Why film shooters shoot film

Consumer photography has gone completely digital, professional photography almost the same. But a few people still hold on to their film cameras, and still buy rolls of film whenever they get the chance.

But why?

San Diego-based photographer Robert Benson wanted to know the answer, so he set about asking a cross-section of pros what their approach to film is. He asked why they shoot film, what’s so special about it, and how it changes the way they work in comparison to digital workflow.

The answers are enlightening, thought-provoking, and funny. While all his interviewees are keen film photographers, none are exclusively so – not any more. Even the most enthusiastic film shooters are using digital for part of their work these days.

Here are a handful of my favorite quotes from the article, but I encourage you to free up 10 minutes of your time to read the whole thing – it’s definitely worth it.

Brian Finke: “More and more these days when I am on assignment I get the WOW reaction when I pull the first Polaroid and everyone on set sees I’m shooting film. I am instantly seen as an art photographer, which makes me happy. I learned shooting film and love it. I shoot exclusively with the Hasselblad, it is a great process, taking the Polaroids, loading all the backs, then while shooting taking a pause and reloading, the physicality of the camera and process are beautiful.”

Simon Watson: “It is beautiful, easy to use and it is always so much more sophisticated looking than digital. Always.”

David Lauridsen: “Film is beautiful. It has a depth to it and a painterly quality in the way it captures light and texture that digital just isn’t capable of capturing… yet … With film, I can expose for good shadow detail and just burn in the sky. With digital, the sky is just gone completely or if I expose for it then I end up with an image that is just much darker than I like. It’s recoverable to some degree in post, but it still doesn’t have that ‘lushness’ that film has.”

Bryce Duffy: “It’s like listening to a vinyl record on a turntable through a macintosh tube amp through good speakers, versus listening to a high quality MP3 on your iPod through a pair of expensive headphones.”

Bryce Duffy: “When I’m shooting without lights, I don’t need any power at all – not even batteries for the camera (which is completely mechanical). I can do a pretty good job of guessing the exposure if they light meter stops working. Everything I need to take a picture can fit into one small bag. With digital you have all these other technical challenges to overcome with computer equipment, software, batteries to be charged for everything. I think it can get in the way of making spontaneous pictures.”

As well as these quotes, some interesting take-aways:

• There are still many commissioning editors who prefer film over digital
• Using film need not be expensive; some photographers say it’s cheaper on some shoots
• Film shooters use labs they trust, and utterly trust the labs they use

(Photo by Travis Hornung, used under CC license)