The Movement of Photography from Film to Digital

by: BobDale
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Photography can be defined as the action of capturing photographs. In simple, yet technical terms, photography is the capturing of light and recording it onto another medium such as film or digital media.

Photography can be a pursuit of pleasure or a pursuit of financial gain. Whether you do photography as a hobby for the sake of your own enjoyment or do photography as a professional pursuit, the quality of your photographs will influence how much benefit you get out of it.

Photographic technology has been rapidly advancing in recent years. During the film camera era, advances were slow. But in the digital camera era, the advances in technology have been rapid.

"Once the 35mm film SLR camera was the camera to own but now, there are digital SLR cameras like the Canon Rebel Xti that give the photographer great results with less frustration than their film counterparts" says Minneapolis photographer Bob Dale.

There are three main types of photography: black-and-white photography, color photography and digital photography.

Black-and-white photography is often referred to as monochrome photography. Black-and-white photography is not just the original photography style; it has remained an artistic photography style. Though color photography has been around for many decades, the special contrasts created by black-and-white photography continued to be used for their artistic appeal. "Today Black-and-white photography is associated with "fine art" photography, as in the style of Ansel Adams landscape photos or the George Hurrell style of Hollywood portraits" says professional digital photographer Bob Dale.

Other types of monochrome photography are used for special uses to create artistic views of a subject in various hues of a color. Cyanotype photography is an example of using the monochromatic hues of cyan to create a photograph of cyan and white tones.

By the middle of the 19th century, a strong push was being made to develop color photography. Early color photographs maintained their color for only a brief time. In 1861 James Clerk Maxwell, a physicist, was able to take the first ever color photograph that held its color. However, it took the combined efforts of three cameras with three different lens colors to make the one color photograph.

Color photography became a lot more sustainable with the Autochrome in 1907. Color film didn't enter the mix until Agfacolor film in 1932. It was 1935 when Kodak introduced the modern color film. Polaroid came out with an 'instant' color film in 1963.

Digital photography took things to all-new levels. Digital photography isn't limited by the capabilities of film for its capture and storage of images. Images are translated from a sensor into a digital format that is immediately recorded to an electronic memory storage unit.

As you can imagine, photography that is done in digital form can be easily saved, manipulated, and shared with digital electronics. Instead of dealing with tedious chemical and image transfer processes, you can simply print your pictures straight from the digital media or from your computer.

Wedding photographers and portrait photographers find digital SLR cameras to be particularly indispensable. Photographs can be quickly printed out as proofs for customers to look over and make quick decisions about which photographs they wish to purchase.

Wedding photography is a complex form of portrait photography that requires the camera to have special capabilities that only digital SLRs have, such as making adjustments in low-light situations without a flash. The photographer also needs to be able to take great photographs of the dress, cake, and guests and quickly review them to make sure they're good before the opportunity passes by them.

A digital camera is a relatively affordable device. Digital cameras for novices can be purchased without much investment due to decreasing costs of electronic components and increasing market competition. In fact, a small, but very capable digital camera, can be purchased for less than $100 to meet most novice photography needs.

There is no reason why you can't start with an inexpensive digital camera and then, if you enjoy it, move up to an advanced digital SLR camera later. You may find that before long you are earning a living from your digital photography.

About the Author

Find most about digital photography and the digital camera from expert digital photographer Bob Dale. Visit his photography website at http://photo.dalestudios.com  

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