The Pros and Cons of Digital Wedding Photos
Written By: Bridezilla
In recent years many South Carolina wedding photographers have been shooting with digital cameras, instead of film. Shooting with a digital camera can give a photographer the chance to retake any photos that may not be quite right. With a digital camera closed eyes, glare, and funny faces, are a thing of the past. But there are situations when you might actually want your photographer to shoot with film.
Digital Photography has come a long way in recent years, but it still cannot match the quality of professional film. Professional level film, shows more detail, and ,when shot correctly, has much less grain than digital photographs. If your wedding is in a low light setting (for example a church filled with candle light or at night), you should require that your photographer shoot with film. Digital photographs shot at night are very prone to grain and that is the last thing you want in your wedding photos. Kodak Portra is a great new color film design specifically for portrates. Make sure the film your photographer will be using is stated in the contract.
If you want black and white wedding photographs, have your photographer shoot in black and white film. Hitting the black and white button on a digital camera, or in Photoshop, does not give you the rich black and white range you should demand. For black and white, make sure your photographer is shooting with Kodak Tri-X or Ilford Delta 400.
Some photographers will say they shoot with digital cameras so they can offer digital print. A good photographer will know how to get good quality digital copies (for email, or websites) from film. Film can be more expensive for a photographer and more work for the photographer to develop. Don’t be surprised if a photographer wants to charge an extra fee to shoot with film. If a photographer refuses to shoot with film, do not let them shoot your wedding. A good photographer can shoot with both film and digital, do not trust any “professional” photographer that can’t shoot with film.
Wow! You can really see the difference between black and white film and digital. I’m going to have to request film for my wedding.
Defiantly. This is a must-read article for any bride. I see so many brides coming into my studio complaining that I don’t shoot with digital, but once they see the difference film makes they instantly favor the film photos.
Digital has come a long way, and I still use digital for SOME studio work, but if there’s a once in a lifetime event, film is what you want.
So many people think that just hitting the B&W button on a digi or even worse making it black and white in photo shop with that gray tone button counts as B&W photography.
There is so much more involved. Film is truely the way to go.
funny that the bw examples are not apples to apples. The shortened tonal range in the digital image is due to frontal lighting as opposed to side lighting. The lack of true black is due to poor post process. No Pro photographer would shoot with a BW setting on the camera, BW is done in post process.
Granted film is great, but the new wave of DSLRs are nearly free of noise, and perform great in low light.
RAW file format eliminates the clouds burning out due to a greater range of color and value recorded to the sensor.
This is a horribly biased article. I agree that any pro photographer should be able to shoot film. Most can, but choose digital because advances in technology and convenience have made it the best option.
>>Hitting the black and white button on a digital camera, or in Photoshop, does not give you the rich black and white range you should demand.
I have been shooting film for nigh on 15 years and my dSLR seriously beats the hell out of it. If you want film, give your nephew(the artsy one) a 35mm full of iso 400 Ilford delta and let the pro use their digital. You will be happy with the results.
I don’t know about this. 10MP+ camera images are looking really sharp, especially with a nice lens.
Film shoots different, especially negative film with it’s large latitude for over exposure. Digital shooting should be called something other than photography. It’s too different to be called the same thing even if you put digital in front of it. Everyone now shoots for post production, “I’ll fix it later” type mentality. True photography is when you get an as shot proof that is exposed and filtered in the field and ready to go into the album with just some minor cropping required. Remember those days!