While most people choose digital for speed and cost reasons, the jury is still out as to whether the images are the same quality. The grain in a film print is far greater than a pixellated digital image. As Batman director Christopher Nolan states about his choice to shoot on film, "We're not counting pixels here." Secondly, the unpredictable nature of physically developing an image leads to some accidental discoveries. Double exposures and light leaks may not be the desired effect but removing any element of danger you remove any chance of experimenting. In terms of storage, a thousand digital prints only take up the space of a hard drive but hard drives are prone to failures and once they are lost they are irretrievable. Whereas, a developed negative is filed in seconds and as long as they are stored properly, they can last for 50 years.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Film versus Digital - The great debate
As technology develops there are always going to be purists and nostalgia obsessed photographers who preach the pros of old fashioned techniques over modern developments. In photography, the rise of digital cameras means that very rarely will you find a photographer, unless they've been to university, who can use the skills of a light room to develop their images. While most people choose digital for speed and cost reasons, the jury is still out as to whether the images are the same quality. The grain in a film print is far greater than a pixellated digital image. As Batman director Christopher Nolan states about his choice to shoot on film, "We're not counting pixels here." Secondly, the unpredictable nature of physically developing an image leads to some accidental discoveries. Double exposures and light leaks may not be the desired effect but removing any element of danger you remove any chance of experimenting. In terms of storage, a thousand digital prints only take up the space of a hard drive but hard drives are prone to failures and once they are lost they are irretrievable. Whereas, a developed negative is filed in seconds and as long as they are stored properly, they can last for 50 years.
While most people choose digital for speed and cost reasons, the jury is still out as to whether the images are the same quality. The grain in a film print is far greater than a pixellated digital image. As Batman director Christopher Nolan states about his choice to shoot on film, "We're not counting pixels here." Secondly, the unpredictable nature of physically developing an image leads to some accidental discoveries. Double exposures and light leaks may not be the desired effect but removing any element of danger you remove any chance of experimenting. In terms of storage, a thousand digital prints only take up the space of a hard drive but hard drives are prone to failures and once they are lost they are irretrievable. Whereas, a developed negative is filed in seconds and as long as they are stored properly, they can last for 50 years.
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