deal, so I also picked myself up a Contax 645 and a Canon EOS-IV, and some Portra & Fuji 120s and 35mms, and I started to craft my own film fantasies. Ohhhhhhh I love it. I.love.it. I still get goosebumps and hold my breath when I get my scans back from the lab. It’s like frikkin’ Christmas morning every time.
Does that mean that digital isn’t special? Hell no. I think technology has moved in the digital direction for many, many reasons, and I absolutely love what my digital camera bodies can do in, say, a low light ceremony or alongside a flash system during a super fun dance party reception. But digital technology is so new and still being so tweaked that, yes, I don’t think digital will ever look as bad as it does right now (hence all the playing I have to do in Lightroom to get my images to reflect the look/feel that I want). So, I take the best of both worlds, since, well, why not… and I shoot both technologies in order to satisfy my diehard need to create the most stunning collection I possibly can.
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