Not “Film vs Digital,” but “Film AND Digital.” That is my Philosophy.
I picked up my first camera somewhere around 1974. Obviously, I pre-date digital by more than a year or two. I fell in love with what I considered the more creative end of photography, taking the pictures, but I pretty much hated the “work” end…making the prints. To make things worse, no one ever accused me of being a wizard in the dark room. After years of failing to realize what I imagined was my potential, due largely to my incompetence in the dark room, I let photography sort of slide by me. I mostly gave up. When digital came along, it looked a lot like a miracle to me. I bought a Canon 300D just as soon as a used copy became available. I shot the heck out of that thing! Its got something around 150,000 clicks on it and I still have it.
Funny thing happened a few years after I got that camera, I rediscovered film. In particular, black and white film. The ugly noise my early generation digital camera produced at high ISOs became, once again, the sweet grain of Tri-X pushed to 1250 ISO. The predictable, almost clinical look of low ISO digital images reverted to the classic look of 50 ISO Efke. Best of all perhaps, all those sweet film cameras I could not afford in my youth had become almost surplus on ebay.
Fortunately, by the time I remembered my love of film, I didn’t really have to choose between digital and analog. Scanners and printers had advanced to the point that I could do a hybrid workflow. The hybrid workflow got me around my dark room issues while allowing me to enjoy the goodness of film and produce prints I could be proud of.
In a nutshell, my workflow is as follows:
1. Shoot film
2. Process negatives
3. Scan negatives (Shopping for a Great Scanner try the Epson V750-M Pro Color Scanner
4. Photoshop
5. Print
Certainly there are drawbacks to this workflow. If I pushed the shutter button as often as I did with a DSLR, I’d likely kill myself before doing all that developing/scanning. The fact is, I don’t shoot like that anymore. I’m far more likely to come back with film in the camera than to run out. We could go back and forth for a very long time over the effect that shooting less has on your work, perhaps another time.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, I don’t believe results are all that count. As an enthusiastic, but not professional, photographer, the experience is at least as important as the results. I’ve found my sweet spot along the digital—film continuum, and it’s nowhere near either end.
If you are scanning film or slides and processing digitally we want to hear your experience. Post a comment suggest a scanner or a kind of film for those who would like to give this workflow a try.
If you are shopping for a Great Scanner try the Epson V750-M Pro Color Scanner
We hope you enjoyed the Guest Post By Photographer Steve Maniscalco
You can find Steve on his Website or his Flickr
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Nice post, and it almost exactly mirrors my experience with photography. I love to shoot, but don’t have any interest in what follows (other than processing film, that’s fun). Digital helps get my negatives into prints, and films helps me to make better pictures. But I do both, it’s fun to mix it up.