Photography: From Film to Digital
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Photography is defined simply as taking photographs. In a bit more technical terms, photography is the capturing of light to create a two dimensional image on a 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.
Photography has advanced significantly over the past few years. Before the advent of digital cameras, film cameras were widely used. Today, however, digital cameras are becoming more and more popular.
“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.
Monochrome photography can also be done in hues of a specific color, rather than in black-and-white form. For example, cyanotype monochrome photography makes use of blue-and-white color variations.
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.
More than 40 years later, in 1907, Autochrome color photography became possible for professional photographers. It was 1932 when Agfacolor film came out. Modern color film came out with the 1935 Kodachrome film. Another big moment in color photography was the introduction of ‘instant’ color film by Polaroid 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.
These digital photos can be easily handled, manipulated, shared, displayed, or printed. Simply hooking the digital storage device up to a computer or a printer will allow the photographs to be quickly printed out at as high quality prints.
Most photography professionals who specialize in portrait photography or wedding photography choose digital SLR cameras. Digital SLR cameras give the photographer the ability to print out quick proof sheets so the customers can quickly pick out which photographs they want to buy.
Most wedding photographers now use digital SLRs in their wedding photography business because these cameras enable them to take pictures of the wedding ceremony discretely, without using flash. At the wedding reception, they can take high quality photos of the bride’s wedding dress, the wedding cake, and wedding guests with a digital SLR that has a zoom lens.
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.
When you find that digital photography is fun, but your camera doesn’t do as much as you want to do, it is time for a digital SLR camera that can deliver professional quality photography. You may even find yourself a digital photography professional before long.
