Has digital photography irreversibly computerized the art of photography?

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PhotographyBuff said:
That's no solution. How do you store them then? You have no film. Your "film" is the digital file you can access only through the computer.
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Your cameras has an SD card...
Just like film... buy a new one each time its full!
They are actually cheaper than film, per photo!
 
Phil V said:
Because when phones were wired we always knew where people were when they answered.
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Back in the pre mobile phone days, my wife once phoned me at home on the fixed line home phone and during the conversation she actually asked where I was....
 
If you're into creating imagery, but don't like technology, there's always painting.
 
ACW said:
No he's a student who has only posted questions like this since starting his course.
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I am neither. I just like discussions, thinking, and questioning, unlike most of humanity nowadays! And I don't want to lose sight of the bigger picture.
 
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PhotographyBuff said:
I am neither. I just like discussions, thinking, and questioning, unlike most of humanity nowadays! And I don't want to lose sight of the bigger picture.
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Then may I suggest that you ditch digital and start using 20x16" film? It's still made :)

Surely in this case the bigger picture is that all cameras are merely tools. For many (but not all) photographers the end result is a print and in this case the means of getting there doesn't matter so long as the chosen tool is up to the job required.

If you want to be able to take hundreds of photos at minimal running cost, then you need digital. If you want an instant check, then you probably need digital. If you want impossibly high ISO settings, then you need digital. There are a few other areas where digital will win over film, and if you're into those areas then you haven't got a great deal of choice. But that's not because it's impossible with film (in most cases), just easier with digital.
 
PhotographyBuff said:
Is there any way to free our photography from the computer?

Don't you see digital photography's reliance on the computer as a handicap?

How can we photographers free ourselves of this handicap?

Do you think it's fair that photography has become so dependent on the computer?

Someone once told me that he was converting his digital photos into slides. Is that feasible? How is it done? And how much does it cost? If it is, then I think it would be a good way to finally free photography (in this digital age) from the computer.

I take my photos in nature, but unfortunately I have to manage and process them in the computer!
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---------------------------------------------------------------

#1 Is there any way to free our photography from the computer?
Yes


#2 Don't you see digital photography's reliance on the computer as a handicap?
No I don't as "I now have a dark room on my desk.


#3 How can we photographers free ourselves of this handicap?
It is not a handicap.

#4 Do you think it's fair that photography has become so dependent on the computer?
No.

#5 Someone once told me that he was converting his digital photos into slides. Is that feasible? How is it done? And how much does it cost? If it is, then I think it would be a good way to finally free photography (in this digital age) from the computer.

Use Google to search for commercial organisations who do this.
here is an example.

https://www.gammatech.com/?gclid=CJSMhtCL-bgCFc1bpQodbT4A9Q


#6 "I take my photos in nature, but unfortunately I have to manage and process them in the computer!"
Why take photographs? Just rely on your memories.
 
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PhotographyBuff said:
Everything is becoming computerized:

a) We write using word processors.

b) We compose music using music software.

c) We manage and process our digital photos on the computer.

d) We socialize using social networks.

There comes a time that we need to go away into nature and free ourselves from the computer. I yearn for the time when everything was separate. Now everything has become unified in one tool which is the computer, and for many people the smart phone even. I think diversity is better and healthier for our minds.
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I know a number of people who do some of those things and they don't always use a computer or in some cases do not own a computer.

Some examples

(a)

Notes by dicktay2000, on Flickr

(b)

Working musician. by dicktay2000, on Flickr

(c) I don't have any pics of people putting photographic prints into an album. However my wife does it as one of the ladies in this opera production (she wanted an album she could show her friends at locations where there was no computer).


Violeta's party (1) by dicktay2000, on Flickr

(d) These guys do use technology to set up their dawn shoots (and share images later) where they may socialise a little bit whilst shooting and will socialise a lot when we have breakfast together afterwards.


Photographers at dawn. by dicktay2000, on Flickr
 
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StephenM said:
the end result is a print and in this case the means of getting there doesn't matter so long as the chosen tool is up to the job required.
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To me, the means of getting there does matter. In my case that means using film and printing optically.

I hate post processing on a computer.


Steve.
 
PhotographyBuff said:
That's no solution. How do you store them then? You have no film. Your "film" is the digital file you can access only through the computer.
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Shoot film then, simple. A lot of my shooting these days is on medium format film and in terms of detail/feel/gorgeousness it blows my 5Dmk2 out of the water.

Stop looking for problems that don't exist and just go take some photos.
 
PhotographyBuff said:
I am neither. I just like discussions, thinking, and questioning, unlike most of humanity nowadays!
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Please cite your evidence that 'most of humanity' ( > ~3,500,000,000 humans) don't like 'discussions, thinking, and questioning'


And I don't want to lose sight of the bigger picture.
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Please define this.

Thanks!
 
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PhotographyBuff said:
Everything is becoming computerized:

a) We write using word processors.

b) We compose music using music software.

c) We manage and process our digital photos on the computer.

d) We socialize using social networks.

There comes a time that we need to go away into nature and free ourselves from the computer. I yearn for the time when everything was separate. Now everything has become unified in one tool which is the computer, and for many people the smart phone even. I think diversity is better and healthier for our minds.
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It sounds like you spend far to much time in front of a computer, this is your choice so why complain about it.:shrug:
 
Well, there seem to be about 4 billion chattering, giggling schoolgirls blocking the High Street at the moment... And that's just in one smallish city!!!
 
PhotographyBuff said:
I am neither. I just like discussions, thinking, and questioning, unlike most of humanity nowadays! And I don't want to lose sight of the bigger picture.
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If you don't like computers for communication and discussing things may I suggest a Pen-Pal?

Or a rolled up piece of paper in a glass bottle?
 
Computers are only a "handicap" if you don't know how to use one..... Most people that don't know how to use one are usually fearful of them.

But then with the tabloid press scaremongering about hackers and fraudsters and weirdos, it's no surprise people fear the damn things. Before computers took off, they literally controlled the nations thoughts, they're just trying to maintain/regain that control.
 
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PhotographyBuff said:
Everything is becoming computerized:

a) We write using word processors.

b) We compose music using music software.

c) We manage and process our digital photos on the computer.

d) We socialize using social networks.
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I fail to see the problem with these.

Word processing (or even plain text editing) software scores over longhand or a typewritter in the ease of making corrections and ease of distribution of the final copy. I spent this Sunday taking minutes of a committee meeting. I typed them directly into my laptop, last night I edited and formatted them, then passed them to the chairman for checking and tonight I will distribute them by email . Without a computer I would have had to hand write during the meeting, type them up on a typewriter afterwards, then pay to have them duplicated and pay to post them. Why on earth would I do that?

I'm sure composers don't get software to compose for them, but they may use it to record the details rather than scribbling on a printed stave.

You will never convince me that buying film and paying for processing is better than taking photos onto a memory card, with digital photography I only print the images I am happy with, the remainder stay on the computer.

Social networks are an addition to means of socialising, rather than a replacement. For example, the weekend before last my Italian friend came to stay with me. Normally we keep in touch via facebook. We spent the weekend talking, visiting places she wanted to see in Bristol, drinking wine and eating a fabulous lasagne that she cooked. Since she doesn't live near me, we will now go back to communicating via facebook. What's the problem with that? I don't get it.
 
PhotographyBuff said:
That's no solution. How do you store them then? You have no film. Your "film" is the digital file you can access only through the computer.
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Just print them out from the card with pic bridge and keep the card safe, they cost about the same as a film these days so it's no hardship.
(or better still use film)
 
IMO, the discussion here is more about the pro and cons of the digital world, applied to the photography world.

Digital photography is our only option?. No, film still exists, for now.

What do you prefer?:
- spend 1 hour processing your photos with photoshop or developing in a darkroom?
- store you photos using hard-drives/cards or as negative films?
And so on...

In my experience, electronic storage media is not reliable, sooner or later they will stop working and I will loose all or some information, even if I had backups because are also on electronic storage media. It's a vicious circle.

Someone here said that you can leave your photos in the memory card, if you read the chipset specifications you will see that the memory chips are capable to retain information for a limited period of time and that is not caused by failure but as a tech limitation.

And about the hardware... a Contax II, that already have 50 years, will still working in another 50 years, a today's DSLR not. The same with the lenses.

This debate is endless, there are pro and cons on both sides, but this is not a war, we can be on both at the same time. :)

Some time ago there was a similar debate, but it was about SLR cameras with mechanic shutters versus electronic shutters. The technology advances always create this kind of confrontations.
 
For me Digtal Photography has opened up the world of 'proper' photography to me if we had still been using film I would still be using a point a shoot camera.

So no disadvantage for me
 
PhotographyBuff said:
I agree. But somehow, I am still one of those who are not very reliant on technology. Many people I know are hooked to their smartphones almost 24/7!!! How can you even socialize with such people?
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and yet you've joined an internet forum to have these conversations, instead of having them "in nature" round a campfire with freinds and beer

irony much ?
 
I do know where you are coming from. I think some of the responses have been rather harsh.

It was one of the reasons I delayed moving over to digital for a couple more years than I perhaps should have done. I was quite good enough at producing usable results on film. I didn't WANT to be sat at desk processing my files. One is totally reliant on the computer, as in so many spheres of life these days. BUT digital does have some advantages; such as for wildlife photography. However did the old school guys working on film manage to produce the results when each frame cost a finite amount of cash to produce, even if by the law of averages it was likely to go straight in the bin?

As for mobile phones, that is a different kettle of fish. Handy - yes! If you can get a signal, which is not that often where I come from! Good for accessing the internet (when you can get a signal|) but as for people's obsession with using them for everything........get a life, folks......
 
Digital photography is where we are at.............
Not long ago analog ruled and anything else was a pipe dream.
Tomorrow there will be something else...........
But as long as we wish to record visual images we will use whatever technology is available.
We have come a long way from hand prints on a cave wall.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
We have come a long way from hand prints on a cave wall.
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Hmmm depends on where you live I guess.... round here' its probably debateable...
DSC_0388.JPG
 
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onomatopoeia said:
You will never convince me that buying film and paying for processing is better than taking photos onto a memory card
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I'm not going to try to convince you. The only person I need to convince is me.

Better is a subjective thing and varies from person to person.


Steve.
 
Quite simply put, just because there are computer based options available doesn't make you a great composer/write/photographer/musician.

To become a great musician or author takes years of knowledge, research, practice and skill, likewise with photography.

Technology only helps enhance the possibilities and makes the menial tasks simpler, it cuts out the labour tasks and allows us to concentrate on other areas.

I'm a graphic/interior designer. 30% is research, 30% sketch pad, 40% is on the computer. I can honestly not begin to consider how long it would take me to complete my research if I had to go to a library and trawl through books, likewise to come up with a final drawing without mistakes, the whole concept would be just so time consuming.
 
Chris Day said:
I can honestly not begin to consider how long it would take me to complete my research if I had to go to a library and trawl through books, likewise to come up with a final drawing without mistakes, the whole concept would be just so time consuming.
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Yet that's how it used to be done.


Steve.
 
Chris Day said:
I'm a graphic/interior designer. 30% is research, 30% sketch pad, 40% is on the computer. I can honestly not begin to consider how long it would take me to complete my research if I had to go to a library and trawl through books, likewise to come up with a final drawing without mistakes, the whole concept would be just so time consuming.
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Many things were like that until quite recently. I was at university in the 70s and reasearch involved reading a lot of books - or parts of books - and periodicals. Essays were written by hand, unless you had a portable typewriter. Most students didn't. We managed, and had a lot of fun too!
 
Steve Smith said:
I'm not going to try to convince you. The only person I need to convince is me.

Better is a subjective thing and varies from person to person.


Steve.
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Which is as it should be.

Going to a DSLR after a decade of film and its associated requirements re-invigorated my interest in photography as a hobby and led to me spending more of time doing it than I ever had before.
 
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