Hello, friends!I’m so excited to share this session with you, as all (well, all but one!) of these images were shot on a medium format film camera! As I’ve begun this journey of shooting film and have told a few people about it, I’ve certainly received a few strange looks. “you mean like real old fashioned film?” “can you even still buy film like that?” “why would you want to do that?!” I completely understand these comments, as a few months ago I thought the very same things!
A couple of the wedding photographers I have learned from over the years (Melissa Jill and Emily Steffen!) have switched over to shooting hybrid, meaning they shoot a lot of film and some digital on a wedding day. As I watched Melissa’s journey, I kept writing the idea off as something that’s just not for me, even though I have been astounded at how incredible her images are recently!! However, when I asked Emily why she shoots she film, her answer intrigued me. Film images don’t require much editing at all. So when she was shooting so many weddings that she couldn’t keep up with the editing, she decided to begin shooting film so that she wouldn’t need to spend all her time at the computer. I had no idea! This made me seriously look into for the first time, because as a mom to toddler twins, my time is so valuable these days!
I also LOVE the look of film. It’s gorgeous, even with very minimal to no editing! There is an outrageous number of presets available to photographers these days with the aim of replicating the look of film. Although some may come close, it’s impossible to truly make a digital image look like film, at least in my opinion.
I began looking into it more and took the plunge to buy a 35mm camera. I shot a couple sessions with it, and although I LOVED the images it produced, the photos weren’t high enough quality to be ok with shooting with it at a wedding (aka extremely grainy). So, my next step was to try out a medium format camera, and I am hooked! This camera produces high-quality, gorgeous images. I love the way a medium format camera processes light. There is such depth of color and detail, which to me results is very genuine-looking images.
So where will this journey take me from here? I don’t know yet! I will never switch over to film entirely, but I plan to continue using it at weddings and other portrait sessions. I’m so excited for how it will transform my style of photography, as I feel so much more inspired!
A huge thank you to my gorgeous friend Mara who was willing to get back into her wedding dress super early in the morning! The florals were done by the crazy talented Megan at Flowers By Design KC.
This photo below is the one digital image in this post. I don’t have wide lens for my film camera, so digital won over for this one! :)
