While I've used digital SLRs almost exclusively for about 12 years, there's still something I enjoy about using film. Maybe it is less accurate, but it's less accurate in what I find to be an aesthetically pleasing way.
That said, I am surprised that Kodak is bringing back Ektachrome. I find it hard to believe that there would be enough users to warrant this, from a business perspective. I guess we'll see what happens. (I personally prefer Fuji film anyway...)
Most color films aren't designed to capture accurate colors, they're designed to look good. Portra, Velvia, the various -chromes, etc. are all deliberately inaccurate.
What you like about film is the color grading that the emulsion engineers designed for you.
Film-emulating post-processing is getting there, but it's not there yet. Even with a good digital capture that keeps the highlight information, it's very difficult to get a good film look. It's more than just curves adjustments. I've played around with some software that tries to simulate the chemical development process, and that seems on the right track, but it's not there yet. I tend to think this would be a good application for ML if someone did the work to take side-by-side images with a given film and digital.
Perhaps a larger concern is the chemicals that are required to develop the stuff and making sure they are disposed of responsibly and not just flushed down the drain. There's more important reasons than "liking how it looks". I know people will disagree, but a skilled photoshopper can often reproduce the look and feel of film with digital. And certainly can do things film could never do. I believe it's a good trade-off
> Perhaps a larger concern is the chemicals that are required to develop the stuff and making sure they are disposed of responsibly and not just flushed down the drain.
The same argument can be made for the disposal of electronic devices, the half life of digital camera bodies seems to be far shorter than that of film camera bodies. I know of at least one photo project on the subject: http://www.bitrotproject.com/ and i'm sure there are others.
I think what has happened here, in reference to your original comment, is that the decline of film sales has reached its end state; that being it has stabilized. The fact that there are millions of film camera bodies floating around means there will, at least for the short to medium term (decades), be a market for film. Hipsters or otherwise.
> There's more important reasons than "liking how it looks". I know people will disagree, but a skilled photoshopper can often reproduce the look and feel of film with digital. And certainly can do things film could never do. I believe it's a good trade-off
I agree, but the film vs digital argument is always reduced to boring technicalities like resolution, sharpness, colour rendering, etc etc. The most important reasons to shoot one camera over another, or one medium over another, is that it will inform your approach and ultimately your results. If you're working on the long term, then that matters.
> I know people will disagree, but a skilled photoshopper can often reproduce the look and feel of film with digital.
But why go through the hassle of photoshopping when you can just get the image out of the camera the way you want it? This is especially the case where you're taking a lot of pictures. All of that photoshopping would be tedious.
And why is a more "accurate" photo superior? Like take any famous photo and ask yourself: If the photo showed even more detail would it be better?
The issue with film is that you can't get an image "out of the camera," it must be developed first. In order to get a usable image, you must know how to properly develop the film yourself, or pay one of the handful of competent remaining labs to develop it for you.
It's a much more sustainable process to throw a digital filter on your image.
>The issue with film is that you can't get an image "out of the camera," it must be developed first. In order to get a usable image, you must know how to properly develop the film yourself, or pay one of the handful of competent remaining labs to develop it for you.
To some degree I think this is part of the reason that film photograph has retained some appeal. There is no instant feedback, the process forces you to be more deliberate with each photograph, and the techniques to create images with film are becoming more arcane each year.
Like many other things that have been made easier by technology, there is often lasting interesting in the art of doing something by hand even if there is an easier/faster/more efficient way to get the same result. See Etsy:IKEA, craft beer:Budweiser, Digital:Vinyl music etc. I see film photography headed towards a similar niche.
>To some degree I think this is part of the reason that film photograph has retained some appeal. There is no instant feedback
Leica took this philosophy to extremes when introducing the M-D a while ago - a digital rangefinder camera with no preview screen. It's one of those Marmite things, apparently. If I wanted to shoot without instant feedback, I'd use a film M, thankyouverymuch - but obviously, YMMV.
If you want a film look on a batch of digital photos, you'd be wise to use one of the very capable batch processing programs.
Digital is going to beat analog for processing times, but the argument for which one is subjectively better is going to go around in circles forever. I still like and will enjoy working with both.
It's interesting how this parallels the arguments around realism in painting. Once you have a machine that can produce a more accurate representation of a scene, the degree of accuracy becomes an aesthetic decision.
This might pass in commercial work, but right now only the nicest of digital filters can capture the je-ne-sais-quois of analog. Everything else looks subpar to a trained eye.
That said, I am surprised that Kodak is bringing back Ektachrome. I find it hard to believe that there would be enough users to warrant this, from a business perspective. I guess we'll see what happens. (I personally prefer Fuji film anyway...)