As a professional photographer for the past 31
years, I am acutely aware of the magnitude of the effect that
the digital revolution has had on my profession. The vast majority
of professional photographers who have kept up with the technology
will agree that 'digital' is fantastic.
Of course, there are many professionals, while
agreeing that digital is great, will moan that "digital has caused
the loss of much business!" We'll get back to that in Part Two,
but first I'd like to say that the advent and development of computers
and programs like Photoshop, in my humble opinion, is cause enough
for celebration!
I probably should admit at this point that I am
in no way a computer "Geek", and that to me, Photoshop is magic!
It amazes me every time I use it. I can't praise the makers of
Photoshop enough. But I digress…
I have used film in my business for a long time.
And I used medium format film which gave me beautiful, crisp images
I could enlarge to 30x40 very nicely. I was in no hurry to "go
digital" until I saw with my own eyes, and my own images that
digital could produce the same quality I had been used to. I had
never seen a 'digital' print that could fool me into thinking
it was from film.
That day came in 2002. I saw what was being done
with 6-mega pixel capture, and Epson Stylus Pro printers and I
became a "believer".
ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The obvious advantages, just about everybody knows:
No film cost, no processing and proof costs, no prints you don't
want, instant view-ability. Well, instant gratification and saving
money. What's not to love? For a pro, the savings in film, processing
and proofs is substantial. Also as a pro, instant view-ability
has a marked positive influence on sales.
Deeper advantages include having complete control
of your images with imaging software. (It's a given that you need
to have a good computer and good imaging software..) With those
tools you can correct color, add special effects, re-touch, crop,
burn & dodge, sandwich images, all kinds of things! It's as good
or better than having a chemical darkroom.
We'll take a look at the disadvantages in Part
Two, and revisit the "loss of business" issue.
