I am so excited to start incorporating film into my weddings this year.  While I’m not strictly a Washington DC film wedding photographer just yet (I still shoot a significant amount of the day with digital cameras– making me a hybrid wedding photographer), film has my heart!

If you follow this blog, my Instagram (here), or have met me for coffee, you know that I have a love of stucco, marble, aged brass, chandeliers, and I considered naming my dog Patina.  Honestly.

Film gives me that same feeling.  Digital is awesome, but can be too in-your-face and sharp.  Film is actually able to take in more colors and not “blow” highlights and shadows like digital– which is a huge bonus for those of you shooting in midday with a cacophony of blown highlights and shadows.

Here is an example from a workshop I just completed called For the Love of Film.

This is completely unedited and pretty amazeballs!  See the leaf in the lower right corner?  I would lose all of its detail in digital.  There was too much light for it’s delicate texture.

I’ll start offering film packages in 2017.  While I’m shooting engagement sessions and weddings with film during 2016, however, I don’t want to charge clients for more than the cost of film and processing until I have backup equipment— and this camera??  I love it, but its worth more than our commuting car.

So, in the meantime, I love to shoot a handful of rolls every wedding.  Comparing the work between my digital and film photographs has been amazing and only woos me more and more toward film.

Here is the digital image from Catherine and Walter’s wedding.

Here is the film.

Again, here is a digital.

Here is the film version.

Striking difference, right?  The film images are sharp without that Star Trekkie super sharpness.

The images from Catherine and Walter’s wedding were processed by Richard’s Film Lab in California.  The first image was processed with Carmencita Film lab in Spain.

Although the turn around time with Richard’s was amazing– sent on Monday via regular USPS and I got the scans back on Friday!– I didn’t like the colors.  The turn around time for Carmencita was **significantly** longer.  It took over a week for my film rolls to arrive in Spain using 48-hour delivery, and it took 7-8 business days for the scans.

Although I was able to shoot another wedding, mail rolls of film to another lab, and receive scans back before receiving the images from Carmencita, it was well worth the wait.  I am in LOVE with the images.

Stay tuned, and I’ll show you some more from several amazing weddings on the agenda as I grow as a Washington DC film wedding photographer!