What I Love About Digital | Monterey Portrait Photographer

Photo credit: So Cute Photo

Before Digital Photography became what it is today, most households had a film camera.  And yes, I am just old enough to remember that very well. Whether it was semi-fancy model with an automatic zoom, or a cardboard disposable just for special occasions, film cameras were how we documented our lives.  In our house, there simply had to be a working camera within reach at any given time.  So our closets were generally littered with old cameras that had broken down or otherwise worn out their welcome.  Back then, there was no bigger thrill for me than walking down to the drug store and picking up the developed photos. 

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Of course, now I am spoiled by Instant Gratification and love being able to peek at my digital photos immediately.  But the sneak peek, while very helpful, is not necessarily the most useful part about digital photography to me.  In fact, I often don't spend much time looking at my photos during a session until I'm back at home and I'm uploading them all to my computer. 

In my humble opinion, I think the best part about digital is the quantity!  I have the freedom to take hundreds upon hundreds of photos before I need to give any thought to the space on my memory card.  This gives me the freedom to try the same image multiple times from different angles.  Or trying several different variations on the same pose.  That's a big change from when I used to shoot weddings on film and was limited to 36 frames per roll.  Of course I would bring a large quantity of film with me to shoot, but I had to always keep in mind how many shots were left on the roll before I needed to change it out.  That meant conserving shots during the ceremony so I wouldn't miss anything important (like the Kiss!) because I was putting in a new roll of film.  Can it be done successfully? Of course!  But is it better not to have to worry about it at all?  Obviously!

Here's an example of an image that didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned, but am still grateful I got to try. At this maternity session I told Daddy to kneel and pretend to "catch" the baby. However the family quickly fell into a fit of giggles and we didn't quite get the shot. But since I wasn't worried about having only a limited number of shots, we were able to have a lot of fun during the session and try different things, wether they turned out perfect or not.

Sometimes I'm still a little nostalgic for my film camera, as well as the time and effort it used to take when I was developing my black & white photos in a dark room.  Seeing them come to life in the chemical tray was always so exciting.  Now I can still get a similar thrill from transforming my images in Photoshop.  They might not magically materialize from a blank page the way they did in the darkroom, but there's still plenty of time and effort spent getting the contrast and color just right in the computer.  Contrary to what some people may say, photographers still create art, we're just using slightly different methods now.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on digital vs. film photography in the comments section.  :)