Film vs. Digital

To introduce my background in photography, I grew up taking pictures as a kid with disposable film cameras that you mailed in to develop. Then I had a cheap, plastic camera that I used for a darkroom class I took when I was about 8 ears old, then never really used it again. When I was in middle school, my mom got a digital point & shoot that I would borrow so often, I probably used it more than she did. (It fit in an Altoids tin, why not take it to school?!) After that, I was exclusively digital, and more and more addicted to photography, buying my own point & shoot, then my first DSLR, and now I’m on my second DLSR, and getting back into film photography for my black & white film class this semester.

And now onto my comparison:

I think digital photography is a faster and easier process but you don’t learn as much or get as in depth in the settings as you do with film. For example, my professor explains people who learn on crappy digital cameras today; they take the picture and if it doesn’t turn out, they keep taking it until they get what they like and just delete the bad ones. They don’t know the settings or what they do or why they work. They aren’t making the photographic decision. It’s trial and error with buttons and settings, not really knowing what they’re doing. With a fully manual film camera, you have to really know your manual settings and record them, so when you develop and see that you over- or underexposed, you can see what you did wrong and calculate how to fix that the next time.

I also really love the “magic of the darkroom.” It’s so much more hands on than digital editing, which is just pushing some buttons and moving your cursor around. Getting a good print in film requires so much more skill in developing the film, exposing the negatives correctly, having the right paper, using the chemicals long enough, burning and dodging right, etc. etc. It’s a much richer experience than “open this image file, tweak, save, close.” I’m not sure if they’re even too comparable. I’m beginning to think they are more like cousin art forms… sort of like comparing a watercolor painting to a printer print-out. Not that there aren’t some very high-end and beautiful art works that were printed on fancy printers, but painting is just a longer and older process that is much more hands on, get dirty in your raw materials as compared to the completely virtual process of digital imaging. You basically never have a tangible piece of art in digital photography until it is printed. Whereas with film, you’re working with tangible mediums with your negatives and your paper.

In the end, digital is a much faster and relevant process for today. Especially for portraiture, where you’re expected to have lots of images in a short period of time, and need a fast turn around and lots of options for paying clients. But I still see a use and a need for the film process as art and as documentation. Silver prints still last decades longer than ink-based digital prints. Personally, I would like to use film more, if darkroom and printing sources were more available after I am no longer taking classes.

Comments on your preferences in film vs. digital? What’s your experience?

First Snowfall of the Season

The first fresh blanket of winter white always manages to take my breath away. But never have I seen a first snowfall come this heavy or fast. Usually the tips of the green grass are still sticking up for a week or more before there’s enough snow to cover it and not melt in a day. But today it started snowing, and didn’t stop… and it’s sticking. After about three hours, there was four inches of snow on the ground. I ran back to my apartment, grabbed my new camera (I bought the Canon Rebel T1i over Thanksgiving break), and ran back on to campus and took photos of the freshly fallen snow.

Of course, I was not alone out there, even though it was eleven at night by then. Plenty of other people were already out making snowmen, having snowball fights, and taking their own photos of the first snow of the season. Walking around in such a beautiful snowy world put a goofy grin on my face and just made my day.

In my excitement, I’ve already uploaded a few photos on my flickr tonight. Nothing like enthusiasm of fresh snow to get my motivation going.

Lensbaby

So my Lensbaby Muse, and macro kit came last week. And the first major things I took pictures of were some flowers my mom had. I think they look awesome with the effects the Lensbaby can create, and with how close and detailed I can still get with the macro lenses. Creates interesting areas of focus, and the lens blur around the sweet spot really forces your viewer to focus on the same thing you are. So, check out my flickr set and leave comments!

Camera Collection

One of my very favorite hobbies is photography. It’s even my side job. Over the last few months, I’ve collected a good collection of lenses for my Canon Digital Rebel XT. I think I’m gonna stick with these for a while, so here is my what I have.

• Rebel XT – Body, bought used.
• 18-55mm Kit Lens – Came with the body, what I mainly use for my portrait photography.
• 75-300mm telephoto zoom lens – I bought this before a vacation, great use for distance, landscape and nature photogrpahy.
• 50mm f/1.8 lens - My most recent addition, I plan to use this for my portrait photography as well.

Click through for Details

In addition to those, I have my old Canon PowerShot S80, camera bag, neck strap, extra CF cards for the Rebel, and SD cards for the PowerShot, three batteries that the cameras share, a remote for the Rebel, a light tripod for the PowerShot, and a heavy duty one for the Rebel.

So that’s going to be my collectioni for a while. It’s all I need for what I do. I think if I get another lens in a while, it’s probably going to be a macro lens. But that can wait since I don’t use macro nearly as much as would be worth it right now. But someday I will!