No, this is not another classic discussion whether digital or film is better. I am definitely a digital fanatic, so what I write won’t be really objective. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my time as a student shooting films and developing them in my darkroom a.k.a. bathroom. But digital is more fun and opened the door to more creativity. Creativity or manipulation you ask? I call both what I do with Photoshop and what I do to optimize an image in the darkroom manipulation.
Quality is never again a discussion theme. Today’s digital cameras produce images that are sharper and less grainy than film images, at any reproduction size. Negative film is still more forgiving of exposure errors, but if properly exposed, the digital camera can produce a superior image.
During the film era (yes, for me it’s clearly in the past) I used to take 40-50 films for a 3-week-vacation, making a big hole in my pocket. Now I can shoot as much as necessary to get the shot I need. You say it leads to blind shootings without thinking? It’s your own fault. I still think. The difference is I don’t have to think about the material costs anymore. Shoot a hundred pictures in 2 minutes without thinking, and you will get a hundred bad pictures. And sorry, Photoshop might be able to help make your picture better, but you won’t get an excellent image. Yes, our brain is still the most important part in the image making process. What’s more? You know the results instantly. It’s cheating? What about the light meter in your film camera, helping you make a proper exposure, isn’t that also cheating?
More benefits?
You don’t have to take two cameras for black & white and color photos, ISO-speed can be set anytime, ensuring the best quality always, Waste production reduction (bad images won’t get printed), More exciting ways to view images (PhotoFactory offers for example DVD dynamic slide show with music and online picture gallery), and still lots more. You say many clients are still impressed hearing their pictures will be taken using many cameras, digital and film in 35mm as well as medium format? Oh, please. Let’s end the discussion here.
Digital is not the future. It is here and now. Go digital, get rid of your film cameras. Or do what I do: I still keep (and that’s forever) one of my film cameras, the Hexar, a truly beautiful camera. We sometimes still take a walk together, enjoying the old times…
Hi Windee,
I’m a real beginner in photography. I would like to know whether my Canon Ixus55 5.0 megapixels can take wonderful pictures and how. I’ll send you a picture I’ve taken in Bali which is my best so far. Do comment on it. Thanks.
Hi Lorraine,
Well, then you’re a good beginner. I don’t know about Ixus55 but obviously it delivers pictures with very good quality. Your lovely pictures of the museum in Renon and the sunset (I think it’s the Tuban/Kuta Beach by the Discovery Shopping Mall) shows very good colors and sharpness, and it shows that you are able to use it on daytime as well as on the more difficult sunset time. Well done.
More questions? Just ask. Until next time.
hi, I take sport pictures and wedding as hobby bus. When i get back from Iraq i am going full time. I brought Canon 20D and Canon printer 2006 and going to buy a new flash. I also have SLR film. I still use the film for the inside and digital for outside and inside after the wedding. The reason I use the film inside the church cause of the lighting. i think film is better in low light. Should i be useing the digital inside the church and how can I get better lighting inside the church?
please reply at willy@ortiz-site.com
thank you,
ortiz