In the last post on my series of Digital Photography Myths, one of the greatest myths I regularly see with digital photography is that it is easier than film photography. Unless you’re only referring to a situation where you are plugging your digital camera right into a printer (e.g. PictBridge) to make prints, it is simply is not so.
Long gone are the days of the little yellow huts in supermarket parking lots. Even so, those huts represented the best of times for film processing. Any consumer could simply shoot a roll of film and drop it off at “The Hut”. Then, as if by magic, fresh prints would show up in your mailbox within a few days. Simplicity defined. As long as you could load a roll of film and lick an envelope, you could expect processed prints.
The actual magic happened at the film lab where technicians carefully tweaked the exposure for each print in the film development process. Unfortunately, now that everything is digital, it is completely up to the photographer to ensure the exposure, white balance and color balance are correct for each print.
Similarly, ordering different size prints used to be as easy as putting an “X” in the appropriate checkbox on the film processing order form. However, in the digital realm, the electronic file must be resized, resampled and sharpened for each print size to ensure optimal results.
So, how do you “resize, resample and sharpen” the electronic file you ask? By using your trusty computer, of course! You never needed to know a single thing about computers, software, etc before this whole digital thing, but now it is mandatory if you want to crop or tweak any of your digital files. In fact, new skillsets are now required. So much so, that Digital photography has been one of the driving forces behind the demand for Adobe Photoshop professionals and graphic artists around the world.
Hey! But digital photography is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) isn’t it?! Sure, you can see the photo you just captured on the 2.5″ LCD on the back of your camera. You could even use the LCD to take the shot, but I do not recommend it for optimal results. Unfortunately, nearly everything looks sharp on such a tiny LCD. As a result, you will likely not know how blurry your images are until you transfer them to your computer and look at them.
A film camera is an extremely simply device. A lens, aperture/shutter and a method to advance the film. A digital camera has the same components, but it also has menu screens nested multiple levels deep. Sure, a digital camera may have more controls over a film camera, but it is also much more complicated to master and get a professionally finished product.
What do you think?
I think you underestimate the wealth of knowledge required to get a professionally finished analog photography product. Not snapshots, but good photography.
I’d say that digital photography is not easier to do – it is merely more accessible – it is easier to mess around without specialty infrastructure. (darkrooms, chemicals, enlargers, etc)
I agree with you. But, I know very few professional photographers that developed their own film. Most of them depended on a lab to created the finished analog product. So, yes, digital photography is more accessible; however, it also requires computer knowledge to prep the digital files before submitting them to a lab.
Consider a person whom already owns all the computer equipment required. AND is already skilled at interacting with the computer. AND is already experienced with managing computer stored data.
Would you agree that digital photography is easier for that sort of individual?
Not that its easy to know all that about computers. But if you do, a whole ocean of those things to learn about digital photography are moot.
Yes, digital photography is easier for a computer-savvy photographer than not. However, considering the lab still processes the prints, there is still “more work” involved on the photographer’s end for digital. Whether or not that “work” is easy for a particular person doesn’t negate the fact there’s more of it. Just my $0.02.