Is the digital world killing what I love about photography? - Page 3

*Mike Cash* · 07-08-2008, 07:44 AM

Originally Posted by chedoy

For father's day, they got dear brother-in-law a digital. I asked him about it last weekend. He pulled out a small lowes case, opened it and pulled out a second leather case with a little kodak inside. Take a picture? Out of his other pocket comes a disposable film camera and that's what he is using now.

I have DSLR, SLR (x3), TLR (x3), MF rangefinder (x2), 35mm rangefinder (x6), box brownie (x3)....etc etc you get the idea.

Know what the absolute most funnest camera I own is?

This uber-simple toy camera.

Not the best...heck....not even good. But boy oh boy is it fun.

*ChipB* · 07-08-2008, 08:28 AM

In answer to the OP's original question, for me, the answer is "yes and no". For some time I was vaguely disappointed with my digital endeavers. More and more I was just taking "snapshots"- "snap", move on, "snap", move on - you get the drift. Even when I tried to take "my kind" of photos, I was still dissatisfied with the results - a "lack of emotion" almost. I've been into photography off and on for over 50 years (usually the "off-time" caused by financial issues) and digital seemed to be a good way to get back into it. But, as time went by, the dissatisfaction kept growing.

Then (plug to Adam) I found this forum about a year or so ago. I'd been on the other forum, but was constantly put off by the anomosity. What I discovered about myself through reading various postings, is that I loved the preperation for taking the shot - the walking around, standing up, laying down, looking left, right, up, down - finding the view I wanted! I'd lost that with digital "snapshots". So, because of this forum and lots of ideas presented, I found myself buying some old screwmount lenses and using them. Going back to (almost) manual photo taking made me slow down and really look at what I was doing. What a difference that has made in my photography and my attitude about it!

Don't get me wrong - I still use, and enjoy, the benefits of digital. I use the histogram, I review my shots on the LCD, I immediately delete the goofs, I really like the shake reduction on my K200D. And, even when I'm in P&S mode (my g-kids playing, etc) I'm more aware of the pics I'm taking.

Anyway, great post, some really good interactions. Thanks.

*Papou* · 07-08-2008, 08:33 AM

I wish digital was out when i had to sleep in the same room that acted as my darkroom...
Mind you my night vision aint so good no more

...

*Damn Brit* · 07-08-2008, 03:51 PM

To OP, thank you for starting this thread.
I can't agree or disagree with you because you have told me about your own perspective.
In my case, digital has re awoken my love of photography. I had a year or two of enthusiasm during my high school years and then camera malfunction and life interrupted my photographic aspirations.

Scroll forward to the digital age and it becomes easier for me to take photo's again. My first was a S*** Cybershot 3mp and I was able to use it on a couple of vacations. Then it got lost and I moved on to a 5mp version. A year or so later I got to go on a vacation where I would be snorkelling every day and the underwater housing for the cybershot was discontinued. Unlucky for Sony, lucky for Pentax, that was when I discovered the Optio wp.

All during my time with digital point and shoots I was becoming more aware that a lot of the time they couldn't take the pictures that I wanted to take. It just so happened that news of the K10d surfaced at the same time that I first started looking for a DSLR. Now I can at least try to take the pictures I want to take, now I'm the weak link but at least I can learn.

@ Mike Riley, I really enjoyed reading you posts.

One other thing to OP, I'm pretty stingy with the amount of shots I take, I try to get them right first (or maybe fourth) time. So in that respect, I would be the same whether the medium was digital or film.

Gary

*Wombat* · 07-08-2008, 11:25 PM

Originally Posted by ChipB

In answer to the OP's original question, for me, the answer is "yes and no". For some time I was vaguely disappointed with my digital endeavers. More and more I was just taking "snapshots"- "snap", move on, "snap", move on - you get the drift. Even when I tried to take "my kind" of photos, I was still dissatisfied with the results - a "lack of emotion" almost. I've been into photography off and on for over 50 years (usually the "off-time" caused by financial issues) and digital seemed to be a good way to get back into it. But, as time went by, the dissatisfaction kept growing.

Then (plug to Adam) I found this forum about a year or so ago. I'd been on the other forum, but was constantly put off by the anomosity. What I discovered about myself through reading various postings, is that I loved the preperation for taking the shot - the walking around, standing up, laying down, looking left, right, up, down - finding the view I wanted! I'd lost that with digital "snapshots". So, because of this forum and lots of ideas presented, I found myself buying some old screwmount lenses and using them. Going back to (almost) manual photo taking made me slow down and really look at what I was doing. What a difference that has made in my photography and my attitude about it!

Don't get me wrong - I still use, and enjoy, the benefits of digital. I use the histogram, I review my shots on the LCD, I immediately delete the goofs, I really like the shake reduction on my K200D. And, even when I'm in P&S mode (my g-kids playing, etc) I'm more aware of the pics I'm taking.

Anyway, great post, some really good interactions. Thanks.

It seems quite a few of us have had that vague feeling of dissatisfaction since we made the jump from film to digital. After reading Mike Riley's and other contributions and thinking about it some more I'm really inclined to quote Pogo - "We have met the enemy and it is us!" A camera is a camera is a camera and whether it does its thing digitally or analogically (?) it's just a tool and we old film farts have found it convenient to blame the tool for our dissatisfaction. As you point out, ChipB, there's no reason why we can't continue to take shots as we used to, moving about, laying down etc. The digital camera isn't stopping us, it's our willingness to be seduced by instant gratification and sloppy habits - "If I bang off enough shots one of them's bound to be usable and I've got gigabytes-worth to play with." I'm starting to realize that I can indeed bang off hundreds of shots in a day's outing and they can all be crap! So I'm going to enjoy sitting with a cup of tea and reflecting on the discipline I used to employ and figure out how to recapture it, whatever camera I have in my hands. I was all set to go and buy a film camera to see if I could get the old magic back, but people's responses in this thread have convinced me that a bit of time spent sitting on a log and really examining what's going on in my head would be a much better solution.

*Mallee Boy* · 07-09-2008, 03:25 AM

Any room on that log Wombat?....think you've nailed it.

*J.Scott* · 07-09-2008, 03:53 AM

Originally Posted by deudeu

Well I won't let it!

Let me explain myself.

I love my DSLR. It is a great tool and I have tones of fun with it. It also had the advantage of boosting my learning curve, because when I was shooting film I wasn't able to go back to my EXIF data to figure out what settings worked in what situation.

BUT, here is the way i took pictures with film. I got my camera out every once in a while and shot a couple of pictures. I usually used tri-X, or HP5 film because it is supposed to be stable, and then i let the rolls wait in a dark cool drawer for a couple of years.

Then, when you go to get your pictures from the store, it is a complete surprise. All those memories come back, you are surprised to see how much people have changed, or haven't... It is always a beautiful moment.

It is just like when our parents or grandparents took out their picture box. Then, they revealed a whole world of unknown places and people, little details like cars, clothing, hairdos, are all so interesting. This is what i love about photography: these moments where with the use of pictures, the memories of ones become shared by all, and the memories of all become a way of bringing people together.

But now, because of the digital revolution, this type of fun experience might forever be gone. Now, we all have access to all of those pictures at all time just from the internet. There is tones of pictures of almost everyone on social websites, so that when you have a picture showing night, no one is really interested anymore. They have already seen it all!

But I have a solution to this problem! I put my pictures in hibernation. At the end of each month, I take all of my pictures and put them on a backup HD and I don't let anyone see them before a while. I only post a few of my pictures on the internet, never the best ones.
By doing this I hope to be able to bring back the magic in photos. In a few years I will be able to print out those pictures that no one saw and that nobody remembers me taking. This will have some impact.
Screw the screens that let you show to people the picture you just took! Who needs to see pictures right away but the photographer (I actually never look at anything else than the diagram)? They were just there!
So to my friends who will ask me to send them copies of my pictures of them, I will answer no. Those pictures belong to me and I will send those to them only when I feel like they will have an impact!

To make it short, I just think that people should take more pride in the pictures they take and keep them a little secret, like those family recipes. We all try real hard to take good photos and to make them special. By throwing them all over the internet, we are just making those special images not so special.

Sounds like you are trying to savour "the moment" and that has precious little to do with the medium. You are implying that viewing the image almost immediately after it's creation that it has little importance. You are saying that we need to take the image, forget about it for a period of time and then look at it; now it means something more because there has been a lapse of time. It is possibly because if the image is viewed immediately after inception we have little to connect us emotionally to that image? If we wait longer - weeks, months, years - our brain makes more connections to that moment and when viewed then we enjoy or appreciate that moment in time, not necessarily the image. I can see how this may work for images of friends, family and events but not for all images. Lots of us take pictures of things other than moments in time; bugs, birds and flowers, for example. Should these images also be frozen in your time machine before being viewed and appreciated?

Are you saying that because digital images grant us instant gratification this makes the medium bad? The medium isn't bad, it's human nature that has spoiled your magic moment.

I wish I were a psychologist to know why the human brain works this way.

Is this making sense?

TaoMaas · 07-09-2008, 05:11 AM

Originally Posted by J.Scott

You are implying that viewing the image almost immediately after it's creation that it has little importance. You are saying that we need to take the image, forget about it for a period of time and then look at it; now it means something more because there has been a lapse of time. It is possibly because if the image is viewed immediately after inception we have little to connect us emotionally to that image. If we wait longer - weeks, months, years - our brain makes more connections to that moment and when viewed then we enjoy or appreciate that moment in time...

My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it.

Sam Abell

alohadave · 07-09-2008, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by TaoMaas

My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it.

Sam Abell

Some of my best work is usually when I'm not trying to create great work. One of the best shots I've taken with my current camera was taken on the first full day of having it, before I was really familiar with the controls.

Other times, I'll try to get a specific shot or style, and not get anything good, while the offhand picture that I take at the end of the session is the keeper.

mikereid · 07-10-2008, 02:59 AM

thats an interesting take on it. For me the great advantage of what is probably best defined as a computer revolution is that I can share my images with whoever might be interested (via my website and elsewhere). Another is that PS has brought a competant colour darkroom into my lounge, I never had that before. My reservation is that, unlike a print or slide, all these images are likely to dissapear into digital dust at some future point when either I don't maintain them or technology makes a major upgrade.

*séamuis* · 07-10-2008, 04:38 AM

I don't think I want to count the number of undeveloped rolls of HP5 currently residing in my refrigerator.

dylansalt · 07-17-2008, 07:48 AM

Personally I can't see why as a photographer the medium should change anything with the approach to why and how you take photographs.

My photograpic operus merandi (sic?) habits have been formed by many years of 35mm film shooting that I shoot the same with my DSLR.

Digital is incredible - allowing you to have absolute confirmed control over what you are taking also with a chance to correct a mistake real time whether be exposure, DOF, Compo etc

To be able to have a cheap darkroom (Computer) to sit leisurely - glass of whisky or tea - process your photo's to ensure that they are perfect (no silly one hour labs stuffing up your roll film) - deleting the crappy ones - printing the memorable ones.

My son at 21 has lead me back to B&W - I couldn't believe when I gave him my Oly 5060 prosumer he was banging away Black n White - saying he prefers it - only digital allowed him that ease of access - he is now doing some good portraiture with the cam-experimenting with Sepia tones as well

Digital is unbelievable period!

*Mike Cash* · 07-17-2008, 08:11 AM

I think you meant "modus operandi" (mode of operating).

"Sic" is used to indicate that an error has been left as found.

While I do send my film off to be developed, I quite enjoy the scanning process. But that would probably be different if I had no choice but to scan everything I shoot.

dylansalt · 07-17-2008, 12:36 PM

Thanx for the correction- ha ha was having a short term memory loss moment - and just put in what I thought it was

mzmn · 07-17-2008, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by LaRee

I must admit that my friends and family don't care for waiting for photos for more than a week though. This leads to conflicts.

Yeah! Even worse than clients sometimes.

There are pictures that I just don't want to rush through the digital darkroom. And others, you instinctively know what to do with before you even take the picture.

And of course, a lot of them that aren't worth spending time on.