Is Digital always best?

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Ok, no I’m not an old fuddy duddy, but the past few weeks I’ve been wishing that everything wasn’t so digital, in particular photography.

When we finish a photo shoot like a wedding, I generally upload everything to the mac, back it up and format the memory cards. Then comes the task of filtering through them all, usually around over a thousand images, and selecting the “keepers”. The keepers are the ones that I then want to edit, touch up, convert to black and white and then save to disc and memory stick and then back everything up again. After all of that has been completed I can then delete the files from the mac ready to make space for further or current shoots – all a bit long winded.

Editing images can be fun and exiting, the endless possibilities that digital photography gives you, but then I think about the headaches from staring at a screen for so many hours, so what about shooting traditional film? You can pick the film that you like, get them processed, print them and presto! Done. Ok so maybe not, maybe I should be back in the film era where clients don’t require digital files or slideshows but lets not think of the downsides 😛 

Traditional film images have a beautiful organic feel to them, plus the cameras themselves are so much better looking and sounding then DSLR’s these days. We have a Canon A1 from the 80’s that I still occasionally use with a black and white film in it, and also a newer Nikon F5 which takes all of our current lenses. Theres something reassuring when you hear the shutter slap, and the whirr of the film motor, it feels like more of a machine than a toy. The best thing about film though is that its always a surprise when you get your prints back, you’re never quite sure if you nailed it and to me thats exciting! We are so privileged with being able to instantly review our images on the back of the camera, take 10 pics to get one and that it doesn’t cost to take a single image.

Film is more expensive, your stick with the ASA speed until the end of the roll and it takes days sometimes to get developed and scanned, but I love it. I get more of a kick out of shooting film than I do digital. In todays market it would be completely impractical to shoot film for a wedding unless the extra costs were covered, however for pure enjoyment and days out i’m going to make sure I take it as much as I can from now on!

Here’s a shot of Margam Park taken on our Nikon F5 on Kodak Portra 400 film. No edits 

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