For me, one of the biggest differences between film and digital is the simply the overall aesthetic of the photos. There is something very different about film and how photos look and I think this is due to a combination of things.

Some things we already discussed in earlier.

In Part 1 of this series I discussed the color palates that I can achieve with film. My favorite film stock is Fuji Pro 400H because I can overexpose it a couple stops and get this lovely pastel palate that photographers like Jose Villa lead the way in! This palate is ideal for women’s portraiture and weddings because it has an inherent soft and feminine look.

In Part 2 we discussed dynamic range and how film handles it beautifully. Again, I love to overexpose my images by a stop or two (or on occasion three!) and film allows me to really push the highlights. I can still keep detail in the highlights at +2 stops! This is exceedingly challenging with digital and always requires post processing to bring back the detail in the highlights (if the data hasn’t already been clipped).

No way would a shot like the one below come SOOC.

Here is a great example of the dynamic range that film offers. This photo has areas of dark shade and bright highlights. I wanted to increase the exposure to lighten the shadows and have an overall lighter photo (even though there is dark shade in the scene). I almost start to loose detail in the brightest brights as a result (this was taken late morning on a HOT summer day). But I can guarantee you that if I shot this on digital, those spots would have lost all traces of detail, and then some.

Another reason I love film so much is because I can achieve a shallow depth of field (DOF). This doesn’t have so much to do with film itself, but the fact that I shoot medium format film and have a lens that I can open up to f/2.0. This all has to do with some complex math and I could show you some fancy diagrams but you can just click on over here to read more about it.

Here is a good example of a shallow DOF. You can see that her froward eye, nose, and lips are in focus but the far eye, necklace, and dress are out of focus. This was done intentionally to bring the attention of the viewer to her face and her smile. Having everything else out of focus also created an overall softer looking photo.

 And the last thing I will talk about today is the grain of the film.

This black and white from Rudy & Megan’s wedding below is a great example of grain. This film stock is Ilford 3200. It is very sensitive to light (ASA 3200) and this allows me to shoot it in lower light without having to drop my shutter speed too much. All film has grain, but it’s the size, shape, and roughness that is different between film stocks. One of the side effects of having film that is very sensitive to light is the size and roughness of the grain. I’ll admit that this look isn’t for everyone.

Digital photography’s equivalent of grain is called, “noise.” Is is different, yet similar to grain, but I assure you hardly any photographer will describe digital noise as “pretty” and most will pay BIG bucks for a digital camera that can shoot in low light without, or very little, noise. I also detest noise (and am one of those photographers that paid BIG bucks for a camera that can handle low light without much noise), but I also embrace the grain of film like Ilford 3200.

Why? Because like I said before, noise and grain are similar yet very different. I will direct you to Cambridge in color again to see their explanation and examples of noise here. You can see how different noise and grain are, yes? I also found this blog post that shows some film images with grain and then some digital images with noise. Can you see the difference?

I embrace the grain of Ilford 3200. I think it provides a very moody and romantic quality to photos. This is my favorite film stock to use during a couple’s first dance and sometimes during the ceremony. It’s those intimate moments where the grain really accentuates the mood of the moment.

 I can’t say that the grain alone creates the mood. So I ask myself, “do I think grain is moody because it’s always used in low light, and so it has a tendency to be moody by the nature in which it’s used?” Maybe! But I know I probably wouldn’t shoot Ilford 3200 at an outdoor, colorful, sunny, whimsical, ceremony. Not just because it would be too bright outside to use this film, but because I don’t feel it would suit the situation. I would definitely stick with Fuji Pro 400H to capture the color and excitement that suits the cheery, whimsical mood!

But if I’m in the National Cathedral surrounded by dramatic architecture and low romantic lighting, you bet I’m busting out some Ilford! To me it’s the cherry on top of this dramatic, romantic, sundae! ;)