Finally it gives me something that film couldn't give me is the ability to experiment more freely, easily and precisely. And now you have complete control over everything. Once you develop your procedures you can have something, a look, that no one else can create. It's not like film in that regard where anyone can buy 10x8 polaroid and get that look exactly and instantly. Digital is limitless and provides us photographers greater ability to be unique through experimentation. There is a very, very great value in that.
I couldn't agree more .
The best technological change I ever made was from film to digital, and that's coming from an old-school background, with my own 4x5 colour enlarger and everything.
Making color prints used to be a nightmare, there never was the right tonal balance, contrast, etc., something that can now be fixed so easily in Photoshop.
An analogue print gets such a poor result, at least in color, that it's a joke when you look back from where we are now.
Many people didn't even make their own prints, and never understood the films they were using.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no film
look, only a different set of limitations , depending on what film you choose.
Film was great to learn the basics of photography, and I'm glad I have had the experience, but these days a Mac, some decent printer and Photoshop (at a fraction of the cost of buying an LF color lab) allow you to take any MF/FF digital file and turn it into a quality image.
Of course you need to do a little learning first, but for me it beats trying to get an utterly unbalanced film like Velvia or Portra to behave the way you want it.