Comments on: Digital Film

By: Sara Flemming

Sara Flemming — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:08:27 +0000

Waiting to look through/process photos is (a) difficult to do and (b) one of the best habits I’ve picked up over the last 6 months.

I read a short quote (not that I can remember by whom or from where at the moment) from one photographer who didn’t process photos until a year after shooting them. That seemed a bit much — a week works for me — but the idea is the same.

Waiting definitely adds an element of, “hey, I forgot I shot that!”-fun. And there’s much less frustration that you didn’t get The Shot if you’re not reviewing 200 photos 20 minutes after you shot them.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:54:59 +0000

I completely agree with the “absurdly” small data card bit. I just think it’s funny that 512mb would ever be considered small. Since when did you ever buy a roll of film that had even a 512mb card’s worth of exposures? As I’ve seen with both my mom and my mom-in-law, large cards also mean photos that never get downloaded to the computer. Drives me crazy.

I admit that I’m a total chimp. But there are moments when I’m not chimping, and I can confirm I have more fun that way. Great idea, this. I’ll have to report back on how that goes.

By: Matt Wilcox

Matt Wilcox — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:15:48 +0000

I’ve been thinking the same for many months, but please don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

The ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ of digital isn’t to gimp the crap out of it and thus remove the advances Digital provides. The problem isn’t the features of digital, it’s the mindset you use with it. The solution is to remember to keep the film mindset going while you work: shoot to the scene and not the technology. Approach the process in the same way as you would film. In short, THINK about the shot in the same way as you would with film.

Digital doesn’t encourage lazy shooting practice, it just allows it. The problem is not the camera or it’s features, the problem is in the head of the photographer.

By: Tom Watson

Tom Watson — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:16:58 +0000

Great food for thought! I love the “chimping” term too. I do it all the time. I think finding a balance between what you’ve done and going hole hog into digital will work best for me. I’m already well trained at chimping and love shooting tons and rushing home to look, but I’d like to really try and get away from that a bit and get away with looking at my preview screen all the time. I’d like to at least turn off the LCD for a couple of days of shooting and force myself to focusing on the shot and not look, correct, adjust, etc.

Whenever I’m out shooting with my Polaroid I find it totally different experience the either of these as well, which is why I’m going to miss it so much when it’s gone. Having to wait the 5 minutes to see if a shot is properly exposed (and the cost of film!) makes me really hesitant to just fire away, and gives me this happy middle ground to work in. I work at composition more, slow down, etc. There’s also just something of holding something you just shot in physical form that’s hard to duplicate digitally.

Anyway, great article and I hope to see some of your results on Flickr here soon!

By: Mandy Bee

Mandy Bee — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:07:14 +0000

I recently bought myself a DSLR when I started getting photolust wandering around Flickr.

I really like your idea of carrying around smaller cards. I’ve already started taking tons of shots of the same subject just because I bought a new SD card that’ll hold a billion more photos than I’ve ever been used to. I went from my crappy Kodak EasyShare with a 512 mb card to this insane thing. Now I’m downloading 300 pictures onto my computer at a time. Agh! I don’t even have to to look through them anymore to see if I even like them!

Anyway, thanks for the post. Definitely a few points to keep in mind the next time I get camera-happy.