The Future of Photography

What is traditional photography?

Lens Light tight box Light sensitive

material

Eos 1v Camera (no lens) ($1500)

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM ($1400)

Color and Black and White Films

Lens—Length(s), maximum aperture

Lens—One or more pieces of optical glass or similar material designed to collect and focus rays of light to form a sharp image on the film, paper, or projection screen.

Sigma 70-300 F4.0-5.6 Macro Zoom Lens ($190)

Lens—Length(s), maximum aperture

Higher quality lenses produce sharper images, and have a broader or more extreme range of potential apertures and lens length(s).

Higher quality lenses also have sophisticated focusing, light gathering and even image stabilizing functions.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM ($1400)

Light Tight Box

Light tight box—(aka camera) From the lens, the image exposes the film through the shutter.

Eos 1v Camera (no lens) ($1500)

Light Tight Box High quality camera bodies have a

broader range of shutter speeds and capabilities.

The camera body can be made of plastic, steel, aluminum, magnesium, or other materials. Light, sturdy materials improve mobility and durability. High quality bodies have seals to keep out light and dust.

The body also houses any electronics needed for power maintenance, metering, viewing, and a host of other potential functions.

EOS Rebel Ti $230 (with EF 28-90mm f/4-5.6 )

What is traditional photography?

Light sensitive material—film is the image recording device.

Color and Black and White Films

Light Sensitive Material—Film

Film is composed of emulsions of light sensitive crystals spread evenly on a roll (or sheet) of celluloid.

High quality films often have very desirable qualities. Richer colors, smoother graduations, very little grain, extreme ISO values etc.

A large negative is much more likely to produce a high quality large (> 8x10) print than a small one.

What is the Future of photography?

Lens Light tight box Light sensitive

materialCanon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM ($1400)

EOS-1DS Digital Camera $6999CCD and CMOS Sensors

What is the future of photography?

Lens—Length(s), maximum aperture

Lenses lens length typically enlarged x 1.3 to as much as x 1.7 due to the difference in size between the CCD and 35mm film (1.5 x 1)making long telephoto images easier and wide angle shots much more difficult to obtain.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM ($1400)

This is a 170-680mm with an x 1.7 enlargement factor.

Lens—Length(s), maximum aperture

Except for the enlargement, lens use is identical because 35mm lenses are used for digital image capture.

Lenses are beginning to be designed specifically for the digital format and CMOS chips are appearing that match the 35mm format exactly eliminating the lens adjustments.

Sigma 70-300 F4.0-5.6 Macro Zoom Lens ($190)

This is a 119-510mm with an x 1.7 adjustment.

What is the future of photography?

EOS-1DS Digital Camera 11 Megapixel Camera ($6999)

Light tight box—(aka camera) From the lens, the image exposes the film through the shutter.

High quality camera bodies have a broader range of capabilities similar in almost every way to their traditional counterparts.

Light Tight Box

Digital Cameras have the film built in (CCD or CMOS).

Digital cameras also have built in viewing and storage capabilities.

EOS-D60 6.3 Megapixel SLR Digital Camera ($1400 w/o lens)

What is the future of photography?

Light sensitive material—A CCD (charge-coupled device) or CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) panel is the image recording device.

What is the future of photography? Images are transferred to

memory, usually a small removable card.

High quality CCD or CMOS sensors often have very desirable qualities. First and foremost, they capture more individual pixels of information. They also provide richer colors, smoother graduations, very little noise, extreme ISO values, etc.

A large sensor is more likely to produce a higher quality large (8x10) print than a small one.

What about printing the images?

Getting the images from capture through printing is where the real advantages of digital come in. There are at least two or three steps involved.

image editing software scanning (if you can’t shoot

digitally) printing

Epson 2200 ($699) Epson 2400 ($199)

Photoshop $270 Student$600 Retail

What about printing the images?

Photoshop is the tool of choice for digital image editing.

Photoshop replicates darkroom techniques and creates many new techniques that aren’t possible to do in a traditional darkroom.

Photoshop also allows for easy tinkering on images without costly printing.

What about printing the images?

Scanning a print or negative and printing the digital scan is a common choice for photographers wanting high quality digital images at a relatively low cost.

Epson 3200 3200 dpi $399

Canon 8800 2400 dpi $199

What about printing the images?

A very high quality inkjet printer will cost about $100 (not including ink and paper costs) but it will print beautiful full-color, full-bleed photo-quality 8x10 images.

For about $350 you can print at sizes up to 13” x 44”

Print images directly onto printable CDs for about $350.

Epson 1280, 890, 960

Future of photography pros Pros

There are no film costs and no developing costs $$$$$$

You can get instant feedback from a monitor on a digital camera

Digital transfer allows for almost instant exchange of images to anywhere in the world (including your home computer)

High quality image manipulation tools like Photoshop make many difficult darkroom tasks very easy

Printers and scanners -- cheaper and easier to use than darkrooms

Future of photography cons Cons

Formats change much more rapidly than film formats making potential image or equipment loss higher

Cost for digital image qualities and equipment durability approaching professional 35mm equipment are 2-3 times as high

Digital transfers and digital files in general encourage the removal or loss of old, mundane, or bad photos

Digital images are typically archived much less thoroughly and permanently