Do you see a future for digital photography? Quite a radical question in the feeding frenzy of digital camera marketing. To me digital photography is the best thing that has ever happened to photography. But, what is its future? A difficult question to answer and possibly a loaded one.
Film photography was always known as just ’photography’, never film photography. It was the standard. With the emergence of digital photography this standard has been challenged. My question is, “will digital photography become the standard or will it remain the ugly sister of photography”?
I think that it will always remain the ‘poor cousin’ of film photography unless two things happen:
1. All digital cameras need to develop to the point that they are equivalent in quality to that of the most basic film camera. They must eradicate the digital vs film debate. There must be no difference between the two formats. The most expensive digital cameras are getting close to that standard but the point and shoot models cannot compete with their film counterparts. I think that with the pace of development, despite an economic crisis, consumers are demanding that lower end cameras need to improve in quality. Although, true photography is all about the SLR and I think we are on the road to the quality needed to compete with film cameras.
2. There is a mindset change that quantity is better than quality. Thought that went into taking a photograph with film has all but disappeared. The speed with which digital images are taken degrades the results of good photography. This is evidenced by the quality of images submitted to competitions, placed on forums and displayed on blogs. If this mindset changes and we start putting more thought into photography it does bode well for digital as an art form.
How do we change this so that digital is synonymous with photography? I personally think that the key is education and learning. In the same way that digital photography has changed the face of photography digital has changed the face of publishing.
Great learning material is available in electronic form as free education or reasonably priced education. It is now cheap and easy to learn about photography and the techniques of improvement. It doesn’t take an expensive course or diploma to radically improve your images. It’s as simple as buying an ebook or an electronic course. Many have money back guarantees so the risk is minimal. Easy to find and easy to learn. The key is to learn photography and not just digital photography.
When film photography was born it was perceived as an art and much care was exercised in the execution. It was birthed in and developed with this mindset and, linked to the costs involved, remained mostly as an art form. Even the masses exercised care in its practise.
But, with digital photography it is very different. What it has done is make the art form cheaper, simpler and faster. Whenever you add these three factors to anything in life, it opens the door to loss off technique, lower quality and diminished value. This is seen by the billions of electronic images that remain on DVDs, hard drives and memory cards, unappreciated and valueless.
It’s in this world that the art of photography has to find its place and raise its head again from the chaos of digital. Digital is the best thing since sliced bread. The only question that now needs to be answered is will it rise to the occasion and become the new art form or will it be the vehicle that is responsible for the loss of a great art form?
Do you want to learn more about photography in a digital world? I’ve just completed a brand new e-course delivered by e-mail. Download it here for free: CLICK HERE. You can also learn to take perfect photos in 21 steps by taking a look at my new ebook 21 Steps 2 Perfect Photos. Wayne Turner has been teaching photography for 25 years and has written three books on photography.
Watch the video related to learning art photography
A cool thing to try and you can do it anywhere.
Help answer the question about learning art photography
can i shoot beautiful nude fine art erotic photography just by learning lighting?can i shoot beautiful nude fine art erotic photography just by learning lighting? or do i still need to learn specifically nude photography? ( IM NOT A MANIAC! Im just curious how they can get the lighting right like in the shoots for playboy and penthouse)
can i shoot beautiful nude fine art erotic photography just by learning lighting? like the art nudes in playboy and penthouse? or do i still need to take a course specifically for this? and what camera is good for fine erotic photography?
About Author
Wayne has been an avid photographer for 40 years. He studied with the New York Institute of Photography and has taught photography and communication privately and institutions for several years. He has completed two books, 21 Steps to Perfect Photos and 30 Keys to Photography Success.
JOIN MY FACEBOOK GROUP for people wanting to learn photography. Just search for “PHOTOTIPS” in the search bar in the top right in Facebook and you will find us quickly.
Well, the rebel and the D40x both have 10.1(ish) megapixels for one thing, almost double the other two at 6 and 5(ish). And both are newer models than the D50 and D70. The D70 has a very high flash sync speed, up to 1/1250th of a second. So if you are going to be shooting with an external flash, on or off shoe that would be the better of the 4 for that. The D40x does not have an internal autofocus drive for non AF-S and AI-S lenses, meaning if you buy an older AF or AI lens you will have to focus them manually, all other functions are supported even down to really old AI'ed lenses. And both the rebel and D40x have larger preview LCD screens. I would say those are the major differences.
I own a D80, and that would be my choice again, if I had it to do over.
Great Adult type views and entertainment.-Dating Tips
I am generally not the guy to submit my opinion on people’s blog posts, but for your write up I simply needed to do it. I have been browsing through your website a lot nowadays and I am really impressed, I think you could really emerge as a main voices for your niche. Not sure what your free time is like in life, but if you started devoting more effort to writing here, I would guess you would start seeing a mass of traffic eventually. With advertisements, it could become a sweet reserve income source. Just a concept to think about. Good luck!