On the surface, the immediate difference between shooting film and shooting digital is that with digital you get instantaneous feedback on the image you have captured by looking at the review screen on the back of the camera. With film you really do not know what you have until the developed film comes out of the development tank, dries and you scan it. Although, once you truly understand the exposure triangle and are comfortable with it you actually do know what you have captured.
Beyond the ability to review or not review the basic difference between shooting film vs digital is how images are exposed.
With digital it is important to expose for the highlights because if the highlights are blown out there is no detail in those areas to work with, if you have the Highlights feature of your camera turned on you will see blinking in the over exposed areas, further, if you understand the histogram, an image that has over exposed highlights will have a histogram that has a high peak on the left hand side.
Since film has a greater dynamic range, the latitude between highlights and shadows while retain detail in both, than digital and because film needs more light than digital the phrase, “expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights” is often espoused, that is really more applicable to sheet film than it is to roll film because you can exposure and develop each sheet differently. With roll film you drop the film in the development tank and the entire roll receives the same developing process. My advice when shooting film is to err on the side of over exposure because film needs light and it very easily retains highlight details when over exposed. Under exposure in film causes muddied and unflattering shadow detail.
The other important difference between shooting film vs digital is that with film you are essentially stuck with the ISO you have selected for the film that is in the camera, you either shoot at the box speed ISO of the film, or you push the film (rate and expose the film at an ISO speed faster than the box ISO, for example, you rate an ISO 400 speed film at ISO 800, thus under-exposing the film) or you pull the film (rate and expose the film at an ISO speed slower than the box ISO, for example, you rate an ISO 400 speed film at ISO 200, thus over-exposing the film). When you push or pull the film you compensate for the difference in your development time. Will digital you can shoot every single frame at a different ISO because each frame is a completely separate digital file.
As a side note, there is a film development process that will allow the photographer to develop roll film where the ISO rating has been varied within the roll……..Stand Development. I will write about my experiences with Stand Development in another blog post.
Beyond these differences between shooting film vs digital it is still photography and the rules of exposure and composition remain across the formats. I encourage everyone to pick up a camera and record the World around it as seem only through your eyes.
Capturing Moments in Time
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