There’s a raging debate in photography circles about whether film or digital is superior when it comes to creating images. People argue for and against both every day. So I decided I would throw my hat in the ring and do a comparison for myself.
I put together a knitwear photography session for my fall collection of pieces. I’ve been knitting and designing pieces for this the past couple months. This was a landmark photo session for me for a couple of reasons. First, it was the first session that included my film camera. Second, it was the first session with a model that included MY knits ONLY. Usually, if I book a model, a client is first priority and I will throw in a couple of my things rushed at the end. Well, not anymore! Going forward, I’m going to put a lot more emphasis on my own work. My stuff is super fun, and I want to get it out there!
However, that’s not the point to this blog post. Today, we are going to compare film and digital images. I was blown away by this. I think you’ll see why.
I posted this grouping on my facebook page and asked people to weigh in. Which one is film? Can you really tell? The differences between the black and white conversions are so minimal, is it even worth the extra expense to shoot the film? Especially if I’m going for a black and white image. It’s all in the proper exposure, so the full tonal range is represented. So, then I wondered about color.
Now the differences really show up. Both images were first imported into Lightroom for basic adjustments, and then they were exported as dng files for photo shop edits. I’m not sure one or the other is a clear “winner.” They are just different treatments, and I think both work. I do use a plug in in Lightroom that is supposed to make digital files more film-like. I think it works! They recommend you always shoot film alongside the digital so you have reference images. Then you color match the digital files to the film so you know you a “real” match to film. In this comparison I did not color match. Any guesses on which is which?
Here I did the extra steps to color match as closely as I could while maintaining natural-looking skin tone. I sought to match the greens and the density. Pretty darn close. I would say the Lightroom plug in is doing what it says it does. It’s from Mastin Labs if you’re interested. It’s on the pricey side, but I find the quality plugins and actions cost a little more money. You get what you pay for. So, have you figured out which image is film yet?
Then I wondered how the digital file would render if I reprocessed it and left off the Mastin Lab plugin.
By now, you’ve figured out which image is digital, because it keeps changing! This digital image is edited the same as all the rest but without the Mastin Lab plugin in Lightroom. Still a pretty good looking file. I actually LIKE the addition of grain to my files. It makes the retouching work faster and easier as the grain smooths out a lot of stuff. I think it gives the image a depth and soul a noise free digital image just doesn’t have. That’s MY opinion!! It’s a personal preference and what gives my work its unique voice. That’s what is great about photography. We can all develop our own look and style.
So what would the film processed digital file look like next to the same file processed as a regular digital file?
They are both good interpretations, and it really comes down to preference. I like the film look, personally. That’s the image on the right. It has a different depth and personality. Since I started in film, I’m going to be drawn to that look and style.
Doing this comparison sure makes me feel great about the images my Nikon produces. A full frame sensor with professional glass creates an incredible image. I used my 85mm 1.4G Nikon lens and exposed this at 1.8. The lens was a major investment for me, and is considered one of three MUST have lenses for Nikon by professionals. So, I invested in it. Worth every penny. I sacrificed a lot of restaurant meals and clothing to buy it, but as long as I take care of it, it should last me the rest of my life. My next experiment goal is to invest in some vintage manual glass. You can pick up old lenses for incredible prices, and I like shooting with manual focus. Especially now that I learned the trick of going into Live View and zooming way in to get focus on the shallow DOF shots. It puts me back on a tripod for shooting, but honestly, I like shooting on tripod. You don’t see much of that anymore, either.
I figure it’s time to fully embrace my vintage sensibilities. I can’t compete with the younger crowd in terms of energy level or hipness. So I’m not going to! I’m going to be me and fully embrace the things I love about photography which happen to be vintage concepts.
Why not? I get to create images that look like THIS! This is the film image in case you had not figured it out yet.
It’s Ektar 100 120 film. It’s OLD film. I’ve had it for years and it’s technically expired. But I refuse to waste it! I have two more rolls of it and 3 rolls of Ilford Black and White that turned up when I cleaned up my office last month. I send the film to The Darkroom in San Francisco. I will definitely use them again. They scanned my negatives and sent the film scans to me on a mini thumb drive. Great service, and I do love working from my film. I’ll probably send some old film for scans this fall so I can revisit some old work.
But you can bet I will continue to happily use my digital equipment, because it gives me images like THIS!
The hat is something I made and will be listing in my etsy shop this fall. More about the hat and the knitting part of this later. Today is all about the craft aspect of photography.
So how about you? Do you have a preference for film or digital? Have you ever shot film? What about manual focus? Do you rely of auto focus for everything or do you focus yourself? I know you’re shooting in full manual for exposures. Aren’t you?
