Photography Tips

Digital vs. Film

Digital technology is moving at an astonishing rate. Prices for both consumer and professional cameras are plummeting just as fast as performance and quality are increasing. Due to the tremendous advancement, many photographers have made the move to digital. Less than five years ago, few photographers offered digital wedding photography. Now industry experts estimate that nearly all weddings are either partially or completely shot with professional digital cameras.

You probably own a digital camera yourself, one you can stick in your shirt pocket or inside your purse. You’ve marveled at the quality of your images, but is digital good enough to capture one of the most important events of your life? Your wedding day? Decide for yourself as I explain the pros and cons of digital vs. film.

Digital
Instant feedback. That is what everybody loves about digital. Believe me, professional photographers love it just as much as you do. How often have you gotten a photo back, only to discover that several people blinked at the crucial moment? Shooting digital helps ensure that every shot turns out the way the photographer intended.

Resolution. Most professional digital cameras are capable of capturing images with a resolution of 10-12 MP or more. That is 12 million mega pixels per image. Enough pixels to print beautiful wall portraits, heck even wallpaper if you want it. Nowadays you cannot tell the difference between a print from film or a print from digital!

Never change film rolls. Of course with digital there is no film. Digital cameras use tiny little re-usable cards that store high resolution digital files. The newest cards hold 16GB of data, that’s over 4000 images! Or in film terms, 111 rolls. You’ll never need to worry that I’ll run out of film at a crucial moment. Another amazing aspect of digital photography is the ability to move from bright sunlight to a candle-lit church and still get perfect pictures. The camera chip’s sensitivity to light, also referred to as ISO, can be changed with each image. It’s done with the flick of a thumb. That’s just not possible with film.

Black & white and special effects. Just about everybody has heard of Photoshop, an amazing, but complex image editing software. Certain effects that were previously created by using certain films, filters and processing techniques can now be done on the computer in a fraction of the time. Color is converted to black & white, black & white is sepia-toned, black & white images are spot-colored. But Photoshop allows for even more creativity in telling the story of your wedding day. I create photo collages, mix color and black & white images on a single print, use images as transparent backdrops for other images, even “swap heads” in group shots to get the best picture possible. I have invested substantial time in learning Photoshop’s complexity. If you “go digital” you should ask each photographer you interview about his or her Photoshop skills. If they are not doing it, they are paying another professional to do it. That cost gets passed back to you.

Cost. A myth abounds that must finally be disspelled.Digital photography is cheaper than film photography. Sure, on the surface it appears that way, because you don't have to pay repeatedly for film or processing. But the absence of film is only a small consideration. Now technology changes so fast most pros buy all new equipment every 18-24 months that costs 10 times more than film cameras ever did. And that's not counting computer equipment, software and hard drives to store all those images. And the processing? No savings there at all. The chief complaint digital photographers now have is the inordinate amount of time they are spending in front of a computer screen. Or they have to hire specialized talent to process and edit and retouch those digital images which is much costlier than developing film ever was. So in fact digital photography is much more expensive than film photography. However, very few photographers have raised their fees to recoup the tremendous additional cost of being a digital photographer.

Bottom line: more creative images for less. You get a lot more bang for your buck!

Film
Print size. Digital technology has evolved to the point that it is no longer true, that you need to shoot with film if you want to print big, billboard-size big. Digital can match film pixel for grain.

Fine Art black & white prints. The very last holdout not possible with digital. You can only produce fine art silver-based prints from black & white film. However, so many new papers including watercolor, giclee and canvas are available for digital printing that most will not go wanting. Talk to your photographer about producing a fine art print from a digital image and you will be surprised and delighted with the options available.

Why not have a friend shoot with their camera?
I’m sure you have already asked yourself this question. Here is an honest answer. A lot more goes into photographing a wedding successfully than just showing up with a camera. Though your friend may be gifted it take special people skills, organizational talent and experience with problem-solving to create consistently good images of a wedding – and to keep everyone happy. Professional photographers have the experience and know-how to make your photographs sensational. They understand how to create a mood by using proper lighting, posing and timing. They are "on" the entire time, constantly looking and observing, looking for those glimpses, anticipating and capturing the emotional highlights. based on their experience. Your friend may become distracted, or even worse you may encourage him or her to enjoy themselves and thus miss many important moments. Remember, it's your wedding day. There are no second chances.

A professional will edit through hundreds of images to pull out the best ones to tell your story. Post production is very labor intensive and includes some intensive retouching work to create the spectacular images you will want in your album. In addition, many top albums are only sold to professional photographers.

Are all digital cameras the same?
Professional vs. Consumer
Resolution and Zoom. Resolution is not everything. Several cameras targeted for consumers boast some impressive numbers, but there are other factors to consider. All professional cameras use interchangeable lenses instead of a fixed lens. The optics on professional-grade lenses is far superior to those of built-in lenses and also to those which are sold with cheaper digital SLRs. The zoom factor is generated optically rather than digitally, guaranteeing a higher quality image.

Delay factor. Have you noticed that several seconds pass from the moment you press the shutter until the image comes up on the screen? And then it’s not quite what you thought you were photographing? The electronics and technology in professional cameras are much more sophisticated (ergo more expensive) than those in consumer digital cameras. And one such obvious difference is the response time after you press the shutter on your camera. It is much longer. This delay is to blame for all those missed candid moments. With professional digital cameras, the image is taken the instant the shutter is pressed. This was a crucial decision factor in my move to digital. My talent lies in anticipating and capturing those precious moments.

I hope this article has shed some light on aspects of digital photography you may have been wondering about. I also hope it has layed to rest any fears you may have held about “Going Digital” for your wedding. If you still have questions I welcome your email and your comments. You can reach me at christine@cksweddings.com

This article is copyrighted by Christine Krieg. However, permission to duplicate is granted as long as copyright and contact information remains visible.

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