Making the transition from film to digital photography wasn't
easy when I was in photography school. It was like learning a new
language. Sure it was easier in that you didn't have to buy film and
load it into the camera, yet with all the new-fangled gadgets attached
to digital cameras, I found it a bit intimidating. There will always be
an argument that film is better than digital. Digital cameras have all
but replaced film cameras, yet in photography schools, both film and
digital are still taught, so that students are aware of each format's
attributes.
I went to a camera show recently knowing that film
cameras had fallen out of favor, but I was somewhat surprised to see the
total lack of interest. Ten people (in addition to the vendors) were at
the show besides myself. The sad truth is that even though film cameras
are still being used in photography schools, most professional
photographers rarely use film anymore, for many reasons, including
expense and lack of resources for developing the film.
These
vendors had a multitude of old and unique pieces for sale, some of them
dating back to the late 19th century (when I was in photography school, I
actually had one of these antique cameras, but that's another story for
another time), but the overall vibe was one of frustration as many of
the people I spoke with loved film, but had forcibly made the switch to
digital.
I'm not knocking digital cameras here, they have their
advantages in that they're compact, they produce an immediate image and
they have a greater storage capacity than a film camera, which in 35mm,
only has the capacity for 36 exposures. With digital, you can shoot
hundreds of images, as well as video clips, until your memory card fills
up. Digital cameras also allow you to see your image immediately after
you take the picture, as opposed to film. And even though the image
quality is different, with computer programs like Photoshop, you can
actually replicate digital images so that they resemble film.
Digital
cameras originally got their start as a CCD (charge coupled device)-a
digital image sensor that was originally developed for computer memory
in the late 1960s, yet the technology would eventually be used for video
cameras, the bulky kind used in broadcast television. And like the
first cell phones, digital cameras were big and bulky things to carry
around; it was through trial and error that digital cameras would
transform over the years into products that were compact enough to fit
into one's pocket. Today, some look like actual cameras, whereas others
don't.
The added plus with digital cameras is that they can be
found in many other products, such as smart phones and PDAs, making it
more convenient for spur of the moment shots. But more elaborate digital
single lens reflex cameras, as opposed to point and shoot cameras, are
often used by professional photographers, as they have greater
capabilities and are more versatile. Though nifty, these are the
culprits for having veritably replaced the standard film camera and
making it pretty much obsolete.
And though film still exists, it's
harder than ever to find. Ask at your local drug store for a roll of
film, and you'll find that they look at you cross-eyed. Gone are the
days when people would buy film cartridges and plop them into their
small instamatic flash cameras with 24 exposures; the convenience of
that has now been replaced by the even more convenient digital camera.
Those just starting out in
photography schools
also may not have had access to film cameras beforehand, unless one of
their parents is a photographer, so the concept of shooting film may be
entirely alien to them. In fact, the other day I was talking to a friend
of mine's son, who's considering a career in photography and was asking
me about various photography schools. This young 15-year-old boy had
never once used a film camera. I made a mental note to get him one for
his next birthday.
The point being that digital has now become so
ingrained in our point and shoot culture that even those of us who once
used film have altogether forgotten that there was a real process
involved in setting up a photograph. You had to check lighting and all
your settings then go through the procedure of taking the pictures. The
same goes for digital, but its relative ease of use has to some degree
eradicated the romanticism associated with photography.
In the end, it comes down to preference. These days it may be easier to teach a
photography
newcomer the process in digital, as it's more convenient all around.
However, I'm still a big proponent of photography schools that teach
students how to use both types of cameras, not just for the practical
use of photography, but also for its historical context. Students might
scoff or be shocked at how time consuming it took to take a photograph
back in the day or how cumbersome the actual cameras could be at times,
but like any art, knowing and understanding its history is vital to
becoming a better photographer.
