Hi Matt, It is not for everyone, there are several wedding photographers who have switched back to film for the very reasons that you mentioned. I do not do weddings any more, but I have a friend whose studio photographs over 600 weddings a year and they have gone completely digital and he had his own film lab.
I do mainly portraits and commercial and I use both film and digital depending on the job and the final size and usage. I do wide angle interiors for some magazines and that is one place that digital really shines when you are not on a budget to set up a lot of lights. I take a 17 inch Mac powerbook with me and I know the job is done correctly before I ever leave the location. Digital is a great studio camera when used on manual. I have found that the warnings about exposure is overrated with the exception of over exposure, I have seen digital shots that were 2-4 stops under exposed and great prints were made from them. I use Hasselblads for film and a Fuji S2 for digital. I photographed a group of over 100 people yesterday using the S2 set in the raw mode using a SB 800 for fill in an atrium. Processed it in PS CS at 16 bits and it looks great. This was a job that I donated my time and services, if it had been a paying job for someone who needed 8x10 or larger, I would have done it on film. It is another VERY EXPENSIVE tool in our business, the camera is the cheap part, it is all the other stuff that really runs the bill up. I had a lot of the computers and software before I got the S2, but I would figure on 15-20,000 minimum to do it right for a studio doing portraits, weddings or commercial work. Bottom line, I think you may have to add some digital or your competition is going to have the drop on you. I have seen some special effects and slide shows from digital that knocks your socks off. You can of course have your film scanned by a lab at the time of processing to create some of these things, but that ups your cost. Best, John Best, John > I am a wedding photographer happily using film when everyone is telling > me to > "go dig". I have attended two digital courses run by the BIPP which, > although being > very good in their own right, did not pursuade me to join the dark side. =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
