Film vs Digital: What Makes Photography 'REAL'?

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[dangilmore]

Film, especially large formats, is simply fun. The process becomes the whole point.

[qnetx]

I’ve been shooting and developing film for over 50 years and I’ve been shooting digital for 20 years. I enjoy film for the process and I enjoy digital for the convenience. My analogy is that shooting film is like cooking a meal from scratch and digital is like heating a frozen dinner.

[smithsphotography]

I do digital too but I also love the feeling of using my Mamiya 645. The connection to film and camera is like the feeling of driving my manual transmission classic car. The attention and concentration to operation feels as being a part of it.

[damofg]

I started to use film again a few years ago. The act of taking with film feels special and tangible to me; there is a sense of excitement in the care, planning, deliberateness and anticipation (or rather not knowing) that I love. I always seem to cherish my film images more than the digitals. The digitals are somehow arbitrary and capricious in their ease.

[luisarevalo]

I was 18 when I shot my first B&W photos. I use to buy Trix-400 in a bulk roll of 25ft. I learned to look at the image I wanted to capture before I pressed the shutter, and recall it when I processed and printed. Today I use a refurbished Nikon D7500 and I still look at the imagine before I press the shutter. I love the film process and for me the digital process is the same. Yesterday’s dev solutions are today digital editing software. I have never had a digital photo that has not be processed to get the imagine I had in mind when I pressed the shutter button, and yes at times I still manual focus!

[judeemclaughlin]

The authenticity of a photo depends on the person pushing the shutter not the device the shutter is attached to.
And yes, sometimes I miss the more deliberateness of film.

[terryroth]

Myself, I haven't thought about film photography in terms of authenticity but in terms of enjoyability. Great video here.

[barkloud]

This video really hit home for me. I started taking photos in high school, in the mid 80’s, then went to college for photography. Through the 90’s, I rented a B&W darkroom in an arts facility, and I was hardcore ‘darkroom photography is true photography’. My day job was printing at a commercial lab, and I could see digital creeping up, to the point I was taking Photoshop classes to keep up with my job, but stayed in the darkroom for my own work.
Then I ran into a unique situation. I was diagnosed with MS in the mid 90’s, and by 2010, it became physically impossible to stand in the darkroom long enough to print anything worthwhile. So, I had to give up the darkroom and pick up the laptop. This felt like a betrayal, though the timing was perfect to allow me to still work on photography with my disability. I had a years long creative rut during this switch, just feeling like a complete traitor to my own ideals.
I now love using my Nikon Z6, and processing in Lightroom and sometimes Ps. I even take advantage of my iPhone, especially since it shoots in RAW now. It took a long time. I do, however, still really miss the darkroom…

[RichardMaguire]

Geoffrey Crawley used to write in AP that film gives a de facto original immage rather than a file of ones and zeros. I have used film for 50 years and never stopped, I like the phisicality and pace of film photography. I would love affordable reversal film to be available, this is my favourite, it has to be got right in camera with no possibilty for adjustment later, it refined my technique.

[davidbiddlecombe]

I think your spot on. I’ve been doing this photography thing for 40 years and back in the day processed my own colour slide and B&W film / prints, but always lab processed colour print, because it was too difficult. Now I only shoot digital and I do not miss film one bit, not at all. I’m more able to produce the images that I want digitally and be more certain that I got what I wanted at the time of shooting. I do understand the desire of doing the analogue process and all power to those who want to go through the process from start to end. I less understand those who shoot film, send it off to a lab and get back digital files to process in LR. Photography is a house that’s large enough for everyone and long May that be the case, but for me film is firmly in my rear view mirror.

[JBMotorrad]

"What's driving those who've only known digital to film?"

The same thing that drives them to vinyl records, turntables, manual typewriters, physical books, etc. A large part is just novelty, I'd wager. I don't expect a resurgence in film use worldwide. ;)

I actually was turned off by digital in the very early stages. I spent more time at the computer than I did in the field. The whole reason I enjoyed photography since I was 5 was the total immersion in the image capture moments, not "Post processing", that soulless activity. :)

My daughter, 25, and her fiancé, 27, just purchased a "Polaroid" type camera. Novelty and fun, but will probably soon collect dust on the shelf.

I think I would so enjoy a talk and walk with you around town with a film camera at the ready. I enjoy your perspectives and delivery very much. I've still got my Nikon FA ;)

[sarahjansen]

I like the disussion You opened up and the thing of slowing down when doing film is very much what i love and gets me into creative mode. Another thing that helps me is to be limited. When i go out for a topic or thing i want to discover, I take just 1-2 rolls of film and one fixed lens. These limits or constraints help me to see and be careful in what I'm doing. Metering the light, thinking of where I want to have my lights and shadows. Another thing is the time between seeing something and -after careful consideration- taking a shot and seeing the result.
I never got into digital (except my phone) and the main thing keeping me off of digital is having instantly a result. This hinders me of being careful.

[karmagroovy]

Yes, shooting analog is a wonderful experience and there is a sort of magic about film that is different than shooting digital. I know I was "wowed" when I looked through a ground glass viewfinder or when I saw an image appear on the photo paper in the wet darkroom for the first time.

[caerphoto]

I don’t see film as any more “authentic” than digital, except in the sense that you end up with a physical object (the negative/slide).

However, I do think there is enormous value in creating a finished physical manifestation of your pictures, ie a print. Prints are what makes photographs “real” for me: a physical object that can be handled, moved around, and will last for years, decades or even centuries.

Images on screen are woefully ephemeral by comparison.

[Original_Old_Farmer]

You are making some good points. It's all about where you are (emotionally) and what you need. I've done color film photography with film all the way to enlarging. I'm glad I did that, then. Now at 74 I am into esthetics of the image, not the tactile side of film. But may I put something out for your consideration. Building a large format (using film plates) pin hole camera. The closest I have come to this is making a pinhole and then shooting the image with a camera. It wasn't solar photos, but it was taken on a very bright day. It was just an experiment. I got sharp images doing this, but it had extreme keystoning, which I knew would happen. Be safe.

[jeff]

Hi Alex. I think you hit the nail on the head about the resurgence of film. If there is a common comment I hear about the process, is that it causes you to slow down. In my mind, it enhances your vision as an artist, as opposed to something of lesser classification. Those of us of a certain age started with film. Some of us moved on to digital, some stayed with film, while others adopted both mediums. What attracts me to film is the deliberant mental steps needed to achieve a desired outcome. For me personally, my happiest times with a camera is when I haul out the 4x5. Not only is the image quality beyond anything else I have produced, but more importantly it provides me a link back to the very foundations of photography - that I too am performing the same steps our photographic forbearers undertook, although with much more reliable results. Glad Po decided to make a showing...

[scrptwic]

I bought my first digital DSLR In 2005 and have shot film until this year I bought a Pen

























































I am shooting film again I hadn't shot film since 2005, when I got my DSLR camera. I feel digital is real and am so glad we have it to photograph with. Film to me is when I have the time and I am not rushed as it takes me longer and I am more careful with film as each picture costs real money. I remember going to Europe in the early 1980's and shooting 55 rolls of film compared to returning in 2022

[DGLuxton]

I love the discussion at the start about authenticity. It turns out we have a similar path: I fell in love with photography while borrowing my brother’s AE-1. Now I’m using a Mamiya C330, while having a rebuild done on a Hasselblad (yes, these things are expensive!).

[atl_mx]

I started with photography 35 years ago on an old 110 film camera. When digital came, I made the switch without thinking. Recently I’ve come back to film after my parents found some old gear. Like you said, the slowing down and the methodical checks when taking pictures with film made me just fall back in love with it. I bought a Nikon F2, some lens and fell into some gear acquisition syndrome for a bit.

I just got a Pentax 6x7 with mirror lock up. I love keeping my negatives, I love holding them up and looking at them. It’s just very tangible, 10 frames on a roll. I used to have an Mamiya RB67 but it was a bit cumbersome to walk around with.
Thanks for sharing your story and thoughts about film. I’m really interested in seeing some of your new film work as you’re coming back from a hiatus and experience with digital.

I feel like digital compliments film. Allows you to get a large number of trials and errors, just the sheer number of shutter counts to learn with. Then you move that experience to film and can breathe with it. You dance with your camera and make music.

[AlaskaBrian]

With digital photography and heavy photoshop, people started getting jaded, feeling like they were being lied to by photographers too often. Now with AI that has become infinitely worse, and will continue to get worse and worse. As Kyle Hill has been saying on his channel, AI is leading to the death of the internet and they may be a rise of desire to return to "meat space,
i.e. actual connection outside of the digital space. I think film photography is one version of our art's version of that. I also agree that people love the process of film