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Film
& Digital
First,
some quick bullet points for those who don't have time for the detailed
explanation below:
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I
am one of the most experienced digital photographers in San Diego,
having started with digital in its infancy in 1992. I've been
shooting film since 1992 as well.
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There
are many advantages in shooting digital, and they usually outweigh
the advantages of film. We now shoot mostly (if not completely) with
digital.
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The
advantages to digital are resolution, better grain or
"noise", and a quicker workflow at the wedding.
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The
advantage with film is a slightly better skin tone in certain
lighting situations.
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We
can shoot with more film if you request it.
Now,
for the details....
My
experience:
I've
been a professional photographer for 15 years. Early in my career I
worked with a $50,000 digital studio camera in a commercial photo studio
and have been hooked on digital photography ever since, for many
applications. In fact, most of my fine art photos are done digitally. On
the flip side, I have also been shooting film for 15 years and still
continue to use it for certain situations. While I love the convenience
and resolution benefits of digital, I also love certain aspects of film.
Read below to see both sides of the coin and how it is continuing to
evolve.
Film
vs Digital:
Film:
Up until this past year we still used film for 50-70% of the photos we
took at weddings. The reason was the color fidelity and pleasing skin
tones that film delivers. In my opinion film still delivers better skin
tones for certain lighting situations.
Digital:
Digital is great for its convenience, instant gratification, and the
ability to see the photo instantly. The resolution of the cameras has
also come leaps and bounds in the past year or so, to where digital
resolution is better in most instances. The "digital noise"
that digital cameras produce is the digital equivalent to film grain,
and this has improved vastly in just the past year or two as well. All
this, of course, depends on which cameras are being compared. Resolution
is just one factor. An 8 MP professional camera will often deliver much
better results than a 12 MP consumer camera or point and shoot because
the chip in the pro camera is higher quality and delivers a
"cleaner" image with much much less "digital noise"
than the much higher resolution amateur camera. This is due to
professional cameras having higher quality chips and hardware. The one
down side I see with digital still is the skin tones. In my opinion film
still looks better in some situations, but many people don't seem to see
the difference (or care for that matter if they do). For this reason we
are shooting much more digital now. By doing this we deliver much higher
resolution images, with less noise, with a small sacrifice in skin
tones. If you are looking to hire me and you are a big fan of film, I
will shoot more film when the situation will provide better skin tones.
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Mark
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