for the past year or so I’ve been photographing families on a mix of both digital + film cameras. while I could write paragraph after paragraph about just why I love adding film to a family shoot, I think being that I’m much better with images, I should just show you the difference between what I get with each.

it kinda speaks for itself…

often I’ll use my film cameras to achieve a more painterly feel to the images. whether that be with double exposures, shutter drags, or blurring on purpose, it’s a vast difference from the absolute clear crispness of digital photography…

sometimes the film images differ simply by having a different lens, or using black and white film…

and while I do edit my digital images to more closely match the film scans, nothing quite beats the beautiful glow and grain of true film images!

the way I look at it, is that just like how sometimes a painter will combine acrylic paint on top of watercolors, photographers too can bring a little extra something by combining a variety of mediums.

shooting film makes me really pause, look at the scene I’m about to take a picture of, think about all the settings on my camera, think if there’s something I can do to push the boundaries a little, and THEN actually take a photo. it all has to be correct in the camera because you generally can’t edit your way out of a mistake on film! on the flip side, digital let’s me cover all the shots without adding a million dollars to the cost of a session if it was all to be shot on film. each has it’s place, and I work completely different when I hold each camera up to my eye. It’s kind of magical!

not gonna lie though… film has my heart!