Yes, you may well be surprised to read that headline but film is still very much alive and fighting back against the battering onslaught of digital. Why you may well ask when digital offers freedom from having to purchase film and freedom from having to process that film. I have always believed that part of the ‘magic’ of photography is 1) the anticipation of developing the film and then 2) watching the magic as that plain sheet of white paper in a tray of a magical chemicals suddenly reveals your image under the ever watchful eye of the darkroom safe light. That is the real magic of photography not the downloading of a card and then hours spent in Bridge/Lightroom/Aperture etc. We changed from digital some 5 years ago and I must say I was dragged from film kicking and screaming, but could see the obvious advantages of the new age dawning however over the following years, firstly I found the 35mm format not to my liking and secondly, though I shot some great images on digital, I felt there was something missing from the process.
As a result early last year I started to use film again, slowly to start with, loading tanks in small cupboards and getting told off for allowing the fixer to mark our satin chrome taps in the kitchen, but once I overcame those issues the whole experience of shooting film became a pleasure and it proved that by taking time to compose and direct you did not need to make several exposures when one or 2 would suffice. It also reminded me that from the sitters viewpoint shooting on a Hasselblad on a stand allowed for direct eye contact with the subject instead of always hiding behind a 35mm digital viewfinder. This seems to have an effect on the sitter as there is a visual communication between subject and photographers that is absent when using digital, unless of course you are using a tripod but who does these days, so very yesterday! It all came to a head in November with our commission for Poppy Scotland when I decided to use a 10″x8″ Canham plate camera to photograph the subjects. The resulting negatives would be around 800 megapixels in digital terms. Even using black and white sheet film it was over £10 per sheet so we allocated only 2-4 sheets per subject which went on to prove that it is more than possible to make portraits with only 2 exposures if thought and consideration are given to the subject and their placement within the environment.
Since then I have been using more and more film in the Hasselblad and experimenting with various developer to get the results I was used to PD (pre digital) One experiment we did was to make similar exposures of the same subject, one film one digital and while I accept that the digital file was perfect the film negative had a certain quality and the ability to hold onto fine detail that seems quite impossible to achieve with digital. But that is only a very personal opinion but one thing it has allowed me is to return to using my favourite camera and my love for photography.
In America the use of film has a great following by those who have seen and grasped the notion that there is a niche market out there, not for everybody I realise but if you really have a deep passion and love for photography then you should at least have a film camera that you use occasionally for special projects and for those who have only shot digital it will be, I promise, such a rewarding and enlightening experience and will bring you into touch with the foundations of photography.