Wedding images film vs. digital photography

Now I'm excited as we can actually blog now!!! Thanks to the help of my good friend and awesome photographer Laura Leppert of Leppert Photography. Thanks so much for your help Laura!

Right now our studio is jammed with Fall weddings to be edited so a daily blog probably just won't be happening here. But keep checking back for some great information on wedding & special event cinematography. The ins and outs of today's innovations in both cinematography and photography for today's couples. We will also be bring you trends from other wedding vendors and coordinators in the Greater Cincinnati area.

So let's get started with some helpful photography information for you.

Many brides and grooms have asked the question "Which is better; film photography or digital photography"? First of all, a lot has to do with the film camera that is being used to photograph the wedding and reception. A photography studio that uses 35mm film cameras is definately on the low end of fim cameras. I have been in the wedding industry for over twenty four years now and way back when I started shooting weddings the low end photographers used the 35mm cameras and any photographer worth their weight used a medium format camera.

Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format in still photography. Generally, the term applies to any film size in-between 35 mm and large format (4"×5" or more) sheet film and to the type of camera that uses the format. Due to the higher image resolution offered by the larger film size, the majority of medium-format users are professional photographers who often require fine image detail.

Simply put the larger the film the better the quality of the image that was photographed. After the film is shot it is sent to a lab to be developed. That process still exists; now here is the twist to the film claim that film is superior to digital. After the film is processed and the photographer now has the negatives the lab scans the negatives to create the prints. A scanned negative is now a "digital" file! And since the negative was scanned it is also a Second Generation in quality - meaning the negative scanned file has lost quality in being scanned. See the compairison of the two film types in the photo. Much larger surface on the medium format film.

Photo labs all now scan film negatives to make a file of the photograph to make prints from. There are definately labs that will print a photograph the old way of passing light through the negative onto the photographic paper but charge a fee of a minimum of $2.50 for each negative. So a photographers who shoots film and has 1500 images will pay a lab fee of $3750 to have the old process done. That eats up the photographer's fee extremely quickly!!

I asked my friend Dave Ziser of David A. Ziser Photography the shelf life of a digital wedding album. He said a good two hundred years! That should last your family for several generations for sure.

So don't be fooled by a photographer telling you that film cameras are far superior to digital cameras. Especially photographers who shoot with a 35mm film camera. Hope this helps you out.