Digital Photography

Digital Photography:The Future Is Here

Digital technology is one of the greatest tools ever to impact photography. No longer do we have to wait hours, if not days, to see

the results of our photographic endeavors. The image appears instantly in the monitor, allowing us to check exposure, composition, and content. The power of this availability cannot be overemphasized. As photographers, we all try to work a situation to capture the decisive moment. To be able to check out images while you are still in the moment, not two days later when that moment is just a memory, facilitates better photography.

Another obvious advantage: no film costs! A great photojournalist and friend, Joe McNally, shot National Geographic’s first assigned digital story, “Aviation,” which ran in early 2004. I talked to Joe and he made the

surprising comment that he actually shot less on this story than he would have on a film-based shoot. Normally, Joe would have shot about 500 to 700 rolls of film on an assignment like this; digitally, he shot about 7500 images (the equivalent of about 200 rolls of film). Shooting a lot of “static” scenes, such as portraits and photos of stationary planes, Joe was linked by

a cable to the computer, so the images showed up on the computer screen as he shot. Thus, the tendency to bracket and overshoot was not

necessary. While on assignment for a publication such as National Geographic, photographers

tend to overshoot, sometimes using two or three rolls on the same image to make sure they’ve got it, and sending the film in a couple of different mailings to ensure against loss. Digital photography, by nature, creates a “reduction in paranoia,” as Joe eloquently puts it.

We now have the ability to use a closed system—that is, from shooting the photo, to editing and correcting on our computer, to outputting or printing on our own printers— that has given the photographer even more control over his or her images. The closed system means the photographer, with camera, computer, and printer, never has to go outside his or her own work area. Computer-produced prints, with an expected lifetime that rivals

or exceeds a commercially created print, are available to anyone who wants to invest the time and effort. We can share our images from web-based services that store images, allowing virtual photo albums to be constructed at the click of a mouse and shared instantly with friends and relatives.

Apple’s iPhoto (for Macintosh) and Adobe’s Photoshop Album (for PC) are two simple yet powerful software programs that facilitate your closed system. These programs give the photographer the power to download, edit, and catalog photos along with a powerful search capability. You can print images within a very intuitive framework. We’ll discuss these applications in depth in later chapters. We’ll also discuss Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, an all-in-one application that allows you to ingest, rename, catalog, print, build web pages, and do your laundry—well, maybe not the last, but it is a huge and all-encompassing piece of software that can simplify your photographic life. Jay Kinghorn will discuss this software in depth later in the book.

Photography is a powerful form of communication; it’s how I connect with my world. I’ve had the good fortune to travel throughout the world with my cameras, and I’ve found that the camera has opened worlds to me. From covering the war in El Salvador, to hanging from a helicopter photographing Venezuela’s Angel Falls, to hunting with Yupik Eskimos on the Yukon, the camera has taken me to places beyond my imagination.

While traveling on assignment, I used to carry a Polaroid camera so I could hand over an image immediately to a prospective subject. I was on a shoot for National Geographic in Papua New Guinea, living in a stone-age village for almost three months. Being able to hand someone a Polaroid I’d shot of him helped him understand what I was doing there, and it was a great door opener. Almost everyone was pleased to see his or her likeness on the spot. More common today is a photographer on location, with the subject of the photograph and others huddled around the digital camera, looking, commenting, and enjoying the photograph displayed on the monitor. That’s the power of digital photography.