There have been quite a few reasons for me to pick up a medium format camera and start to shoot film, when everybody else seems to ditch their workhorse and wonder machines for the trigger happy digital equivalent.
Maybe it’s because I have never shot film before, thanks to the convenience of being born into the digital revolution, the thought of trying something “new” got hold the better part of me; it may be the fact that I cannot afford a digital back just yet, even the “low end” ones like Aptus 22 or p25+; it could also be the result of encouragement from my dear friends to push me further into a fine art portrait photographer; it might be the curiosity of seeing so many photographers whose work I admire are shooting with them; or it could just be a “dare” from a client’s remark “you are cheating if you haven’t shot film before”.
But nothing speaks louder when I have the image file lay right in front of me, it will be a real test of patience when I send them off for “large” prints.
If I were to sum up on the difference between film vs digital, my answer is one word – “substance”.
Film has it, digital doesn’t (excluding medium format digital backs for the time being).
Grains and film size may have something to do with it, but not much. It is the thought, visualisation, observation, fine tuning, composition and direction behind each frame that gives picture the substance.
When every shutter press starts to cost you money, you REALLY start to think over before making a photograph. As a result, you see more, think more, plan more and shoot less.
Compensating the loss in quantity, you make up in quality.
So think twice before you hire a photographer, ditch the cheap one who promise to give you 1000+ images, embrace the expensive one who will give you 10.
We all heard the saying that “the artist who makes 10 paintings in a day takes 10 years to sell one; the one who takes 10 years to make one sells it in a day”, and there is a reason why we are still hearing it.
Dan Winters only submit ONE frame to clients, TWO if they ask for it. And I bet he isn’t cheap for hire.