35mm & analogue wedding photography

Film Wedding Photographer

I photograph weddings on both digital and genuine 35mm film.

Digital remains the reliable backbone of the wedding day, giving me the freedom to photograph everything from the morning through to the dance floor. Film adds something different. A smaller collection of photographs made more slowly, more selectively and often on instinct.

I’ve now photographed film at around 20 weddings. Rather than shooting a single roll during portraits and calling it film coverage, I like to spread it through the day. A few frames during preparations. A moment during the ceremony. Something happening in the drinks reception. A portrait when the light suddenly looks incredible. A flash photograph on the dance floor.

By the time the film comes back from the lab, you have a small analogue story running through the wedding alongside the digital gallery.

Real film. Not a film preset.

When I say I photograph weddings on film, I mean actual photographic film inside an analogue camera.

These are not digital photographs given a film-style preset afterwards. I regularly use a Canon F1 and an Olympus Mju 2, usually with Kodak Gold for colour and Ilford HP5 400 for black and white.

There is something I love about the physical process. A real moment happens in front of the camera, light enters it and physically exposes the film inside. The roll then leaves the wedding with those moments actually recorded onto it.

Digital photography is still a completely truthful way of recording a wedding, and it remains the foundation of what I do. Film simply has a different character. For me it carries more nostalgia, more unpredictability and, sometimes, a little more soul.

Why I still shoot weddings on film

Film is having a moment again, but I’m not shooting it simply because it has become fashionable.

I was born in the mid-1980s. I grew up with film photography. Long before photographs lived almost entirely on phones, film was simply how family moments, holidays, birthdays and everyday life were recorded.

I’m a photographer who values photography in all of its forms, so that connection matters to me. Even if the current interest in analogue wedding photography disappeared, I would still want to offer it.

I love the grain. I love that colours can behave differently. I love that an image can be slightly soft and still be beautiful. Very occasionally there might be a small light leak or another imperfection that gives the photograph something I could never have planned.

Film does not need to be clinically perfect to be valuable. Often the imperfections are part of what makes a photograph feel like film.

Fewer frames make me look harder

A digital camera gives me an enormous amount of freedom. Film gives me a limited number of exposures on each roll.

That changes the way I look at a wedding.

I’m thinking about whether the light is interesting, whether the composition is worth the frame and whether the moment has something about it that I really want to preserve on film.

A lot of the film I shoot is based on intuition. I don’t arrive with a list of photographs that have to be made on film. I see something, it feels right, and I take the photograph.

That way of working sits naturally alongside my candid wedding photography. Film is a medium rather than a style, so not every film frame is candid, but the limited number of exposures encourages me to respond carefully to what is genuinely happening rather than photograph for the sake of it.

Kodak Gold in France

Theo and Rebecca’s wedding on film

One of the weddings that really reinforced why I love photographing on film was Theo and Rebecca’s wedding in France.

I shot a lot of the film on my Olympus Mju 2 using Kodak Gold 200. The light in France was incredible and it complemented the film beautifully. When the scans came back from the lab, some of the film frames immediately became some of my favourite photographs from the wedding.

What I particularly like is that they do not all come from one little film photoshoot. They sit throughout the celebration and create another version of the day alongside the digital work.

If you’re planning a wedding there, you can also see more of my experience as a France wedding photographer.

Black and white film on Ilford HP5

At Anne-Sophie and Clément’s wedding at La Cannonerie I photographed a large amount of black and white film, with most of these frames made on the Canon F1 using Ilford HP5 400.

Black and white film gives me something very different from Kodak Gold. Colour is removed from the decision, so the photograph becomes more about light, shape, expression, movement and whatever is happening inside the frame.

It suited Anne-Sophie and Clément’s wedding particularly well because there was so much atmosphere and so many moments happening naturally around the venue.

I have photographed both their wedding and their pre-wedding shoot there, so if you are considering the venue you can see much more first-hand information on my La Cannonerie Wedding Photographer page.

Film at a Cotswolds wedding

Lara and Cameron’s wedding in the Cotswolds is another good example of how I like to use film.

I do not need a wedding to be built around analogue photography. I simply keep the film camera with me and use it when the moment, light or atmosphere suits it. That means the film photographs become part of the coverage rather than a separate performance the couple has to make time for.

That is the way I want film to feel at a wedding. Something special, but never something that takes over the day.

If you’re getting married in the area, you can also see my wider work as a Cotswolds wedding photographer.

Film and digital wedding photography work together

You do not have to choose between film and digital.

For the way I photograph weddings, I think they work brilliantly together.

Digital gives me the flexibility to photograph the wedding comprehensively, react quickly and make sure the complete story is covered.

Film lets me occasionally slow that process down and make a photograph in a completely different medium.

You still receive the complete digital gallery. The film sits alongside it as a smaller, more limited collection with its own texture, colour, grain and character.

What happens to the film after the wedding?

After the wedding I send the rolls to a professional film laboratory to be developed and scanned.

I generally leave the resulting scans alone because I want the photographs to retain the characteristics of the film itself. If an exposure needs a small adjustment to bring out what was captured properly, I can make that correction, but I am not trying to make every frame look like a polished digital photograph.

Your film photographs are delivered with your main wedding gallery in their own dedicated section, so you can view the analogue collection together.

The imperfections are part of it

Not every film frame can be guaranteed.

Occasionally a photograph can miss focus. There can be grain. Very rarely there can be a light leak. Different film stocks also react differently depending on the available light.

In my experience, roughly 90 to 99 percent of the frames I shoot are successfully developed, but film will always contain an element of unpredictability.

I think that is part of the beauty of it.

Imperfection does not automatically make a photograph unsuccessful. Sometimes a frame that is not technically clinical ends up having far more character than something completely controlled.

Flash photography on 35mm film

My Olympus Mju 2 is a small camera from the 1990s with a built-in flash, and I love what it can do once a wedding moves into the evening.

That direct little flash creates a very different feeling from the rest of the gallery. It can be immediate, energetic and nostalgic, which is exactly why I like having it available when the party starts.

Adding film to your wedding photography

Film is available as an optional addition alongside my normal digital wedding coverage.

Most couples who want film are looking for exactly that extra layer rather than replacing digital photography altogether. Around five rolls is usually enough for me to spread film across the different parts of the wedding and create a varied analogue collection. If you want something more film-heavy, we can build that around your plans.

I also sometimes use film as part of a more bespoke photography collection. If it matters to you, tell me when you enquire and we can work out how much film makes sense for the wedding you are planning.

Film wedding photography FAQs