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     Glenn Tinkerer Username: Glenn Post Number: 643 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
As Fred hints in his latest post, this lament is a old as photography its self. Frederick Scott Archer and his friends probably had the same discussions in the 1880s when the dry plate replaced the wet collodion process. The method of recording the image has changed over the years, and will continue to change as science and technology continue to advance. However; the process of selecting the subject, view point, lens choice, lighting and exposure etc is still in the hands and mind of the individual photographer - no matter what the recording medium is or may be, this 'black art' is down purely to the individual photographer. Hence the reason why a dozen photographers can all produce images of the same scene/subject, but only one will exhibit that undefinable quality that makes it memorable or stand out from the rest. Up to the point I release the shutter of my Leica M8, my actions and thought processes are no different to the ones I used on that bright September afternoon in 1956 when I exposed my first cassette of film in my father's M3. (A seemingly insignificant act that was eventually to influence my future career.) Digital in no way demeans the total photographic process, it's just another piece of kit in the bag. Much of my present output is film based but my 'darkroom' is all digital, except for a collection of developing tanks and a good selection of film developers. Obviously one needs decent equipment, but I certainly have no regrets about dumping the darkroom - only wish I could have done it years ago. Doctoring of glamour/portrait shots didn't come out of the Photoshop box, you should see some of the work done on 10 x 8 plates by the really skilled retouchers of the 1940s/50s/60s. Some of those guys could teach present day digital operatives a few things. |