Gawd I love this digital age!

[ricstew]

Brief chat with my sister......we both remember the days of developing film with our dad.....waiting for the chemical and water to arrive.....the tenseness and the timing that had to be perfect. "Stand over there and measure the light for me! Hold the lens cap dear.....stop your brother! He's not big enough to touch"

Then quite a few years after that at a local Ag show the editor asks if I have any for the paper......I look at him blankly and said.....dunno, I have to get the film developed....it will take a few days.....That excitement, going into the chemist to pick up your prints....sitting on the seat outside checking each one with the kids going " I wanna see "

To now.....shooting off many " rolls " of film with total disregard of developing costs. The digital darkroom! OMG....results that my dad could never have dreamed of.....the millions of ways a single image can be reproduced, changed, made better or worse depending on your vision. Instantly! Upload, download, show your friends or ask for opinions....and your results are not permanent....If I decide later than I want the cow to be green I can make it green! Print on a zillion types of paper, at home if I wanted to....from exquisite art paper and metallics to plain old matte or don't print at all! Send images on that internet highway thingo! Send them on your phone! Holey moley how good is that!
I feel a bit like Alice down the rabbit hole.....except I am having the best time! I hope you are too!
cheers
Jan

[ricktas]

Ah, but to do all this well you need to still learn to take photos, a bad photo taken on film, can be taken digitally and it is still a bad photo. You needed to learn how to process film in the darkroom but now you need to learn how to post process using photoshop etc. I think there are often more steps involved in processing a digital photo than there ever was with film. Photoshop is huge and to learn it well takes time, more time than it took to learn to develop a roll of black and white, in the bathroom with dad/mum etc.

I am having the best time too, but I don't necessarily think digital has made it easier, just different.

[fjoe45]

I think digital is easier as you can see the settings befor you take the photo. If 1 thing is out then some thing flashes and you adjust a setting to make it right. Sorry rick but i prefer browming and canon.

[ricktas]

I think digital is easier as you can see the settings befor you take the photo. If 1 thing is out then some thing flashes and you adjust a setting to make it right. Sorry rick but i prefer browming and canon.

You could see the settings on film as well? You dialed them in, the same as you do with digital. Not sure what browming and canon have to do with this?

[PH005]

I think the major differnece is that self processing has become more accessible to the masses. Look how many people have a computer at home now compared to a dark room back before digital.

[farmer_rob]

Digital has made it easier - but presented new challenges. I never had a darkroom, and was never going to - so all my photos were "shoot, pray, wait for the chemist". There was no cropping, enlargement, or opportunities to fix exposure errors. With care and attention, I could address my faults, but it took time, wasted photos and money.

In these digital days, I can do my own development, cropping etc. I can chimp and immediately correct issues. The time between exposure and seeing a draft image has been reduced from days to seconds and so learning from exeprience becomes much more rapid. It is cheaper and easier to try new effects (slow/fast shutter speeds, differnt apertures, different framing...)

Yes, you have to come to terms with managing colour and white balance, and (if using RAW) the need for sharpening, but I still think it is easier than film. The only thing I think is harder is that the bar for a good photo has been raised a long way.

[Lion31Cybershot]

Digital is easier if you have a small house and no place for a dark room.

[fabian628]

I find that excitment of waiting and wondering how a shot came out the best part! WHen you either get the shots back from the shop or open the film developing tank to have a look at the negatives for the first time
Not having as many shots makes you think about each shot a bit more.

[ameerat42]

Photography has evolved a digital variant.

[ricstew]

I think they are two different species all together The excitement of opening the pack of prints is comparable to opening a file on the computer......but different! Once the prints are done ( especially if you had to trust both yourself and who ever developed them ) they are done......finished, you cant change them....but on the computer I can say hmmm what if I did this or that or pulled that colour up or whatever.......I couldn't do that in a dark room as I didn't have the knowledge .........I could have read books but it was way more difficult to put that into practice back then......but on the computer I can learn all sorts of skills........the magic of the internet and the people who share their skills online. Instantly...... ( within reason lol )

'Not having as many shots makes you think about each shot a bit more".........I think that depends on the person taking the pics........I am sooo not a run and gun with digital.... I wasn't with film either......but know people who were.....film was comparatively inexpensive.....tho not as inexpensive as files

[Erin]

For me... digital = cheaper.

I love Reala and Velvia but to buy those films and get them processed was a sheer luxury I could ever afford occasionally and when I took into account that most of the rolls ended up being mostly rubbish, it was a waste of money AND great film.

Now I give no thought to running off 300-500 shots in a single session if I need to.

And of course, being a Photoshop junkie, the whole digital photography thing is fabulous for me.