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The End of Digital Dithering? | ||||
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So Dixon’s have announced that they will no longer sell 35mm film cameras! And last year Fuji ceased production of medium format film cameras. It seems evermore certain that the future of photography is Digital. Alan Bromage recently loaned me a copy of TGO (The Great Outdoors) magazine. The January 2005 edition introduces Colin Prior as a new regular columnist. Colin’s book “Highland Wilderness” has been described as the finest volume of Panoramic photography ever produced. Commenting upon what makes a good photographer Colin notes that it took him some time to recognise what he was pursuing and the irony was that it was invisible. “The ultimate challenge is to photograph something that, in reality, doesn’t exist. It is of course the essence – that quality which constitutes the true nature of anything – that often eludes the photographer. The location and composition are of great importance but they alone will not guarantee success, Other factors include the quality of light, the balance of shadow and light, textural qualities, and of course, experience. Ultimately it is the way in which the eye and brain interpret the image that will determine whether a mental leap is made to another plane, or if the image remains in the mundane category”. In a separate article entitled Digital Integrity (in the same issue) Colin notes that “Film is dead. The future is pixilated. It is the most exciting development since the advent of photography in the late 19th century.” He notes that many outdoor photographers are resistant to this change, but feels they are mistaken, and unless they are working in the new medium then they cannot really be part of the debate. Nevertheless Colin is concerned that image manipulation should always be stated. At what stage, he queries, should the processing of images by such software packages as Photoshop become image manipulation? He feels the areas of ethics and integrity need to be explored. He is happy that software’s ability to “warm-up” an image negates the need to use 81 series filters. He notes that other photographers have removed the need for ND graduated filters by taking several shots of a scene, exposing first for the highlights and later for the darker areas, and using software to combine appropriate parts of the image. He applauds this noting that the photographer is trying to reproduce what his eyes and brain showed him of the actual scene. He is concerned though that by adding elements to an image which were not there in the actual scene (perhaps in order to more easily sell an image) the photographer does a disservice to all. The sceptical public, having firstly believed that the camera did not lie, and having subsequently discovered the deception, will classify all images as “manipulated” . The integrity of powerful “as taken” images will have been devalued. Colin writes as a committed landscape photographer, trying to capture what he recognises is ultimately impossible to completely capture; the interaction of the scene with the photographer’s mind. His best picture is always the next one; "Always the one I’ve yet to take” he says. His stance is little different to that of Artists trying to capture the essence of the scene before them – the scene as they see it- though each may visualise a subtly different scene to the others. Indeed the digital process with its powerful software may have reduced the gap between the photographer and the artist to zero. What ethical and integrity considerations concern the artist? Surely they will be the self-same concerns raised by the photographer? Bill Chadband |
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