Photography and Exposures - Film vs Digital

With digital cameras, many photographers now shoot a lot more exposures.  A wedding with film might have been 120 - 240 shots with film, now with digital it might be 10 times that amount.  For headshots and portraits, probably the same ratio.  Thirty six exposures with film might be 360 with digital.  Does that mean you will get better results?  Or perhaps the opposite?  It depends on the photographer - a good photographer wouldn't need to shoot that many exposures.  He or she might, just to make sure to get the client/subject exactly what they wanted and to protect against any possible malfunction of equipment.  Some cameras come with two memory card slots, with the option of recording the photo on both.

For someone who doesn't understand lighting, exposure, composition, and doesn't know the best time to press the shutter release button, it may not matter how many that person takes.

I remember years ago I was visiting a professional photographer socially.  He had planned a for another friend of his to have a photo session with two models, one male and one female, but the male model didn't show up, so I was recruited, LOL.  Well, they got us into the pose they wanted, but the guest photographer took forever (or so it felt) to shoot the first photo, and again for each one.  He just didn't know when to capture that perfect expression, and so missed many.  In addition to knowing when to shoot, the longer you (the photographer) wait, the more uneasy your subject will become.  With digital, this is easier to overcome - you shoot, tell your subject that was good (or great, beautiful, etc.), and then say something like, "now let's try this..."

At one point in my past, I was shooting polaroid photos of people at the beach.  Each shot cost about $1.25 - I learned to make sure I got a good expression and exposure in one shot!  I seldom needed to shoot more than one.  My advice - make believe that each time you press the shutter release, the cost is $3.00 (or more).  Rather than shooting 100 exposures to get one good one, you'll start getting 90 good ones (OK - this might be an exaggeration, but will result in happier clients and bigger orders).

As far as film vs digital - well, that's like the argument for vinyl LP's vs digital for music.  I've done both and listened to both, and digital works fine for me.