35mm film for the romance, digital for the documentary truth of it all. I'm an Oxford-based documentary wedding photographer, and I shoot 35mm film alongside digital at weddings across Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds and beyond. Everything in the gallery below came out of the film camera. I can't check the back of it, which is half the appeal.
35mm & digital
FORMAT:
Oxford & the Cotswolds
Location:
35mm Film
Film isn't a filter I bolted on to sell weddings. Before weddings I spent years photographing on the street, where you learn to wait for something to actually happen before pressing the shutter. A film camera keeps me honest about that.
Thirty-six frames. No screen on the back. No checking. You look harder, you wait a bit longer, and you stop photographing things just because they're there.
Then there's the look. Grain that sits inside the picture rather than on top of it. Highlights that roll off gently instead of burning out. Colour that runs warm and a little unpredictable in late light. Skin that looks like skin. You can try to fake it in an edit. Most people can tell.
Digital captures detail. Film captures feeling.
Why I still shoot film at weddings
Most of your wedding is photographed on digital. It's fast, it copes with a dark church, and it doesn't need reloading halfway through the vows. Film runs alongside it, for the parts of the day where atmosphere matters more than speed.
Getting ready: Window light, half-done buttons, someone steaming a dress at arm's length. Film is very good at slow mornings.
Portraits: When we step away for twenty minutes, ideally as the light softens, I'll shoot film alongside digital. Something about the sound of a film camera winding on makes people stop performing for it.
The in-between bits: The walk from the church, guests drifting across the lawn, the table before anyone's sat down. Places, details and the edges of the day.
Black and white: Now and then, when the light is doing something worth simplifying.
What I use film for on a wedding day
Weddings are mostly waiting, then everything at once, then a party. Film is good at the waiting. It notices the stillness between things: your mum straightening a chair that was already straight, the groomsmen reading the order of service like a menu, the light going gold across the lawn while everyone's looking the other way.
It's also honest about what it is. A bit of grain, the odd light leak at the end of a roll, a frame where the focus landed on the bouquet rather than the bride. I don't hide those. Some of my favourite frames are exactly that.
And it ages well. The photographs you'll go back to in thirty years won't be the sharpest ones. They'll be the ones that feel like the day.
Why film suits a wedding day
Is the whole day shot on film? No. I shoot mostly digital and use 35mm film alongside it. You get the reliability of one and the character of the other.
Why not all film? Dark ceremonies, flying confetti and a first dance under fairy lights are hard work for film, and I'd rather not gamble with the vows. Digital handles those. Film gets the moments it's best at.
Where do the film photos end up? In the same online gallery as everything else, developed, scanned and sitting alongside the digital frames from the same part of the day.
Can we have more film? If you love it, yes. Mention it when you enquire and we'll talk about how much of your day makes sense on film.
Do we need to do anything? Not really. Find a window for getting ready and leave twenty minutes for portraits before the light goes. That helps the whole day, not just the film.
You don't need to understand film to want it. You just need to have seen it. Tell me about your wedding.
