Some thoughts on Digital Photography

As I was growing up I watched my grandfather, an award-winning amateur photographer, working in the darkroom with his medium format negatives developing pictures.  When I became serious about photography myself, I used high quality 35mm equipment for its quality, portability and flexibility.  Today I use exclusively digital photographic equipment for similar reasons.  I still own four high quality 35mm cameras and all the attendant lenses and accessories, but today these are in my display case along with other cameras I collect. 

As a consumer of photography, you should be concerned with ensuring you are getting the best quality images and service from your photographer.  Whether the pictures come from a high resolution digital camera or a film based camera ultimately should not matter.  After all, when you are viewing the image, what you care about is the impact of the image itself, not the technology that produced it.

However, as a photographer, there are some key advantages to using the newer digital technology that help me deliver the best quality images and service to you.  These include:

• Instant feedback

  • Being able to instantly review pictures helps ensure that the image is as-needed.  Any problems such as closed eyes, background distractions, exposure or color imbalances are correct, can be detected and the picture  quickly retaken if necessary.

  • With film based photography one can only be assured of the image's quality once it is returned from the lab well after the event is over and the ability to re-take a picture has passed. 

• Adjustability on the fly

  • Different lighting conditions as well as creative factors require different setups.  For example, for the best quality images at a party where a candle lighting ceremony is being held, the film sensitivity and color balance need to be different for the candle lighting shots than for general photos of the party.  For film based photography this creates the dilemma of either requiring multiple cameras with different film types or compromising the quality of the picture if the photographer is using only one camera.

  • With a digital camera, the settings can be changed to adjust the camera’s sensitivity (ASA/ISO rating) and color balance from picture to picture.

• No film or development costs

  • In traditional photography there is the cost of film, developing and printing for every picture taken.

  • In digital photography the cost of consumables in taking one photograph is pretty much the same as taking one hundred. Digital photographers may be willing to take more pictures at an event.

• The ability to produce digital and/or  hard copy proofs

  • While most people still prefer to review hard copy proofs, with digital photography there is the option to produce digital proofs at little or no extra cost.  These can be reviewed on a computer, posted to a web site, etc.

  • It is possible to produce digital proofs for traditional photographs, but this requires additional time and cost to create digital images from the negatives or hard copy proofs.

• Quick turnaround on previews

  • With an on-site portable computer or TV, a digital photographer can preview your images with you shortly after your photography session, while your out-of-town guests are still with you.

  • This capability can be used to create an interesting option at parties.  If you have a big screen TV or digital projector, pictures from the party can be displayed just a few minutes after they’ve been taken.  Kids (and parents too!) love to see the action.

  • With traditional photography, you need to wait for the processing of the film and printing of proofs.

• Flexibility in archiving

  • Because they are computer files, digital photos can be stored electronically, e.g. on CD or DVD.  Any digital images you have rights to (proofs or originals) can be copied and distributed via disk, email, the web, etc.  Also, if you want to include some of your pictures in a document, such as a newsletter, brochure, etc. having the originals as digital images increased quality, reduces turnaround time, and ultimately reduces costs.

  • Because they are stored electronically, digital images can be easily archived and retrieved.

  • Please note that just as most traditional photographers will not sell their negatives, or charge a premium for you to purchase negatives, most professional digital photographers will not sell their full resolution digital files or will charge a premium for the digital originals.

• Ease of retouching/correcting an image

  • Sometimes it is necessary or desirable to retouch an image.  Common reasons include blemishes, removing wrinkles/bags under eyes/double chins, removing objectionable background material, red-eye, and skin blemishes.

  • Traditionally retouching was an artistic process using special paints that required specific artistic skills.  Most photographers would have to use a specialist for anything but the most minor retouching.

  • Today, almost all retouching and photo-restoration is done digitally.  Film based photos are scanned, retouched on the computer, then reprinted.

  • With digital photography, the original is already in the format necessary for using retouching computer software.  Retouching becomes just an interim step before the printing digital photos.

  • Please note that while retouching software is readily available and most computer savvy digital photographers will be able to do common retouching tasks, extensive retouching is still a specialized task that is time consuming and expensive.

• Opportunities for photographic novelties

  • “Blue screen” or chromakey is a technique that allows a subject to be superimposed onto alternative background images.  For example, the weather forecaster on TV is actually standing in front of a blank wall when they appear to be in front of a weather map.  The same basic process can be used in digital photography to shoot a picture with a subject in front of a blank background.  A background of the client’s choice can then be inserted for a seamless picture.  This leads to some fun options e.g. at a party you could have pictures of your guests taken and then superimposed onto a background of 6^th Street, Hippie Hollow, a magazine cover, or any image available to the photographer.  Interestingly, the background in “blue screen” photography can actually be any color.  Most often it is a bright shade of green, as this is a color few people wear.

As with any technology, digital photography has some potential disadvantages.  These include:

• Pixelization at high rates of enlargement.

  • All images, digital or film based, are made up of small elements (computer pixels or film grains) that when enlarged enough will cause the image to be of unacceptable quality. In film based photography the picture becomes fuzzy or grainy when greatly enlarged because the image is stored as pseudo random dots on the film.  With digital photos, each picture element (pixel) is a square, and so at large rates of enlargement, diagonal lines appear to be like a staircase, a phenomenon know as “the jaggies”.

  • The higher the resolution of the digital camera (plus other technical factors), the greater the image can be enlarged before jaggies are evident. Furthermore, specialized photo printing systems use a technique called anti-aliasing that reduces or eliminates the jaggies.

  • As long as your digital photographer is using a high resolution digital camera and printing system, you should not experience the jaggies in any of your event photographs.  The quality should be equal to, or greater than 35mm photography in most situations.

  • Note that for high resolution photography (e.g. full page magazine work), commercial photographers use medium or large format cameras, unlike the typical cameras you see used at events.  These larger format cameras use much larger pieces of film than 35mm or 120/220 cameras.  Interestingly, since magazines are laid out on computers, many commercial photographers now switching over to shooting directly onto large format digital camera backs and cutting film out of the photographic processes.

• Equipment cost

  • While other equipment costs such as lenses, lighting, etc. may stay the same, digital photographers must pay significantly more for their cameras, typically 2-5 times the price.  Furthermore, with the technology of digital cameras being updated much faster than film based cameras, the effective economic life of the digital camera is shorter.

  • For a photographer who earns their living from a camera, this is a relatively minor issue as their costs are amortized over a large number of jobs and the cost of film is an offsetting factor.  However, for most amateur users, the additional cost and reduced lifespan of a high end digital camera encourages most amateur photographers to buy consumer digital cameras which do not have the resolution or optical quality of professional equipment.

• Piracy/copyright violations

  • When a professional photographer takes pictures for you, according to law, they own the copyright to the photographs. Copying or otherwise using a photograph without the photographer’s permission is a copyright violation.

  • While copyright violation may be a problem for any photographer, it presents a particular problem for digital photographers because of the ease of copying and transmitting the files containing the photographs.  There are various solutions to this problem.  Some photographers will incorporate a copyright notice into their pictures, which may or may not be visible.  Others will reduce the resolution of their photos so that they can be viewed fine on a computer screen, but cannot be printed out with acceptable quality.  Interestingly, this process of reducing the resolution also makes it easier for the user to transmit the picture to others via email or posting to a website. 

I hope this document has helped you better understand some of the technical aspects and issues involved with digital photography and why I have chosen to adopt this technology for my business.  If you have further questions, I would be happy to try to answer them. Please contact me by email at David@DavidFinkel.com or by phone 512 576-7278.