Film vs. Digital
Which Is The Best For Photography?
Photography as a medium can be traced back rather recently, to as early as the 1800’s. If we take a look back in history however, there were some forms of imaging that existed which ancient civilizations already had knowledge about. The precursor to modern photography, the camera obscura, dates back to ancient China. Photography is the means of capturing an image to a light-sensitive medium, like film or a digital sensor. The term first came into wide use during the 1800’s, after the discovery of photoetching by Nicéphore Niépce.
Following Niépce, came the Daguerrotype image. This process involved the use of chemicals which allowed a silver-plated surface to capture an image when exposed to light. There were also other experiments and inventions during that time that evolved photography as a medium.
By the time of the Crimean War in Europe and the Civil War in the United States, photography had come into use by those who reported on the wars. For the first time, images of the scene can be shown. Photographers used a wet-plate process to capture the image. It was time consuming though to produce images during that era since it involved heavy equipment that required horse drawn carriages and processing took a very long time.
Most early photography was also staged since they required long exposures to capture the image. It was not genuine, although it was authentic. The problem with photography during the late 1800’s was it could not capture motion fast enough, thus requiring the subject to be perfectly still. What it was ideal for was capturing landscapes and natural surroundings. It wasn’t until the introduction of film photography by George Eastman in 1885 that it became possible to capture images quicker and much easier.
Film Photography
Film became a better way than chemical coated plates to capture images. It was a strip of plastic coated with chemicals that were sensitive to light. Eastman’s first film roll happened to be paper-based before it was replaced by plastic. Paper was not flexible enough, while plastic became a more ideal material for developing film. Film required a gelatin emulsion layer containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. This characteristic determined a film’s sensitivity to light or what we refer to today as ISO.
Film comes in different types of formats and for still photography they can be limited. When making movie and shows, film rolls are put on a reel for continuous filming. Still photography film rolls can only take between 10 to 60 exposures at most. Film must undergo a development process that requires a darkroom.
The film is processed from what are called negatives of the film roll before being transferred to paper. The process of finally getting the contents of film onto paper are called prints. This is a brief description of the process. For more information about how film is processed in the darkroom, read this link.
During the 60’s and into the early 90’s, film photography was the norm. Most all photographs taken in the early days of photography were also black and white. When color film became more popular, more consumer retail cameras became available. There were instant film cameras, like the one introduced by Polaroid. Disposable film cameras became popular in tourist locations.
The film still needs to be processed, but the camera can be disposed of after use. Professionals and enthusiasts found 35 mm film cameras the best for taking photographs. This industry led to film development centers and stores that catered to photography equipment, supplies and books. This was also the time SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras were introduced.
35 mm film became a popular format in photography and the foundation for modern cameras. This is a 36x24 mm format which uses a 3:2 aspect ratio. Modern sensors in digital cameras are based on this particular format, though many are also cropped (smaller than a 35mm frame). 35 mm is also called small format, since there are larger film sizes called medium (>36x24 mm) and large format (4x5 inches or 102x127 mm).
Here are some of the following benefits of film or analog photography:
- Film cameras can be initially cheaper than most digital cameras. A disposable film camera for example is around $10.00 or less. Entry level film cameras or second hand from a garage sale are much less than entry level digital cameras.
- Ideal for capturing images in black and white. The contrast with dark and light appears much better. These are subtleties absent from digital.
- It has a more genuine look and feel. From the grains in print to the chemicals used in the process, what you get is the image you captured in its raw appeal. Digital just looks too perfect at times.
- No batteries required for most film cameras, unless you are using a flash.
- Images are great from film to large prints. Before digital, this was already a popular and effective technique used in print advertising and publishing.
- Film can store fine details in images.
Digital Photography
Film would be eventually eclipsed by digital photography in the early 2000’s. This would bring photography to a wider audience because of its ease of use and availability. Giant camera brands like Canon and Nikon would dominate this space. Digital photography replaces film with digital electronic sensors that are modeled after 35 mm format.
The sensors capture the image which is then saved to a digital storage device like an SD card. You have a full frame and cropped factor digital camera sensor. Full frame uses a sensor equivalent of 36x24 mm. Cropped APS-C sensors are usually 23.6x15.7 mm (Sony, Nikon) or 22.2x14.8 mm (Canon).
Early digital cameras were rather low resolution point-and-shoot devices until the DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera was introduced. Point-and-shoot cameras did not have a viewfinder like the DSLR, but instead relied on an LCD panel to view the image. More recent innovations like mirrorless cameras have introduced the EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) since traditional viewfinders require mirror lenses.
The DSLR was considered disruptive because of how it brought photography to retail consumers. Whereas film photography was mostly a market for prosumer or enthusiasts since not everyone had the know how to produce prints. The integration of digital cameras with smartphones has probably been the most disruptive to the photo industry because it allows generally anyone to take photos.
Digital photography made photography widely available and easy to use. It opened up photography as a medium to all people, regardless of whether they were professionals or hobbyists. This has somewhat impacted professional photography since it became cheaper to shoot your own photos rather than hiring a photographer to take them for you.
Overall it has been great since the technology has also evolved with the medium. Digital allows more creativity in the process because it also involves retouching and editing during post. Digital is straight to display rather than print, but the term print has become a standard term for photos.
While film photographers create prints for publications and ads, digital photographers publish content to the Internet. Web-based publications have become more popular than paper-based media because it has a wider reach thanks to the Internet. Photo sharing has also become more popular with the growth in social media. Applications like Snapchat and Instagram allow users to take photos with their smartphone’s camera and post directly online.
Here are some of the following benefits of digital photography:
- More efficiency and speed. Digital sensors, like the dual-pixel type, can capture images very fast. Digital cameras have burst mode where you can capture a large number of frames by holding down the exposure button.
- Capture more images with digital. A photographer can take as many photos as they like depending on the capacity of the camera’s digital storage or SD card. While film rolls take less than 60 shots, with digital you can shoot thousands shots capturing thousands of images.
- High resolution feature is good enough for prints. Ideally though, digital is not meant for print or paper. It is for content on electronic medium like displays and monitors viewable on computers, smartphones and tablets.
- Instantly view images or immediate feedback. When a photographer makes a mistake capturing an image, the nice thing about digital is you can do it over. Delete the bad images and take a new one. This is because you can immediately see on a digital camera whether what you captured has turned out good or bad. Though the results can be deceiving when relying on the LCD viewer alone, but nonetheless it gives an idea to the photographer how the image turned out. This is because a display like a computer monitor shows a more accurate view of the image captured compared to the LCD viewer on camera.
- Noise reduction and image correction. Most digital cameras contain image processing sensors that reduce among other things noise, camera shake and distortion. Smartphone cameras make use of these features to produce better quality images. Often it involves the use of AI software.
- Lower cost of production. With film, there is more costs to producing prints and processing the image. With digital it is instant content either for websites or electronic publications. The processing is minimal, depending on the requirements.
- More clarity. A reason digital photos look cleaner and smoother than film is because of image processing. Digital cameras can process the image without retouching to reduce noise and camera shake to prevent blurring (feature called image stabilization). However, further processing with software like Lightroom can further reduce noise and improve lighting conditions from the camera RAW file.
- Digital captures not just images, but also metadata. That is something film cannot due by the nature of its design. Metadata contains information about an image like the camera used, date and time, exposure settings, etc. Metadata is important to keep track of settings and to get additional information about an image. The metadata is stored in what is called the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) specification.
- Easier to store and copy. Like any computer file, digital images are easy to store and copy. Users can make multiple duplicates and save to a variety of devices. Film has an expiration date and is prone to dirt, mildew and moisture which can ruin its quality. Therefore, film prints require extra care for storage and they cannot be reproduced easily.
Which is better, film or digital?
That is the traditional analog vs. digital question. The answer depends on what your purpose is for. Digital was not really meant to replace film, because they both create images. Film is rather a legacy of photography, while digital represents the new generation. Therefore it does not mean digital is out right better, because there are things you can get from film that you won’t get when shooting digital.
Hipsters and the artistic photographer prefer shooting film for aesthetic reasons. It is ideal for fine art photography that captures a more genuine feel that highlight emotions. In terms of black and white photography with film, it gives a timeless element of a captured image that doesn’t need to be placed in a particular era. It just looks the way it is because that is what it is.
Film is like a playground of ideas for creatives, but is more difficult for the average user. That is why digital has gained more popularity due to ease of use. Film is also more expensive now since film development centers are becoming rare. The materials used to make film are also becoming more expensive due to demand from a niche market. However mass producing it to make prices cheaper no longer makes much sense since most photographers shoot in digital.
Professional photographers today follow a more digital workflow. The advantage to using digital is greater than that of film when it comes to modern photography. For commercial photographers, it costs much less to shoot in digital than film. Imagine the costs of bad shots taken with film piling up. With digital, you can shoot as many times and redo them as well during the shoot. With film, every shot counts so the photographer has to carefully compose before taking an exposure. A digital photographer can quickly transport images across the world in seconds using the cloud for storage rather than wait hours to develop film.
While digital has tremendous advantage over film, it is still not correct to say it is better than film. Film can capture raw emotions well, while digital can capture the same but the processing removes subtle details. Digital captures look almost too perfect at times when compared to shots taken by great film photographers like Ansel Adams.
With film, you can see how carefully the photographer must compose their image and getting the settings right with the light. With digital its simply point-and-shoot and the camera’s sensor and software take care of the rest. Most magazine publications still prefer photographers who shoot in film because it is ideal for prints. This is why you just got to admire the work traditional photographers put into creating images. Shooting in film is truly much harder than digital and is a skill of the photographer.
Some digital photographers even try to make their images look like film. There are many filters, LUTS and presets today that can make your digital images look like film. Other techniques include increasing the ISO to get the grain common in film exposures. It is much harder to do using hardware, so most of the images use software techniques to look like film. This can be done with image editing software i.e. Photoshop. It is still not going to look as genuine as a photograph taken with film, but it is a creative process.
When it comes to longevity, no doubt digital is better than film. This is because digital photos can be copied over and over again. They can also be transferred quickly and duplicated to another device. Thus they have the ability to last longer since they are in electronic format.
Film was meant to be developed and framed on a wall or printed on paper. Its longevity depends on how well the negatives are stored. Prints are prone to fading when exposed to ultraviolet light as well as the elements e.g. wind, rain, moisture, dirt, etc. This is why film photos are very delicate and thus it has value over time. The best way to preserve film photos is by keeping them in protective sleeves or a picture frame. Over time however, they do not preserve their original quality.
Computational photography is the next step in the evolution of photography as a medium. Images can now be created from code instead of through traditional optical means like in film and digital photography. While we look at film as the past, digital is the present, computational is the future.
Note: The information here is based on the author’s own experience with photography and is an opinion piece. This does not cover the entirety of digital and film photography which is a vast topic, so there may be some points not included. Please do your own research to verify facts or share your thoughts in the comments.
