Film as a point of "competitive advantage"?

Light Guru said:

No you would just mainly use it for portraits.

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i know someone who has taken wedding formals as tintypes ..
i also know someone who hand made a wedding album and
filled it with silver prints and beautifully made cyanotypes ...

i am sure if someone markets themselves and produces something of quality
they will get customers. but in this day and age, it has to be "different" and
extremely good quality ..

You could do that.
Offer it as an extra option (to the standard digital package).

An tie it to a fibre print.

Let's say your rate is 300$ per session.
Tell them for an extra 100$ they also get 2 traditional prints made from film on fibre paper, say on torso portrait and one head and shoulders.


If I were you, I'd use MF with a slight telephoto with smooth bokeh, say a Bronica with an 150mm f/3.5 S, or a Hassy with an 180mm Sonnar, with a traditional fine grain film like FP4+ or PanF+, and a greenyellow filter.
Maybe an orange one for the ladies to smoothen their skin, and a green one for the gents to make them look rough.

Then, the essential part, a nice fibre print.
Size depends on the pricing you can charge, but an 20x24" (cropped to 20x20" if using 6x6) from medium format would look nice.


TL;DR: offer the film service as an extra "special" add on to your main package, and tie it with traditional prints so you ensure it will look special compared to the digital shots.

cliveh said:

The end result is more important than the medium.

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+1.

Coming back into printing after a 30 year gap, starting over and buying darkroom gear I could only dream about back then. Biggest shock for me was the price difference between colour and mono paper. Ilford Fine Art 16x20" @ £5 a sheet. Kodak Metallic ~£3 a sheet if you figure out how to cut it without wastage. Other colour papers ~ £0.60 per 16x20" if you do the cutting. About a quid per sheet for chemicals with colour, half that for mono.

How many potential clients understand that mono costs huge compared to colour?


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giannisg2004 said:

You could do that.
TL;DR: offer the film service as an extra "special" add on to your main package, and tie it with traditional prints so you ensure it will look special compared to the digital shots.

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+1

Unless and until you have the dedication and the clientele to offer "film only", having a premium add-on would seem to be the way to go.

If you offer images like those produced by Troy (new member in different thread) you may have a unique advantage. Images like that can only be replicated on Photoshop, but are not quite the same as originals.