Why I Love Film

"I try not to get engrossed in the good ol’ film vs. digital thing; there are clearly parties who work best/stand behind their respective medium. And that’s great. But I will say this about film: it’s a technology that’s been refined for over a century and is this totally amazing, very faithful, colorful, charismatic way of preserving exactly what comes through your lens. I most love the 1:1 chemical reaction- what comes through the lens is exactly what’s etched into the emulsion (figuratively).

I’m not so excited about computer sensor doing its best to capture the light hitting it. It’s a computer, it’s doing a rendering where information- not to get all hippie but I see it as color and life- is lost in the process. Then the sensor will add things that were not there in the first place, weird stuff- aberrations, harsh highlight blowouts, a digital slickness- a layer of synthetic and crunchy information that leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth.

This post isn’t some huge rip on digital. There are some all-digital photographers whose work I completely admire and it works for them, but I’m having a hard time making it work for me, in a way that I’m happy with, in a way where I can contentedly put digital work on my site that looks harmonious with the color/tonal profiles I’ve come to know and love from Portra NC films."

- Jake Stangel, on film over digital.
View the complete post on his blog.

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