35mm film wedding photography

15 years ago I never thought a time would come when analogue would become so popular, but as I write this in 2024 I am sat listening to Jessie Ware on a vinyl record and writing about photographing weddings on film. I guess film photography never totally went away although I did store my old Nikon film cameras in my loft along with an enlarger and some processing equipment, they sat gathering dust for many years before I once again became interested in shooting some film. During those dust gathering years I did actually shoot a couple of rolls of film at one wedding for a photographer who wanted some negatives from his wedding to play around with, but otherwise fully embraced the digital world.

Earlier this year I dug out my JOBO processor and put a few rolls of HP5 and Kentmere 400 film through my Nikon’s, perhaps call it nostalgia but I thoroughly enjoyed the process and decided I would offer some limited film photography at weddings.

Why film? Because in an increasingly digital world there is something honest and authentic about film photography, it is about embracing the grain and imperfections that come with film which result in beautiful photographs. Film isn’t about firing off hundreds of images, it is a slower process that goes back to finding the definitive moment and usually just shooting one single frame rather than a burst of images. With modern technology photographs can be created by a computer using AI, film is the complete opposite, it is as far away from fakery as it can be.

My film photography background

I shot totally on film for many years before switching to digital photography, my entire press career was shot on film, my first two or three years of wedding photography was totally on film. This is important because I understand film and its limitations. I still hand process my films rather than trusting them to a lab, nowadays I tend to scan the negatives as I find it easier to fit them in my workflow but I do not manipulate the files in anyway other than what I would do in a darkroom. I like to work with Ilford HP5 or Kentmere 400 for black and white photography and Kodak Portra or Fujifilm for colour.

For shooting a roll of film at your wedding I tend to use my trusty Nikon FE or Nikon FM which are fully manual including the focussing, for 100% film coverage I prefer my Canon EOS 1n film cameras that have autofocus and a series of Canon L lenses.

35mm film documentary wedding photography service

As an additional add on to my usual digital photography I will shoot a roll of colour or black and white film and include a boxed set of beautiful prints on fibre based paper, typically you can expect around 20 prints at 7″x5″, also included is the original negatives and a set of digital scans from the negatives. The price is £250 as an add on to my usual rates.

I am also available for 100% film coverage, generally a mix of about 65% black and white and 35% colour but this can be changed to suit your requirements. 100% film coverage is better suited to spring and summer weddings as I tend to work by available light.

You can also hire me as a film photographer to work alongside your existing digital photographer, I will then capture 100% documentary images on film.