The Magic of Film

 
For the past couple of years, I have been shooting at least a couple of rolls of black and white film at nearly every wedding we photograph.
 
I love the unpredictable nature of film along with the almost organic feel of it.  Digital photograph has become so clean, sharp, and predictable, it is fun to go back to film and not be 100% sure what will come out until I see the images a week or two later. There is something almost magical about the way film works: Photons strike small crystals of silver salts located in an emulsion on a small transparent strip of material. The photon reacts with the silver salt, driving off the salt, and leaving metallic silver behind. If as few as four atoms of the salt are transformed into metallic silver, a latent image is left on the film that can be developed. Technically it is more chemistry than magic, but it is still pretty amazing.
 
Of course, to be safe, the overwhelming majority of images we shoot at weddings are still digital. Digital not only has the advantage of instant feedback, but also more reliability. We don’t need to send originals to a lab for processing, and can back up the images on location. See my post regarding backing up in the field.