Traditions article

Digital This, That and The Other Thing

I used the same pair of cameras for the first 20 years of my career. They were Canon A1’s and were, when I purchased them, the state of the art in computerized cameras. Of course that was in 1979 and the state of the art changed a bit after that. But, those cameras could take images that were as high in quality as any other 35mm camera. All that changed over the years was that the camera had more conveniences such as auto-focus and auto film load.

Then, about the turn of the century, things really changed. All of a sudden, digital cameras evolved enough so that they could produce a photo of high enough quality that wedding and portrait photographers wouldn’t be embarrassed to claim them.

That was enough for me. I guess you could call me an early adopter. I jumped on the digital bandwagon as soon as I could. I’m pretty sure that I was the first photographer in the Brazos Valley to shoot weddings exclusively using digital equipment. I haven’t bought film this century and don’t anticipate ever buying it again.

Now, digital does have a few disadvantages. I wish it had better exposure latitude and buying newer and significantly better cameras every two years or so is a pretty major checkbook hit. But in my eyes, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

For example, I never even consider the possibility of running out of “film” anymore. I have enough memory, between compact flash cards and a portable hard drive, to shoot about fifteen thousand photos before I have to load them to my computer and erase the cards. This is a far cry from the two hundred or so wedding photos I would shoot using film.

And I firmly believe that Adobe Photoshop® is the greatest invention for photographers since, well, film. Color balance, blemishes, etc. are just a mouse click from perfection now.

But, the thing that I love the most about digital photography is the fact that I can shoot a photo, look at it on the display on the camera back, and know that all is well. With film I never knew until I got the photos developed if the shutter was actually working or the flash was actually synching correctly.

Ok, the thousands of dollars that I save in film and developing every year is pretty nice also.
Proofs? Those are digital also. Instead of waiting for great aunt Edna to send you back the proof book, both of you can just log onto the website and order photos online.

And now even the album has gone digital. You’ve seen wedding albums before. Really big books with photos pasted behind cardboard mats. They might have gilded page edges and a cameo on the front but, well, they were all pretty similar.

That’s not the case anymore. With a modern digital album, each page is a single composite photograph that we create in Photoshop® or another program. It may be just one image or could be several that are all printed on the same composite. We can use a nice background for all of them or just blend them together however you like. Since the pages of these albums lie flat, you can even have a panorama that spans two adjoining pages. With the artistic skills of my lovely wife Sabine (who designs the DIPics wedding albums) they are absolutely stunning. If you haven’t seen a digital album, you are missing out on something special. Once you do see one, you’ll never settle for cardboard mats again.

Richard