20 Years later and my love for film is alive and healthy.
Why I pray film doesn't disappear
The process of creating an image: It takes time. It takes some thought and creativity to compose and create the image you want to end up with. With today's digital ways we tend to shoot 50 images quickly and end up with something good on one frame. This is almost required from us as clients want their stuff yesterday. With film, we spend 50 minutes figuring out the light the angle the camera settings and imagine the final shot we want to end up with. This is an art.
Digital is more technology - less art.
The look of film: Film has a unique look to it and tends to interpret light the same way that our eyes do. Its a chemical process from the start. Digital format interprets absolutely any image in zero's and ones. A lot of the layers of the finer details and dynamic range are lost in digital. Film images have a genuine quality that is missing in digital and that's why there are many programs and apps available so that the look of film can be imitated.
Archiving and longevity: I have negatives from 30 years ago that I can quickly scan and print. They exist and are tangible. I can touch, smell and feel the negs. I love it. To find anything digital now out of millions of images on various hard drives, discs etc is challenging to say the least. They do not exist and are only zeros and ones. Even if you have printed these images, the original light capture was in an invisible format that will be hidden somewhere on some soon to be dated technology.
I do love digital and do most of my professional work in the digital world. Its the standard set for us after all.
But I cannot view digital as an art the way I feel about film.
Slow down, make art, shoot film.
Why I pray film doesn't disappear
The process of creating an image: It takes time. It takes some thought and creativity to compose and create the image you want to end up with. With today's digital ways we tend to shoot 50 images quickly and end up with something good on one frame. This is almost required from us as clients want their stuff yesterday. With film, we spend 50 minutes figuring out the light the angle the camera settings and imagine the final shot we want to end up with. This is an art.
Digital is more technology - less art.
The look of film: Film has a unique look to it and tends to interpret light the same way that our eyes do. Its a chemical process from the start. Digital format interprets absolutely any image in zero's and ones. A lot of the layers of the finer details and dynamic range are lost in digital. Film images have a genuine quality that is missing in digital and that's why there are many programs and apps available so that the look of film can be imitated.
Archiving and longevity: I have negatives from 30 years ago that I can quickly scan and print. They exist and are tangible. I can touch, smell and feel the negs. I love it. To find anything digital now out of millions of images on various hard drives, discs etc is challenging to say the least. They do not exist and are only zeros and ones. Even if you have printed these images, the original light capture was in an invisible format that will be hidden somewhere on some soon to be dated technology.
I do love digital and do most of my professional work in the digital world. Its the standard set for us after all.
But I cannot view digital as an art the way I feel about film.
Slow down, make art, shoot film.
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