Photography – When Digital Takes Over

By Mark on Tuesday 15 July 2003 at 14:52

I was flipping through my old photo albums last night, and it occurred to me how much photography has changed since my college days. The introduction of digital cameras has made taking snapshots infinitely more convenient, and certainly a lot cheaper.

However, I feel like some of the magic has gone.

The difficulty of the photographic process was part of the attraction. First you had to develop your film, which in itself was pretty tense; reading the wrong figure from the timing chart could be disastrous. Then I used to spend hours in the darkroom, producing test strips and carefully dodging and burning areas until I found the perfect balance of tone. Sometimes I would produce 10 prints to get just one I was happy with, but at the end of it all, the final print was something to be treasured.

Now, however, I just put a little card into my PC, load the files into Photoshop, fiddle with the Levels a bit, and print out perfect prints with no mess, instantly. It's amazing, sure, but it seems almost like cheating.

The actual taking of photos has changed too. Although we still have apertures and shutter speeds, it's a lot less deliberate than with my old Mamiya TLR. On clear days, I used to drive to Dartmoor with my camera and tripod. Then I would set up, and wait for the light to be right, before metering and firing off a frame. Film was expensive, and each roll only contained 12 frames, so it was a case of getting the shot right there and then. Next would come that nervous few days where you waited until you could develop the film, wondering if you'd got the shot or whether another trip was on the cards…

But now I can just fire off 20 shots, look through them, choose the best one and delete the rest, without leaving the spot. It's a lot harder to force yourself to take so much time over composition when it doesn't cost you anything.

With the advent of 22-megapixel cameras, there is no longer a quality issue preventing professional photographers from 'going digital'. Eventually most photography will be digital, and even though I find it wonderfully useful, it will be a sad day for me when the last roll of film is sold.

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