Going To The Dark Side….

Yes, I confess, I did it. After writing an entry not too long ago espousing the virtues of film and vowing my allegiance to the format, I have gone to the dark side. I am now wielding a digital camera and firing it at will while my film camera sits gathering dust like a typewriter or rotary phone.

So what convinced me to make the switch? Well, several factors came together to tell me that it was time….

The first factor was budgetary. When I added up the price of my film, processing and printing in the past six months I was stunned to discover the amount that I was spending. Further analysis revealed how much of that amount was waste. I paid for processing and printing of so many shots that didn’t come out or that were duplicates that will never all get used. Others were great shots that I can’t wait to scrapbook, except that when I do I want to use an enlargement so the original 4×6 print also sits unused and wasted. I did some math and realized that if I only had to pay for exactly the prints that I was using for my layouts and to give away to relatives, a good quality digital camera would pay for itself in 6 months! After that first six months passed, the cost savings was significant, about $50/month.

A desire for more control of my images was the second factor. Photography has become an all-important element in publishable scrapbook layouts. Good photographs aren’t enough. The photographs have to be excellent. This has led me to a desire to be able to tweak and edit my photos. Shooting in film leaves the designer with very little ability to do this. While film images can be transferred to a CD during processing or scanned for digital manipulation, this both increases the cost and decreases the quality of the resulting image. A digital photo can be manipulated in any number of ways in photo-editing software like Photoshop without reducing the quality of the end print. Exposure and color can be improved. Cropping can be moved to zoom in on a specific subject or change the photo’s orientation. The photo can be turned to black & white or sepia. The options are virtually limitless and good editing can turn a mediocre digital photo into an amazing focal point for a layout.

Once I had the camera in my hands, I discovered some other advantages I hadn’t anticipated. Because taking a photo doesn’t cost me anything unless I decide to print it, I have the freedom to shoot as many pictures as I would like without worrying about what they are going to cost me to develop and print! I can experiment with camera settings, composition and other technique without feeling like I am “wasting” pictures. Instead of only taking “safe” shots, I can be an artist with my camera!

Another advantage that I had only somewhat anticipated the full scope of is the ability to review my photo the instant that it is snapped. Instead of taking one or two photos of an important moment and then just hoping for the best, I can review the photo immediately to see if I got the image that I wanted. If my daughter closed her eyes or looked away at the last second, I know and so I can snap another shot! But what I hadn’t anticipated is how the immediate review would not only make me shoot until I get an acceptable shot, but makes me keep shooting until I get a perfect shot!

The instant ability to review my photos is a big help as I adjust to some of the disadvantages of the digital format. The biggest of these (in my opinion) is shutter lag. Unlike on a film camera where the photo is taken the instant you depress the shutter button, on a digital camera there is a “lag” between the press of the shutter and the capture of the image. This differs from camera to camera; more expensive cameras such as digital SLR’s have virtually no lag time whereas less expensive cameras can have as much as a half second. That doesn’t sound like much but it can take some getting used to and make it difficult to capture action shots (such as in my case, a rambunctious two year old). With scenic and still shots of course shutter lag is no concern, but for action shots the ability to review my photos instantly has been very useful. I am trying to learn to “anticipate” my shot and press the shutter before the instant I want instead of reacting to it when I see it since shutter lag means depressing the shutter doesn’t freeze that moment of action but a moment in the future. Reviewing my photos as I shoot them lets me immediately see how my learning is proceeding!

Another disadvantage is that of light and color reproduction quality not being on par with film. Digital cameras require more light than film for a good image and the color quality can be extremely poor, especially indoors in fluorescent light. Some of these problems can be compensated for with special camera settings and post-production image editing but there is a definite learning curve to become familiar with the best ways to do those corrections. But unless you have a camera with a very powerful flash unit (or even an external one), digital is definitely the “dark side.” Photos will be darker than those taken with film in similar conditions.

I am still learning the many skills I need to make full use and advantage of my new photographic tool. But I have learned enough already to know that a good quality digital camera can be an invaluable scrapbooking tool.

(Author’s Note: At a later date when I have a better understanding of my new camera, I will write a review of my purchase: the Canon PowerShot A610.)