Chattooga Belle Farm Engagement Photos shot on Film | Michael and Kelsey
Photo shot on Fuji 400 35mm film with Canon 1N
Shooting on Film
You know I love technology…(like the song from Napoleon Dynamite) and digital photography is here to stay, BUT it adds a whole dimension of excitement to make photos on film. After all, that’s how I learned…on a Minolta 35mm camera I found in a box when my parents moved during my 2nd year of college. It’s not that film is better than digital, it’s just different. Different in the way it responds to light and the way it reproduces on paper.
Shot on Fuji 400 Medium format film on Mamiya 645 with 80mm lens.
Digital has its advantages
The ability to make adjustments to a digital RAW file (a type of file that contains more information than a JPEG specifically to enable adjustments in post production) allows unique looks, and very pleasing black and white conversions. Using a subtle toning process on digital images in post production can give them a much more pleasing look than simply removing the color by desaturation.
Digital photos converted to black and white using a special “toning formula” in Adobe Lightroom
Film’s Aesthetic
These particular engagement pictures of Michael and Kelsey that Kristina and I shot at Chattooga Belle Farm are a mixture of film and digital…you may be able to tell the difference. Of course the couple is gorgeous, and so is the venue…the photos are already destined to be beautiful! The choice to use film was simply to enjoy the organic nature of it and be able to visually enjoy the unique grain, color, and dynamic range of the images.
Michael and Kelsey in Chattooga Belle Farm’s apple orchard shot on film
Apple picking engagement photos at Chattooga Belle Farm
Photos ALWAYS look best printed…especially those shot on film!
The film has been scanned (I use Richard Photo Lab in Hollywood for scanning) so that it can be displayed digitally, but it looks best when printed. The images have NOT been manipulated digitally…these are the scans directly from the film. Digital images can look great on the screen (although I’d still argue they look better in print too) but film especially looks best when printed. We’ve got these in an album here in our studio gallery if you really want to see them at their best!
In order to get the clouds to show up in the background, a powerful studio flash and softbox was used to light the couple’s face.
