Wednesday 8 June 2011

Disadvantage of film

Film and digital both have their pros and cons, and I've just realised another disadvantage with film, I have been using an old EOS 50E to use up some rolls of good Fuji reala film, before it gets to out of date, I took 28 shots on a 36 roll, so now I have to wait till I use the remaining frames before I can get it processed, now with digital it doesnt matter if I take 3 or 300 images, I can offload them onto my p.c. and start producing images straight away, another plus for me. While I still like film, esp for b/w, with programes like photoshop and Nik Silver Efex excellent b/w images can be had from digital. (Some people say you can achieve truer blacks with digital) Its so much easier, faster and less messy aswell working in the digital darkroom. I must admit I surprised myself at how much I enjoyed using digital and how intuiative I found it, as I had several reservations about it. But after actualy trying it (iv been using digital about 3 years now) my reservations turned out to be unfounded bias. I simply dont understand these die hards who condem it, without even trying it! People talk about images been manipulated, I can sympathise with that view to a certain extent but its in the practioners hands, (and people have been manipulating images in the Darkroom since photography begun) I personaly dont do anything in the digital Darkroom that could not be done in the wet Darkroom, its simply cleaner and easier, and I dont have a problem with using tools that makes life easier. "Condemnation without Investigation is the height of ignorance" - Albert Einstein. "I eagerly await new concepts and processes. I beleive that the electronic image will be the next major advance. Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable structural characteristics, and the artist and functional practitioner will again strive to comprehend and control them" - Ansel Adams forward to his book 'The Negative' published January 1980. I read this quote recently by photographer Barry Lategan, (the man who gave Twiggy her iconic name) "Digital photography hasnt changed the way I see and look at things, it has accelerated the result" I totally agree!