The word photography derives from the Greek words phōs (genitive: phōtós) light, and gráphein, to write. The word was coined by Sir John Frederick William Herschel in 1839.
Digital versus film photography has been a debate since the invention of digital cameras towards the end of the 20th Century. Both digital and film photography have advantages and disadvantages. Digital imaging dominates the 21st century photography world. It is a much quicker process than the traditional use of film. Thousands of images can be shot and saved on a memory disk with digital photography, compared to the standard 36 images on a 35mm film before it has to be processed and printed for viewing. Another advantage of using digital photography over film is the way you can view the image instantly on screen on the back of the camera. There are a few film cameras which have the same capabilities, where a digital back can be added to the camera to enable a preview. However these are not as readily available as digital cameras, which also mean they are more expensive. Digital cameras tend to have much lower resolution as the image sensor is small in comparison to that of a larger format film camera.
There is a problem that can occur in digital photography called noise. Noise is where shadow areas of electronic images can be ruined with random pixels of the incorrect colour, this is produced by heat and manufacturing defects. Noise in digital photography is similar to grain in film photography. Grain and film sensitivity are linked, with more sensitive films having more obvious grain. Likewise, when used at high sensitivity settings, digital camera images show more image noise than those made at lower sensitivities. It is known that colour digital photography has much less noise/grain than film at equivalent sensitivity leading to an edge in image quality.
Digital cameras are capable of much higher speeds than film, and make better photos in low light situations at night or indoors, and are more useful for ultra-fast photography. In addition, on digital cameras the speed can be adjusted at any time, quickly with a button setting, while a film camera requires changing the film to change the film speed, which is costly and takes more time.
There are many reasons for and against both film and digital photography with certain aspects of both having to be compromised at some point. At the end of the day I believe it comes down to personal preference. I much prefer working with film photography; I find that it is technically, more challenging and consequently more exciting! I find the experiments with the production of film images exciting and many times challenging. I prefer the limited shots you get working with film cameras, which makes the photographer slow down and compose the image correctly, particularly true of large format cameras, where each image is captured on an individual slide of film. I like the anticipation of the wait between taking the image and developing it onto to paper, it is far more exciting than seeing the image straight away and being able to delete it. However there are some cases, for example wedding photography, where the images need to be perfect as it is a one off experience that isn't going to be repeated, where I would use digital photography as it is much more time efficient and secure with the images being produced, it is also more cost effective, with thousands of images being stored on a memory card.
Overall I can see advantages and disadvantages for both types of image making. Commercially it is more sensible to use digital photography, however personally I would always choose the more exciting and challenging use of film photography.
No comments:
Post a Comment