All articles copyright 2007 Jeff Coleman
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Has the digital age made things easier or harder for photographers?
The digital age certainly has advantages, such as immediate image review, immediate client approval of images, time savings, more control, etc. The caveat; higher expectations from clients, long hours in front of a computer, more expensive equipment, having to upgrade every 2 years and the list goes on.
Despite the aforementioned drawbacks I can't imaging life without my digital SLR's. Seeing images immediately on my cameras LCD screen is invaluable. It no doubt makes my images better because I'm able to experiment more. I don't have to guess or hope that I got everything right because I've already seen the image. I don't have to worry about a mishap at the lab or my invaluable film getting lost in transit. Stopping in the middle of a shoot to change film was a pain in the but. Now I can shoot 500 or more shots before swapping out the memory card. I don't use a light meter on most shoots because I can see the images immediately and look at the histogram or blinking highlights. When I see an image I like, I can show it to the client and get immediate feedback. This puts them more at ease which is good for everyone. Another recent advantage of digital is low light capability. The newest batch of professional, digital SLR's can produce beautiful images in very low light. These same images on film would be grainy, with less contrast and shifted colors.
Wow, digital photography sounds great, so what's the downside?
Before digital took over as the preferred medium of most professionals, we sent our film off to a lab to be processed. The lab then shipped the prints back or drop shipped them directly to the client. The photographers job was mostly over as soon as he pushed the shutter release. The labs would color correct images, adjust exposure and anything else needed. In the digital age, the photographer is usually responsible for all of this work. Clients expect to see finished, ready for print images in a very short time period. Photographers today have adapted by becoming expert photo retouch artists themselves.
Post production goes something like this.
Immediately backup all images on at-least two hard drives and DVD.
Remove unusable images.
Retouch remaining images with photoshop.
Create a low res gallery for the client to view and make their final image selection.
Do a final image retouch on the clients chosen images.
Upload final images to Lab for printing.
Deliver to client.
This process often takes longer than the actual shoot did.
Photographers save money in lab and film costs but spend considerably more on expensive digital equipment that, like a computer, is obsolete in two years. |
