Who has shot weddings with film?

So, I was just thinking about this as I was driving home from my most recent wedding....how the heck did you guys do this with film?????????

Were the pictures not as good?

How many rolls of film did you go through? I took 1,000 pictures, and gave them 400...that would be 27 rolls of film! How did you keep it all organized?

Also, you couldn't just turn a knob and change your ISO, nor could you go easily from color to black and white.

Were the weddings just slower paced because that's all you could capture??

It must have taken ages to go through and proof everything!

It just seems that everything moves so fast, working with film would have been sooooo much more challenging than digital. Those who have done film, I am in awe.

depends if you are trying for a few 'wow' pics or lots of 'decent' pics. i think digital makes a lot of 'decent' photographers, but not a lot of 'wow' ones. myself included.

^^^ Inspiring words.. thank you

figmented wrote in post #5843826
depends if you are trying for a few 'wow' pics or lots of 'decent' pics. i think digital makes a lot of 'decent' photographers, but not a lot of 'wow' ones. myself included.

I would say you are better than a decent photographer.

I never shot film but based on what I've seen, images were mostly just tame (with few exceptions). Pretty much the stuff the photographer knew would sell, not bothering to try new things so as to not waste film. Either that or they did blow through lots of film and charged accordingly.

I can tell a whole day's story with about 50 photos if I really want to and just stick to storytelling, but brides these days expect numbers in the hundreds. I also like to experiment.

I shot my first weddings on film back in 1991. The first was using a Yashica 230AF with the Std 35-70mm lens + Cullman DC36 on a flash grip I also used a 70-210. Only used the 70-210 for a couple of shots.

On film I only took around 150-200 shots which was plenty for an album that typically had around 40 images in. The style was different then... more traditional and much more formal. I often wonder how the 'new' style of wedding photography will age... with tog's 'trying' to be cutting edge... after all the ZX81 was cutting edge once...!!!

Didn't sleep much till the film got developed mind so no way would i go back...!

Yeoer wrote in post #5844186
I shot my first weddings on film back in 1991. The first was using a Yashica 230AF with the Std 35-70mm lens + Cullman DC36 on a flash grip I also used a 70-210. Only used the 70-210 for a couple of shots.

On film I only took around 150-200 shots which was plenty for an album that typically had around 40 images in. The style was different then... more traditional and much more formal. I often wonder how the 'new' style of wedding photography will age... with tog's 'trying' to be cutting edge... after all the ZX81 was cutting edge once...!!!

Didn't sleep much till the film got developed mind so no way would i go back...!

Please don't shame me for my ignorance, but what is a ZX81? :-p

http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Sinclair_ZX81

Ok, see I looked that up, and came up with the computer. I assumed he meant a camera though. It is hard to believe that was ever even close to cutting edge!

I shot maybe 10 to 15 weddings on film, exactly 0 on digital. Everything was manual, I shot 100 to 120 exposures on Hasselblad. Nearly every shot had to be a keeper, not a lot of room for error. I had a shot list of about 50 shots as must haves, the rest were candids and a few cases of double shooting to insure that eyes were open etc. on group shots. I'm not sure I could take a 1000 pictures of a wedding. Just glad I don't do them anymore. That was pretty much the norm for photographers in the film days. I didn't know anyone who shot more than 150 or so.

breal101 wrote in post #5844477
I shot maybe 10 to 15 weddings on film, exactly 0 on digital. Everything was manual, I shot 100 to 120 exposures on Hasselblad. Nearly every shot had to be a keeper, not a lot of room for error. I had a shot list of about 50 shots as must haves, the rest were candids and a few cases of double shooting to insure that eyes were open etc. on group shots. I'm not sure I could take a 1000 pictures of a wedding. Just glad I don't do them anymore. That was pretty much the norm for photographers in the film days. I didn't know anyone who shot more than 150 or so.

Well said & same here, except the # of weddings were around 1200. Everything was manual. I would tape over the distance scale on the Hasselblad lens & put f:stops there that synched with my flash unit. I could focus, change the f:stop & take the photo in about 3 sec. & that's not too slow for no auto anything. I still have the Hasselblads from 1980 & they still work fine although I haven't used them since retiring in '04.

I would provide about 250-300 preview shots, culled from maybe about 300-350 shots taken. You learn to shoot discriminately, both for composition and for exposure, and you do not rely at all upon chimping and much less on bracketing. Of course, color neg was much more forgiving of less-than-optimal exposure, unlike slides and digita. Shooting 220 film for double the shots per roll helped to control the number of times you had to change film backs and reload them, to about the same level as shooting 35mm.

Digital encourages 'free shots' and far greater liberal exposures hoping for one shot with good expressions on everyone...which was far too expensive when done with film!

Tixeon wrote in post #5844698
Well said & same here, except the # of weddings were around 1200. Everything was manual. I would tape over the distance scale on the Hasselblad lens & put f:stops there that synched with my flash unit. I could focus, change the f:stop & take the photo in about 3 sec. & that's not too slow for no auto anything. I still have the Hasselblads from 1980 & they still work fine although I haven't used them since retiring in '04.

I'll bet you can load a film back pretty damn quick too. I remember having charts taped all over my strobe unit. I was lucky to have a "semi auto" system, 1/4 1/2 3/4 and full buttons on the strobe. Nothing more fun than the processional starting, 8 bridesmaids and the bride and having only enough film in the camera to have one chance for each one.

ive shot film for years and love it. way more forgiving then digital (under/over exposures). id shoot like 10 rolls for a wedding and make a 20 page album out of them and give proofs for all the unused shots. fun fun *sigh*

Shot many weddings using film..I would calculate how many rolls by what the client wanted and how many guests.. I would have the lab cut the negatives into strips of six.. I would number each roll chronologically and number each individual negative but only the keepers which at a wedding was about 80-90%..I would write the neg number on the back of the 6"x4" plus tag the print in an albumn..This albumn was used for reprint purposes..The happy couple would choose their enlargements from this albumn..An average albumn had anything from 200 to 400 prints..

Here was my system for numbering..

R1-001 where R1 is the first roll 001 was the first print..

The negative sheet went into into a binder where it was dated, the couple's name, contact details etc..Each binder was dated from- to..

Shooting the wedding..I would use 2 Nikon bodies and a Bronica ETRs medium format camera... If the couple required B/W I would take a 3rd Nikon body loaded with B/W either with Tri-X or FP4,,I did my own B/W printing..Metz 60CT1 and Metz 45CT1 flashes..My Nikkor 35-105mm F/3.5 was my work horse..Nikkor 50mm F/1.2 and Nikkor 85mm F/1.8 for low light,, Nikkors 20mm, 24mm, 28mm for group shots,,Nikkor 135mm F/2.8, 200mm F/2.8 for tight shots..All lenses were manual focus and I manually exposed..

I shot Kodacolor 100 and 400ISO but later Fujicolor..

Wedding photography was only my sideline..I worked in the photographic unit of a large iron and steel plant..

The wonderful thing about film you make every shot count.. Spray and pray was definitely out..