Position:Home>Visual Arts> What are all the reasons of why traditional film is a better option than digital

It all really comes down to control of the image!.

Choice of film, exposure, development and printing techniques are all part of the finished product and the pre-planning that goes into it all seems to be missing when a photographer uses digital technology!. The non-traditional photographers in a way skip all those steps !.!. the just point, shoot and look at their tiny LCD and reshoot if they think they need to!.

With black and white, knowing the lighting ratios dictates the development time in order to make perfect prints!. This is just the beginning!. The amount and look of the grain in a shot can be controlled to a certain extent !.!.!. noise in a high ISO digital shot is all controlled by an algorithm designed and written by an engineer!. The photographer is out of that piece of the photo process!.

This is but one factor!.

To really know, you would have had to have been using film for at least ten or so years and then have a good base of knowledge in which to compare the digital experience!.

I had an old DSLR converted to IR only and really enjoyed using it !.!.!. easy to use and instant access to the results !.!.!. but! When I compare the two, IR film and an IR digital image, the film has something that seems alive within the metallic silver that makes the print what it is!.

The scientific community has yet to decide whether the digital IR is collecting the same information they need to interpret images they are used to interrupting using IR film

So the jury is still out on IR and UV imaging!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Digital has built in obsolescense!. The sensor will not upgrade itself - you need to buy a brand new camera!. The images are stuck at the resolution of the camera at the time of shooting - end of story!. With film, better scanners will come along, leading to more resolution!.

This is not mentioning the fact that what so many call "grain" at higher ISOs rarely works for a photograph as it is just noise!. Actual grain from a 800 ISO film can give a certain grittiness that can fit the composition of a shot, while digital noise just detracts from an image!.

The ability to delete pictures on the fly often leads to the "Give Enough Chimpanzees Typewriters and They Can Write Shakespeare" Effect!. While the ability to see exactly what you did and remember how you did it can be a great learning tool, it's nearly human nature to not want to learn when they could just reshoot again and again!. Much of the time, digital leads to "Machinegun Shooting" where the photographer all but holds down the shutter button and hopes they make a good picture!. Film photographers have the tendency to shoot more with the sniper mentality!. Each frame is laid out carefully, patiently, as each frame has a cost!.

Does this help!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Film definitely gives higher resolution pictures!. Ok I know resolution is from digital!. Anyway, digital only recently got fullframe cameras and they're massively expensive!. Film comes in all sorts of sizes, so if you want, you can do massive enlargements with little quality loss!. Film has usually gives more asthetically pleasing pictures (The grain on a film shot picture can't be perfectly simulated in digital)!. Film cameras are way cheaper than digital!. 35mm SLRs don't have the crop factor issue of DSLRs so you don't have confused photographers whose lenses suddenly have strange feild of views!. Film is dirt cheap to develop nowadays (especially considering the higher quality of the images)!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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-Digital is just now competing with film with the introduction of Full Frame DSLR!.
-Both formats yield excellent results
-On is instant the other you must wait!.
-You tend to take your time more with film then digital since there is no delete button on a 35mm SLR
-Darkroom techniques are very gratifying and seeing a photo come to life in the tray is something else
Fuji-chrome Velvia looks better IMO then anything shot digitallyWww@QuestionHome@Com

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Film is still readily available in sizes up to 8x10"!.

So resolution and tonality is a big reason to use film!.


For me personally, film is better than digital for one reason!. ACUITY!. I am a large format photographer and I want to see the grains of pollen in the flower!.


Regarding format, in my opinion, at 35mm or smaller, I do not think there is a reason to use film!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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I think has to do with no being able to replicate the look and feel of certain film stocks!. For me, it's Kodak Tri-X and Fuji Velivia 50!. In the Tri-X case, you can fake it (the grain, contrast) in Photoshop, but, I would rather the film do it for me!.

When it comes to film equipment, I love my Leica and the digital version is close to $5,000!. There is also something to be said about having to take your time and compose your shot using a film camera, as opposed to digital where you can take 50 pictures of the same thing and delete the ones you don't like!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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If you want to view projected images, and you don't want to spend the equivalent of the Gross Domestic Product of a small African nation on buying a projector, a 35mm or even better, large format transparency will beat a digital projected image hands down!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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