Strengths & Weaknesses

There's a lot to read about the advantages and disadvantages of both types of photography (digital-film) and most of the times this polarities are presented as "digital versus traditional" photography. I personally don't think the problem has to be presented like this, that's why I titled this post "strengths & weaknesses", that is what I think both types of photography have, and one does not have to exclude the other.

Anyway, there are stong defenders of both. Some of them proclaim that film photography is dying, that is going to be replaced by digital, this is fed by news about the big companys, like Canon, informing that they are going to stop selling film photography products. Others, proclaim that digital photography can't be considered as a fine art, so it will never be a substitute of film photography.

To continue with the last post, now I'll introduce this text, that I hope you'll find usefull to understand a little bit more about how both types of photography work, so you'll be able to take your own conclusions about this subject, considering that we are still in a comprehensive and learning state.

The disadvantages of digital photography are directly related to limits in technology. To have a high quality image, you have to have an extremely large amount of 1's and 0's. The limiting factor is the plate that translates the light into digits. In first generation digital technology, the plates were not very good at digitizing the light, and so digital photographs taken with these plates look fuzzy and "squarey." In the past few years, however, technology has advanced so that the plates are much more effective at digitizing light, and pictures can be taken at much higher qualities.

The resolution of an image taken by traditional means is limited by the film it is taken on and the lens that focuses the light. Some film is better than others, and some lenses are better than others. While mild enlarging and cropping of a film photograph can be done in the darkroom without much loss of resolution, the sharpness and clarity of the image decreases as the image is enlarged and less of the surface area of the film is being used to create the photographic print. This does not refer to the effects of "zooming in" with a tele-photo lens, which vary greatly depending on the lens and can be just as sharp as any other kind of photo. Because the whole surface of the film is still being used when one uses a tele-photo lens the quality of the image will be equal to an image captured on the same film with any other lens of equal quality.

The resolution of a digital image is limited to the quality of the plate and to the quality of the lens in the same way that a film photograph is limited by the film and the lens. A higher quality plate records more information (measured in pixels or Megapixels), in the same way that a lower ISO film is able to record a higher resolution image.

In the same way that a film photograph loses sharpness and clarity when it is enlarged, digital images that are later cropped either to alter the composition or "zoom in" decrease in quality as the resolution decreases and noise becomes more apparent. Lower-quality digital images are notorious, however, for losing quality much more rapidly than a film photograph.

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The digital era...

To start this subject I think is important to admit that we are immersed in a digital era. That's why I don't want to leave the subject without discussion it, as I think that giving information about it helps to explain a lot of aspects. Let's start with a clear definition of what digital photography is.

Digital photography, as opposed to film photography, uses electronic devices to record the image as binary data. This facilitates storage and editing of the images on personal computers, and also the ability to show and delete unsuccessful images immediately on the camera itself. Both forms of photography, however, use optical lenses to focus light onto the respective medium.

While film photography uses photographic media that reacts when exposed to light (creating a picture), digital photography uses a photosensitive plate that translates the wavelength of the light that strikes it into 1's or 0's, hence the name digital. The sequence of 1's and 0's that make up the photograph is called a file. The file, and effectively the photograph, can be reproduced perfectly and also transferred over the internet or other forms of digital communication without loss of quality.

Digital cameras include features not found in film cameras such as the ability to shoot video and record audio. Some other devices, such as mobile phones now include digital photography features.

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The most valuable

This is the list of the most valuable photographs of the world:

1. Edward Steichen Pond-Moonlight (1904), U$S 2,928,000, 2006, auctioned.
   
2. Richard Prince Untitled (Cowboy) (1989), U$S 1,248,000, 2005, auctioned.
   
3. Joseph-Philibert Girault De Prangey Athènes (1842), U$S 922,488, 2003, auctioned.
   
4. Gustave Le Gray The Great Wave, Sete, (1857), U$S 838,000, 1999.
5. Andreas Gursky Untitled 5 (1997), U$S 559,724, 2002.
6. Gustave Le Gray Tree (1855), U$S 513,150, 1999.
7. Diane Arbus Identical Twins (Cathleen and Colleen), Roselle, N.J. (1967), U$S 478,400, 2004.
8. Charles Sheeler Ford Works (1927), U$S 447,350, 1999.
9. Alfred Stieglitz Georgia O’Keefe: Hands with Thimble, U$S 398,500, 1998.
10. Gustave Le Gray Marine (1855), U$S 368,420, 2000.
11. August Sander Handlanger, porteur de briques (1927), U$S 328,940, 1999.

The photopraphic art market has changed a lot this last decades, a proof of this is the values that some specific photographs, most of them from the begining of the XX'st century, obtained in the auction sales.
"The Pond-Moonlight" of Edward Steichen became the most expensive photograph in the word, for it's been recently sold for more than U$S 2,900,000 during a auction sale at Sotheby’s wich started February 14, in New York, this year. This valuable photography was taken in Long Island in 1904. There are three existing copies of this photograph, its value is the originality as it is an early example of a color autochrom picture. The other two copies of this photograph you can find them in this two NY city museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Modern Museum of Art

Pond-Moonlight of Edward Steichen

Untitled (Cowboy) of Richard Price

Athènes of Joseph-Philibert Girault De Prangey

Photography as a form of art

Today photography is widely recognized as a fine art. Photographs are displayed in art museums, prized by collectors, discussed by critics, and studied in art history courses.
Because of the special nature of photography, however, this was not always the case. In the early days of photography some people considered the medium something of a poor relation to the older, established visual arts, such as drawing and painting.
The arguments stemmed from the fact that a camera is a mechanical instrument. Because the mechanical procedure of taking a picture is automatic, detractors claimed that photography required no coordination of hand and eye and none of the manual skills essential to drawing and painting. They also argued that photography required no creativity or imagination because the photographic subject was "ready-made" and did not require manipulation or control by the photographer.
A camera, no matter how many automatic features it may have, is a lifeless piece of equipment until a person uses it. It then becomes a uniquely responsive tool, an extension of the photographer's eye and mind. A photographer creates a picture by a process of selection. Photographers looking through the camera's viewfinder must decide what to include and what to exclude from the scene. They select the distance from which to take the picture and the precise angle that best suits their purpose. They select the instant in which to trip the shutter. This decision may require hours of patient waiting until the light is exactly right or it may be a split-second decision, but the photographer's sense of timing is always crucial. Photographers can expand or flatten perspective by the use of certain lenses. They can freeze motion or record it as a blur, depending on their choice of shutter speed. They can create an infinite number of lighting effects with flashes or floodlights. They can alter the tonal values or colors in a picture by their choice of film and filters. These are only a few of the controls available to a photographer when taking a picture. Later, in the darkroom, many additional choices are available.

One of the best ways to view artistic photographs is to visit museums. Today most art museums include photography exhibitions, and many have a photography department and a permanent collection of photographic prints. This is a relatively recent development, as it is to share and look pictures thru the internet.
If you are interested, check-out the links I choose on my blog, these are my favorites!

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What is photography?

It's important to start with a short review about the meaning of photography...

Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical, or digital devices known as cameras.

The word comes from the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γραφις graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη graphê, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing."

Traditionally the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph.

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Welcome!

I welcome you to this blog dedicated to photography lovers... like myself!
We are going to go thru everythig there is to know about photographic technology and technique, photography as an art form, and the masters of photography as representatives of the different photographic styles.
I hope you'll enjoy it, and that you'll join me in this fascinating trip, being part of it and participating with your opinions, comments and personal interests.
And... welcome to the club!