Why A Black and White Film Wedding?
It's beautiful, that's why.
That is by far the simplest reason I can think of and I long to shoot an entire wedding on black and white film.
I love capturing peoples special day regardless of which medium they choose, but having shot the majority of my personal work on film for the last 6-7 years as well as shooting entire weddings on a mixture of colour and black and white, my heart is drawn to some of those grainy, contrasty, beautiful monochromatic images.
I've used a mixture of medium format and 35mm films from ISO 400 to 3200 at weddings and whilst I know that the massive, golf ball sized grain that something like Ilford's Delta 3200 in 35mm produces isn't for everyone in these days of clean, digital imagery, if you're looking for something more timeless and perhaps a little more traditional with a touch of contemporary then maybe it's something you could consider for your wedding?
The Romantic Benefits of Film at Weddings
There's something indescribable to me about the way black and white film renders a range of tones. With those gradual transitions between light and dark, the way it handles the highlights as in image above right, with the setting sun streaming through the windows of what was otherwise a dark room.
How it renders movement beautifully. I don't always want a pin sharp image. Sometimes, I want to let the shutter drag a little to invite a sense of movement into the frame and digital imagery just doesn't seem to give me as pleasing result as I found in these images below, taken during early evening dancing after the sun had set and the last remnants of daylight were subsiding on the horizon.
I could have used flash and frozen the scene perfectly sharp but it would have killed the ambience, so I loaded some 3200 speed 120 film in my Contax 645 and made a few exposures with a slow shutter.
Perhaps this resonates with you. Perhaps you are as drawn in by the timeless, intimate nature of black and white film as I am and yearn for your memories to be captured in a way that is reminiscent of the 50's and 60's and conveys a sense of feeling unrivalled by other mediums? Or perhaps you just love it because well, it's beautiful.
