One aspect of digital photography that we can easily examine from 50,000 feet is the broad range of areas in which digital technology has become important. This section looks at a few of the traditional photography realms that have seen the most impact.
Photojournalism
You don't have to be a professional photojournalist to realize that news and digital photography were made for each other. You don't need to be a working press photographer to use the fast-working capabilities of digital photography in your own work, either. Figure 1.7 was taken on an "emergency" basis to publicize an art show at my kids' school. I was able to snap the picture, run home and make a print, and deliver it to the local newspaper an hour after the shooting session. Newspaper photographers work under tighter deadlines every day.
Indeed, digital imaging made strong inroads at newspapers and other news organizations quite early because the technology is such a good match for the needs of fast-breaking news events. However, several developments that preceded digital photography actually helped drive the transition.
First, newspapers began to see a real need for good quality editorial color in their pages, not necessarily as a service to their readers, but because color made good economic sense for them. Economics at newspapers usually involves advertising dollars more than circulation revenues so, as you might expect, the impetus came from the ad side of most publications. As advertisers began paying for more pages of spot color or full color as a way of making their ads stand out and catch reader attention, color in daily newspapers became the norm.
Of course, an advertiser might need only a single page or corner of a page for a full-color ad, providing the opportunity for the editorial department to grab an almost-free ride with an editorial photo or two elsewhere on the same sheet. Before long, newspapers had found that editorial color pleased readers. Back in the days when more larger cities had competing dailies, color-using pioneers discovered that their street sales of issues featuring color on the front page topped those of their rivals. Circulation boosts help raise ad rates, and by the time USA Today helped make daily editorial color a standard feature, the question was no longer "Should we use color?" but "How many color pages can we get?"
Digital photography arrived at the perfect time to answer the newspapers' need for speed and growing appetite for color images. Electronic images don't have to be processed. A photographer can rush back to the newspaper, download images to a computer, and immediately select the best shots. Even when digital images are physically transported, just as film must be, the electronic shoot saves half an hour or more over one that requires conventional processing. Digital pictures can be transmitted electronically, saving the drive time required to move film images.
Today, digital cameras are available built on the Canon and Nikon camera bodies favored by photojournalists. They can shoot color or black-and-white images using the full complement of lenses and aperture/shutter speed combinations available for conventional photography. With resolutions topping 16 megapixels, these cameras easily provide the quality needed for news applications, where images will be two, three, or four columns in most cases, and not ordinarily enlarged beyond that. Indeed, a Nikon DX2 or Canon EOS 1-Ds Mark II is almost overkill for photojournalism!
As a bonus (depending on how you view it), some digital cameras have the effect of extending the effective focal length of lenses, which gives sports photographers more telephoto for their buck (even while photojournalists shooting in tight quarters get less wide angle for their buck, too). Most digital cameras can capture several frames per second to emulate motor drives, although the number of frames you can fire off is often limited to seven to ten. Professional digital cameras can often grab dozens of consecutive images at 8 fps or better rates.
Popping out a digital camera's memory card can be much faster than changing a roll of film. An assistant or photo editor on site can be previewing pictures you took a minute ago while a shoot is still underway. As long as the removable media holds out, or can be downloaded/erased, digital photo sessions can be open-ended. Digital images are already in the right format to transmit them by conventional telephone modem, cell phone modem, satellite uplinks, or other means back to the main office.
Portrait Photography
Portrait photography is something that appeals to professionals as well as amateurs. Perhaps you need a formal photo of a revered relative to hang over the fireplace. You might want to take your own passport photos to ensure that the traveler is recognizable. Or, you might simply need a quickie portrait like the one shown in Figure 1.8 for, say, a wanted poster. I'll tell you more about digital portraiture later in Chapter 6, "People Photography."
Digital portraiture is attractive to serious photographers and professionals for similar reasons. Traditional portrait photography has always been something that took a bit of time, although the investment on the part of the photographer and sitter is somewhat less than that required for a painted portrait. Formal portrait sittings using conventional film technology were often followed some time later by a session at which proofs were reviewed, and the client made the final selection. Prints might be delivered at yet another session.
While there is something to be said for the opportunities that can crop up when you get a client back to a studio three or more times, this procedure has its drawbacks from a marketing standpoint. For one thing, enthusiasm is always highest at the original sitting, and has cooled off by the time the proofs are available. Clients might have other things they'd rather spend their money on, or had second thoughts about ordering that big print they originally planned on.
For the professional photographer, digital portraiture offers an immediacy not available with traditional film alone. Pros can snap off a series of poses, either captured 100 percent digitally, or using a system that grabs a digital version at the same time an image is also exposed onto film. Then, they can show the sitter the digital images immediately and write up the order. Big prints can be sold by displaying on a large screen, or projecting images into a frame that shows how the image will look on the wall in the larger size. Photographers have been doing this with conventional proofs for a long time, and digital imaging just refines the technique.
The digital image also has some advantages when it comes time to retouch a portrait. You'll find that Photoshop can do all the corrections that you might have used dyes for in the past, plus many more. Removing bags under eyes, cleaning up a teenager's complexion, de-emphasizing Dumbo-sized ears, and softening of wrinkles are all child's play for an accomplished digital worker.
The chief disadvantage of digital portraiture is that your output options are a little more limited. Your home or office inkjet printer probably handles paper no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches, although inexpensive wide-carriage models can be purchased for less than $500. Professional studios with some money to spend can equip themselves to print directly to dye-sublimation printers, but those capable of larger than 8 x 10 size are expensive, and you're still limited to only a few paper surfaces. If you want the full range of paper surfaces and texturizing effects that portrait photographers commonly sell, you might have to output to film and make conventional prints. These limitations are gradually vanishing as photographic/digital printing technologies converge.
Outdoor and in-home portraiture should lend itself to some kinds of digital photography much sooner, although I think that weddings are probably the most natural application for this technology. Some photographers like to select their own best shots and present them in an album the couple can use to make a final selection, but the problem with this approach is that the review often must take place long after the honeymoon. Digital images, on the other hand, can be reviewed as soon as the pair return, or right at the reception (if you think that photography holds a high enough priority at that special time—I personally don't think so).
Photojournalism
You don't have to be a professional photojournalist to realize that news and digital photography were made for each other. You don't need to be a working press photographer to use the fast-working capabilities of digital photography in your own work, either. Figure 1.7 was taken on an "emergency" basis to publicize an art show at my kids' school. I was able to snap the picture, run home and make a print, and deliver it to the local newspaper an hour after the shooting session. Newspaper photographers work under tighter deadlines every day.
Figure 1.7. From snapshot to newspaper in less than an hour. Digital photography is perfect when you need a photo quickly.
Indeed, digital imaging made strong inroads at newspapers and other news organizations quite early because the technology is such a good match for the needs of fast-breaking news events. However, several developments that preceded digital photography actually helped drive the transition.
First, newspapers began to see a real need for good quality editorial color in their pages, not necessarily as a service to their readers, but because color made good economic sense for them. Economics at newspapers usually involves advertising dollars more than circulation revenues so, as you might expect, the impetus came from the ad side of most publications. As advertisers began paying for more pages of spot color or full color as a way of making their ads stand out and catch reader attention, color in daily newspapers became the norm.
Of course, an advertiser might need only a single page or corner of a page for a full-color ad, providing the opportunity for the editorial department to grab an almost-free ride with an editorial photo or two elsewhere on the same sheet. Before long, newspapers had found that editorial color pleased readers. Back in the days when more larger cities had competing dailies, color-using pioneers discovered that their street sales of issues featuring color on the front page topped those of their rivals. Circulation boosts help raise ad rates, and by the time USA Today helped make daily editorial color a standard feature, the question was no longer "Should we use color?" but "How many color pages can we get?"
Digital photography arrived at the perfect time to answer the newspapers' need for speed and growing appetite for color images. Electronic images don't have to be processed. A photographer can rush back to the newspaper, download images to a computer, and immediately select the best shots. Even when digital images are physically transported, just as film must be, the electronic shoot saves half an hour or more over one that requires conventional processing. Digital pictures can be transmitted electronically, saving the drive time required to move film images.
Today, digital cameras are available built on the Canon and Nikon camera bodies favored by photojournalists. They can shoot color or black-and-white images using the full complement of lenses and aperture/shutter speed combinations available for conventional photography. With resolutions topping 16 megapixels, these cameras easily provide the quality needed for news applications, where images will be two, three, or four columns in most cases, and not ordinarily enlarged beyond that. Indeed, a Nikon DX2 or Canon EOS 1-Ds Mark II is almost overkill for photojournalism!
As a bonus (depending on how you view it), some digital cameras have the effect of extending the effective focal length of lenses, which gives sports photographers more telephoto for their buck (even while photojournalists shooting in tight quarters get less wide angle for their buck, too). Most digital cameras can capture several frames per second to emulate motor drives, although the number of frames you can fire off is often limited to seven to ten. Professional digital cameras can often grab dozens of consecutive images at 8 fps or better rates.
Popping out a digital camera's memory card can be much faster than changing a roll of film. An assistant or photo editor on site can be previewing pictures you took a minute ago while a shoot is still underway. As long as the removable media holds out, or can be downloaded/erased, digital photo sessions can be open-ended. Digital images are already in the right format to transmit them by conventional telephone modem, cell phone modem, satellite uplinks, or other means back to the main office.
Portrait Photography
Portrait photography is something that appeals to professionals as well as amateurs. Perhaps you need a formal photo of a revered relative to hang over the fireplace. You might want to take your own passport photos to ensure that the traveler is recognizable. Or, you might simply need a quickie portrait like the one shown in Figure 1.8 for, say, a wanted poster. I'll tell you more about digital portraiture later in Chapter 6, "People Photography."
Figure 1.8. Grab a digital portrait in minutes, whether it's for your passport or a wanted poster
Digital portraiture is attractive to serious photographers and professionals for similar reasons. Traditional portrait photography has always been something that took a bit of time, although the investment on the part of the photographer and sitter is somewhat less than that required for a painted portrait. Formal portrait sittings using conventional film technology were often followed some time later by a session at which proofs were reviewed, and the client made the final selection. Prints might be delivered at yet another session.
While there is something to be said for the opportunities that can crop up when you get a client back to a studio three or more times, this procedure has its drawbacks from a marketing standpoint. For one thing, enthusiasm is always highest at the original sitting, and has cooled off by the time the proofs are available. Clients might have other things they'd rather spend their money on, or had second thoughts about ordering that big print they originally planned on.
For the professional photographer, digital portraiture offers an immediacy not available with traditional film alone. Pros can snap off a series of poses, either captured 100 percent digitally, or using a system that grabs a digital version at the same time an image is also exposed onto film. Then, they can show the sitter the digital images immediately and write up the order. Big prints can be sold by displaying on a large screen, or projecting images into a frame that shows how the image will look on the wall in the larger size. Photographers have been doing this with conventional proofs for a long time, and digital imaging just refines the technique.
The digital image also has some advantages when it comes time to retouch a portrait. You'll find that Photoshop can do all the corrections that you might have used dyes for in the past, plus many more. Removing bags under eyes, cleaning up a teenager's complexion, de-emphasizing Dumbo-sized ears, and softening of wrinkles are all child's play for an accomplished digital worker.
The chief disadvantage of digital portraiture is that your output options are a little more limited. Your home or office inkjet printer probably handles paper no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches, although inexpensive wide-carriage models can be purchased for less than $500. Professional studios with some money to spend can equip themselves to print directly to dye-sublimation printers, but those capable of larger than 8 x 10 size are expensive, and you're still limited to only a few paper surfaces. If you want the full range of paper surfaces and texturizing effects that portrait photographers commonly sell, you might have to output to film and make conventional prints. These limitations are gradually vanishing as photographic/digital printing technologies converge.
Outdoor and in-home portraiture should lend itself to some kinds of digital photography much sooner, although I think that weddings are probably the most natural application for this technology. Some photographers like to select their own best shots and present them in an album the couple can use to make a final selection, but the problem with this approach is that the review often must take place long after the honeymoon. Digital images, on the other hand, can be reviewed as soon as the pair return, or right at the reception (if you think that photography holds a high enough priority at that special time—I personally don't think so).
Photoillustration
The third professional area that has seen a dramatic increase in the use of digital photography has been the related fields of photoillustration and corporate/industrial photography. Photoillustration can take many forms. For the amateur photographer, it often involves taking attractive photos of hobby collections, such as model ships or Lladró porcelain. Or, perhaps you're interested in photographing flowers or animals. Figure 1.9 was taken to provide an illustration for an eBay auction page. Professionals need to capture images of similar objects, plus a great deal more.
Figure 1.9. Enhance your online auctions using photo illustrations you create yourself with a digital camera.
In some commercial applications, such as catalog work, digital photography has become the way to go. It also lends itself to other kinds of illustration, too. Certainly, time can be an important consideration. One professional photographer told me about a client who came into his studio in the morning, helped set up a digital shot, and was on press with the image that same afternoon.
Today, digital cameras easily provide the quality needed to produce 11 x 17 and larger images. Some other features of digital cameras might be useful in these applications. For example, the ability to link a camera to a computer and preview images as they are taken can be helpful in fine-tuning a setup. In industrial photography, this capability, coupled with remote control, allow digital cameras to be used effectively in remote monitoring situations. An assembly line, product conveyor, or other factory scene can be photographed continuously at frame rates that are slower than those produced by video cameras—but with better resolution. Images can be fed to a computer located some distance from the monitoring point and stored on a large hard disk for review at any time.
Industrial photographers who must document processes for quality or certification studies also like the speed of digital cameras and the ease of converting images to computer format for use in desktop publishing or other applications. Medical photographers can also use digital images. Opthalmic photography, for example, uses special camera setups to photograph the fundus (back inside surface) of the eye. Fluorescein dye injected into the patient's blood stream glows when illuminated by ultraviolet light, and the resulting patterns of blood vessels in the fundus can be used to diagnose many illnesses.
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