Is film or digital better for you? Our
short, simple
quiz will answer that question perfectly.
Digital Photography
pros and cons-
A Special Moment Photography
Digital allows your Photographer to see
his shots as they are being taken, and so he can easily adjust
and re-shoot if desired. This is especially useful in tricky lighting,
and situations where your photographer wants to bounce his flash
off a wall or ceiling. This is a very strong case for digital,
and is an extremely significant benefit. It is incredibly useful
to have this kind of instant feedback. Digital can lack detail
in the critical shadow and highlight areas (bright areas), and
those highlights can be easily overexposed or "blown out"
to the point where they can render no detail at all. Film has
more ability to deliver detail in dark and bright areas on the
same image. Film can handle
the highlights being overexposed by 200% and still pull off detail
in the highlights. Digital is not as good handling overexposure. Both film and digital are rather nasty when significantly under exposed, digital faring actually better. Film has more depth when shooting against a flat,
distant background, like the ocean, where there is nothing between
the subject and background. Digital can sometimes look two-dimensional
in certain cases, almost like the background is a studio backdrop.
Because digital images are created with pixels on a flat sensor surface, it can look 2 dimensional, and people can look like they are superimposed on a backdrop. Film, on the other hand, is made up of irregular crystals, and this gives it a definite hand up on digital in this way. Film also produces superb skintones in outdoor light. Indoors, digital has the advantage of being able to custom white balance to that interior lighting, whereas film is balanced to daylight, so you need to use flash indoors on your subjects. This is a significant drawback to film. Where film excels is in outdoor lighting, and we think it makes the most sense in these conditions, and for formal picture taking only. Digital systems at present can show shadow
areas with too much darkness, and if the bright areas are significantly overexposed,
ie your Wedding dress- it can be difficult or impossible to correct. One major problem every film photographer in Hawaii
is facing is there is not one lab that offers high quality analog
printing from film, not one. Our lab does a great job, but their
equipment first scans the negative and then prints. The prints
look sharp and snappy, but skin tones and colors in general are
not natural looking like good analog prints would be.
Currently, we are scanning the film and printing
from the scans that we tweak ourselves for those that want the
film look and do not want to ship negs to the mainland. This appears
to be a workable solution. Our lab in Hawaii currently does medium res scans that can produce an 8x10 print. There is a company on the mainland that can do hi-res scans for a good price with a minimum order of 200 scans, and you can print a nice 16x20 from a 35mm neg, or even larger from a medium format neg. We think it makes sense to photograph your formal photos with film. Our pro digital
camera system puts out some pretty spectacular images, great skin
tones and color accuracy, but we find it essential to create lighting
that is overall very even for best results. This all said honestly, we do like
digital because when things are right, the image quality is astounding,
especially with natural lighting using no flash. Image softness
can be adjusted in camera, rendering gorgeous softness right on
the original file without using a softening filter, and it can
be easily sharpened in the computer later if desired. We are very
excited about the future of digital which has very attractive
benefits for most Photographers, specifically work flow efficiency
and total control over the finished product. These benefits are
also good for you, the client. Quality of finished product is
extremely important to everyone. No film lab can tweak images
as well as one can in the computer. For Wedding formals with nice,
even lighting, we find digital to render outstanding images, especially
when making big enlargements. We do like the film look, the three dimensional feel
of it, gorgeous skintones on outdoor light, and use it for those who appreciate the subtle qualities
of film, which derives images from grain vs perfectly shaped pixels.
Again, digital has tremendous control of final print output via
computer enhancements. Film has similar qualities when you scan
the film and then tweak the scan in the computer, but that is
time consuming, more expensive and you do generally lose some
quality from scanning. Many photos in our albums were printed
from scanned film, and they do look great up to 8x10. Print size
from film scans maxes out at 8x10 except when you do hi-res scans. You can analoge print up to
about 24x36 from medium format and 11x14 from 35mm if you can find anyone to do that for you. We have no one that we know and trust to do that for us anymore unfortunately. We rely on scans which gives us more control over the finished product.. Like everything
else in this world, there are pros and cons to both systems, and
sometimes what you desire for a finished product, and what your budget will allow can help you to make a
final decision if you are torn between the two.
We offer film and two digital systems to choose from
For film pkgs, we offer both 35mm and medium format, which renders a much larger negative than 35mm. Within the digital domain, we offer two choices- our Fuji S5 camera offers the best skintones and the most dynamic range of any digital camera available- ie the ability to capture bright highlights and also show exceptional shadow detail at the same time. The downside to this camera- it is only a 6 mp camera. This limits print size to a maximum of 20x30 inches, with 16x20 looking a lot better. Our Canon 5D camera is a whopping 13 mp, is tack sharp, but does not have the same flattering skintones and is lacking in dynamic range. We are able to adjust the canon 5D to produce a flatter image, and that helps out significantly with the dynamic range performance. If you do not plan to print over 16x20, we greatly prefer the Fuji S5’s look, and recommend it highly.
Digital Albums
Digital albums are custom bound albums
which are made from digital images. Because they are created in
the computer from digital images, this allows for a totally custom
layout with virtually no limits to what can be effected.. The
neat thing is that you can make a digital album using both types
of photographs, ie film and digital in origin, and you can also
make a digital album solely using images shot on film negatives
or even slides if that is what you are working with. This means
you can include childhood photos if desired in your Wedding album.
We can even scan a print if that is all you have, and include
those images also. Keep in mind that you need a digitally shot
image to landscape across two pages, film cannot do this easily
or cost-effectively. Take a look at our custom album offerings,
both traditional and digital
storybook. Please call us to discuss your Wedding Photography
and album needs. We actually spend the time discussing your Wedding
in great detail, and with no pressure whatsoever.
A Special Moment
591-2220 from Oahu, or Toll-free at 866.591.2224
vidsolve@ yahoo.com
