What is Film Photography?
As Stephen Spielberg said "Digital photography is a science, film photography is a chemical miracle". Film photography is a chemical reaction that happens when silver halide on film is exposed to light. This chemical reaction results in an image that will either need to be developed or scanned. Each film company has their own color science which dictates what colors appear on the film when exposed to different reflections of light on the color spectrum, giving a timeless, consistent feeling to the photographs.
Can you get the same results with Film & Digital?
In short, no. While digital photography can be color graded, grained, blurred etc to try to match crappy film photography; it doesn't replace the real thing. Reproducing a chemical reaction that results in a specific color makeup in an ever changing environment, is just not that easy. While some people have color mapped the tone of colors produced by certain Kodak and Fujifilm film, it's still extremely hard to get a 1:1 match with digital color. In film photography, there are different sizes of film, different square areas where a chemical reaction is taking place. This changes the information on the photo, lets in more light, and provides more data the bigger the film. Similarly on digital you have sensors, of which come in varying sizes. While some sensors are smaller, and others bigger, which can help to mimic larger format film; how it collects data is entirely different. Resulting in a close match, but never the exact look of film itself.
What are the advantages of having a film photographer?
With modern day cameras, there are all kinds of settings that can help you take better photos. Someone with very little skill can still utilize a modern camera, put it on auto and click away to get absolutely beautiful photos. With film cameras it's not that simple, the technology wasn't there. With film, your photographer actually has to know how to expose a photo, choose the right aperture, and the right shutter speed to get a good image. As well, a film photographer only has one chance at a good photo and has to learn to anticipate the right moment, and be diligent with their composition of the photo. What this gets you is a much more detail oriented photographer all around.
The Cost Differences
You may assume because film is older, that it's cheaper. You would be wrong in that thinking. While poor quality film cameras may be cheap, a good quality film camera is just as expensive as a good quality digital camera. Furthermore, the film itself is very costly, as are scanning or developing services. All together film photography is more expensive at face value than digital.
Is it Worth it.
At the end of the day, you get to decide if it's worth it. If you want a photographer that is well versed in lighting, knows how to anticipate moments and has maximal skill behind a camera then yes, hiring someone who does film is worth it in their performance alone. As well, if you love the colors, style, and look of film photography, it is well worth the investment to hire someone who can do both. Due to the inherent unknown with film, if it reacted properly; it is always my recommendation to hire a photographer that shoots both film and digital on such an important day.
