As a wedding photographer, I’m not only capturing moments in time, I’m also capturing feelings. Those feelings include the excitement of families coming together through marriage. There are hopes met and stages set for the future. It’s a fleeting occasion that, if done right, is made timeless through photos. And nothing says timeless like film photography. There’s something about how it forces me to slow down and focus on the moments that I want to capture because each shot costs money.  The moment of that pause before the shutter clicks is beautiful and brief, and the film photo will ensure that moment never goes out of style.

I haven’t given up on digital, it still works best for some situations like receptions. Lighting can be scarce, making it difficult to shoot film. By incorporating hybrid photography, I can capture every detail of the day without losing those aspects in the photo that tell the whole story. Hybrid photography is essentially shooting a combination of film photos and digital photos. The digital also gives me the opportunity to take lots of photos in succession so I don’t miss anything. And if something should happen to the film, as a hybrid photographer I have digital photos as a backup so that memories are captured no matter what.

I love to shoot at least one roll for every session that I can so that I have a good starting point for how I want my images to look. I wait until I get the film scans back from the lab and then match my digital edits to those images. I want my images to look like what we see with our eyes; soft, colorful, and detailed.

I have fallen in love with film photography and am learning something new about it every session. It’s like Christmas morning every time I get that email that says “your film scans are ready”! Below are some comparisons for you of film versus digital captured at the same time, with roughly the same settings.

Film is on the left and unedited digital is on the right.