Why I Started Offering 35mm Film Wedding Photography

Film photography has become one of the most talked-about trends in wedding photography over the last few years. More photographers are offering it, more couples are asking for it, and social media is full of grainy scans that promise nostalgia, authenticity, and a slower approach to image-making.

What interests me isn't that film has become popular again. What interests me is why.

The Booking I Lost Because I Didn't Offer Film

A few years ago, I was sitting in my office working through emails when one message made me stop and reread it. A couple had gotten in touch to let me know they had chosen another wedding photographer. The reason was simple: they offered 35mm film photography.

The email stuck with me, not because I'd lost the booking (that happens all the time in this industry), but because I already loved film photography. I'd spent years shooting film, I'd spent countless hours in darkrooms while studying photography, and I'd even considered taking film cameras to weddings when I first started my career.

Yet somehow, I wasn't offering it.

So after a lot of research, testing, and a healthy amount of overthinking, I introduced 35mm film as an optional add-on for my wedding couples. Two years later, around a quarter of my couples choose to add it to their wedding photography package, and this year alone, 10 out of 40 weddings have included film.

What's surprised me most isn't the demand itself; it's how wrong I was about the people booking it.

I Thought Couples Were Booking Film for Nostalgia

When photographers talk about film photography, nostalgia is usually one of the first things mentioned. It makes sense. Many of us who grew up before digital cameras became commonplace have personal memories tied to film: childhood holidays, family photo albums, disposable cameras, and a time before every moment was instantly uploaded to the internet.

When I first introduced film, I assumed that nostalgia would be one of the biggest reasons couples wanted it. The reality has been quite different.

Many of the couples who add film to their wedding package are younger than me. Some grew up entirely in the digital age. They don't have memories of taking a disposable camera on holiday or waiting for prints to come back from a lab.

Why Film Appeals to a New Generation of Couples

The more weddings I've photographed on film, the more I've started to think that its appeal has less to do with looking backward and more to do with reacting to the world we live in now.

Most of us spend our lives surrounded by digital images. We see thousands every day on social media, many of them heavily edited, filtered, enhanced, or increasingly generated by artificial intelligence. Photography has become faster, more polished, and more abundant than ever before.

Against that backdrop, film feels different.

Not because film scans can't be edited, but because most people instinctively trust that they haven't been manipulated to the same extent as a digital image. The process itself is slower and more deliberate. Every frame exists because someone chose to press the shutter. There are no previews on the back of the camera, no endless bursts, and no AI tools helping to create something that wasn't there in the first place.

I don't think most couples are consciously thinking about any of this when they book film. They're not asking about camera models or film stocks. But I do think they're responding to the feeling that film creates: something tangible, imperfect, and real.

In a world where images are becoming increasingly easy to manipulate, authenticity feels more valuable than ever. Perhaps that's part of the reason film has found a new audience among people who never experienced it the first time around.

They're not booking film because it reminds them of the past. In many cases, they're booking it because it feels completely different from the present.

I Assumed Film Would Attract Editorial Couples

I also assumed the couples booking film would be drawn toward a more editorial style of photography, but again, I was wrong.

My approach to weddings has always been documentary-led. I focus on genuine moments rather than heavily directed photographs, and if I'm completely honest, I thought the couples interested in film would probably want something more fashion-inspired.

Instead, I've found that many of them are drawn to film for the same reason they book me in the first place: they want photographs that feel real. Again, it's not entirely about the aesthetic of film they're enjoying; it's the feeling the photographs create.

What surprised me was that the couples choosing film weren't a different type of client at all. They were the same kinds of couples I already photograph. They still want authentic moments and photographs that reflect what their wedding day actually felt like; they simply appreciate the additional character that film brings to those moments.

The medium is different, but the motivation remains exactly the same.

I think that's an important distinction. While 35mm film certainly has its own visual qualities, it's still me behind the camera making the same decisions about timing, composition, and storytelling. The photographs may have a different texture and feel, but they're still rooted in the same documentary approach that runs through all of my work. Film changes the medium, not the style.

Why I Shoot Weddings on a Canon EOS 3

Whenever photographers find out I offer film photography, one of the first questions they ask is what camera I use.

When I first decided to offer film photography, I assumed I'd end up shooting medium format. Like many photographers, I associated film with cameras such as the Mamiya 645 and the beautiful look that medium format negatives can produce.

I quickly realized that the way I photograph weddings and the way many medium format cameras operate weren't particularly compatible. Weddings move quickly, emotions happen in an instant, and I didn't want to spend the day manually focusing while hoping I'd nailed critical moments. While I have enormous respect for photographers who shoot weddings on manual-focus film cameras, I knew it wasn't the right fit for me.

Instead, I chose a Canon EOS 3.

In many ways, it's one of the most practical film cameras a wedding photographer can buy. Produced between 1998 and 2007, it feels surprisingly modern even by today's standards. The autofocus is fast, reliable, and capable of keeping up with the pace of a wedding day. More importantly, it allows me to concentrate on moments rather than camera operation.

I paired it with a Canon 50mm f/1.2L lens, which has become my preferred setup for film weddings. The 50mm focal length feels natural to me. It's wide enough to provide context but intimate enough to keep the focus on people, which suits the documentary approach I take to weddings.

The 50mm also keeps things simple. Rather than carrying multiple lenses and constantly second-guessing focal lengths, I know exactly how the lens sees the world. When you're already juggling digital and film cameras at a wedding, reducing decision fatigue is a genuine advantage.

As for film stock, I shoot Kodak Portra 400 almost exclusively. Partly because it's incredibly forgiving, but mostly because I know exactly what I'm going to get from it. Weddings are unpredictable enough without introducing unnecessary variables. Portra 400 handles changing light beautifully and produces the soft colors and character that many of my couples associate with film photography.

One of my favorite features of the EOS 3 is its built-in double exposure mode. It's something I experimented with heavily when I first introduced film, and it's still something I enjoy using today. Not every double exposure works—far from it—but when it does, it creates images that feel genuinely unique. In an era where so much photography is driven by presets and algorithms, there is something incredibly satisfying about creating an effect entirely in-camera and not knowing exactly how it will turn out until the scans come back.

I also like the consistency the EOS 3 creates. While the photographs coming out of it look very different from my digital images, the perspective feels familiar. Couples aren't suddenly receiving a completely different style of photography simply because I've switched mediums. They're receiving the same storytelling approach, just interpreted through film rather than a sensor.

The Hardest Part of Shooting Film at Weddings

Whenever photographers ask me about shooting film at weddings, they're usually interested in what happens if something goes wrong.

In truth, the technical side has been far less challenging than I expected. The bigger challenge is deciding when to shoot film and when to shoot digital.

Every time something happens, I have to decide whether that moment belongs on digital or film.

On paper, that sounds straightforward. In reality, weddings move quickly and moments don't wait for you to make a considered artistic decision. A hug happens, someone bursts out laughing, a parent gets emotional during a speech, and you've got a split second to decide how you want to capture it.

Film is finite, every frame costs money, and every frame matters. Unlike digital, where I can comfortably shoot hundreds of images during a busy part of the day, film forces me to slow down and be more intentional.

There are moments I've shot digitally that I wish I'd put on film, and vice versa. But after a couple of years of doing this, I've learned to trust my instincts. The challenge isn't really the camera or the film stock. It's making hundreds of tiny creative decisions throughout the day and trying to predict which moments will feel most special when they're viewed years later.

That constant decision-making process is probably the hardest part of incorporating film into a wedding day.

I Wasn't Sure My Film Work Was Good Enough

If I'm completely honest, the person who took the longest to embrace film wasn't my couples. It was me.

When I first started delivering film photographs, I constantly questioned whether they were good enough. Were the photographs worth the additional cost? Would couples be disappointed? Was I romanticizing film because I personally loved it?

As photographers, we're often our own harshest critics, but the reality was very different.

The reaction from couples has been overwhelmingly positive. One of the most common comments I hear is that the photographs look like stills from a movie. They don't analyze the grain or discuss the technical qualities of the film; they simply connect with the feeling the photographs create.

That's been a useful reminder that clients experience photographs very differently from photographers.

What I've Learned After Offering 35mm Film Wedding Photography

Looking back, the biggest lesson I've learned isn't about film photography at all. It's about people.

I was wrong about who would book it. I was wrong to assume nostalgia would be the driving force. I was wrong to think it would mainly appeal to couples looking for an editorial style of photography. I was even wrong about my own work, spending far too much time worrying whether the photographs were good enough when couples were already telling me how much they loved them.

The more weddings I photograph, the more I realize that photographers and clients often value different things. Photographers tend to focus on technical perfection. We discuss sharpness, dynamic range, autofocus systems, and image quality. Couples are usually focused on something much simpler: they want photographs that feel like them.

Film has reinforced that lesson for me time and time again.

Two years after introducing it, I still don't think film photography is for everyone. Most of my couples choose digital only, and that's absolutely fine. But for the couples who do add it, the appeal goes far beyond grain or nostalgia.

They aren't buying a camera format; they're buying a feeling.

And in a world that often feels increasingly artificial, that feeling seems to matter more than ever.

I'd be interested to hear other photographers' experiences. Have you introduced film into your workflow, and if so, what response have you had from clients? Have you noticed the same shift away from nostalgia and toward authenticity, or do you think I'm completely wrong?

And for those who haven't started offering film, what's stopping you? Is it the cost, the logistics, the risk, or do you simply think the current resurgence is another trend that will eventually pass?

If you're already offering film, what has the response been like from your clients? Has demand increased over the last few years, or has it remained fairly niche?