-
Thank You For Visiting... Please Click Here and sign up to contribute
What We Lost When Cameras Got Better
- Thread starter Martin Henson
- Start date
I absolutely love his comment about shooting digital as if it were film. That's what a lot of my friends and I do.
The camera in totally manual mode. The only concession to automatism is using back button focusing, because aging eyes need a bit of help. But we set the focus before final framing, because it allows us to select the focus point and work out DoF for ourselves.
Using the light meter in spot mode has both the advantage of not having to carry a separate meter but, allowing you to meter for the zone system. This is an amazing advantage of digital over small format roll film. Every image can be measured individually and exposed to optimise the available lighting against the dynamic range of the sensor, which varies with the chosen ISO. Then, in "development", you can bring out all that lovely detail in the digital image, just like you could with film. The only difference is that film has to be exposed for the shadows but digital has to be exposed for the highlights. Just as with sheet film that can be individually developed to compensate, so can digital be developed on a frame by frame basis - something that roll film cannot easily do.
Taking this manual approach with digital has been revolutionary for our photography. Try it. But don't forget that the skills required are sometimes more than anything you've ever learnt from film.
I use a Nikon D850, but it might just as well be a box Brownie. It will more than likely be the last camera I will buy because it does everything I need it to do. When I unwrapped it, the first thing I did was read the manual and find out what was automatic by default. Then I turned everything off.
Why spend so much money if I didn't want all the bells and whistles, you might ask. Simple. I adore making large prints and 46Mpx makes that possible. The only thing that tempts me from time to time is a tilt/shift lens, but then I regain my sanity, realising that I really don't take that many architectural shots and those I do take can be corrected in post processing, was long as I plan for what the crop might remove.
@Martin Henson thanks for posting this video. I hope it inspires those who don't want to use film to slow down and improve their photography.
Oh, and the ultimate challenge is to go out with a digital camera and only take one shot, which you don't look at until you get home.
The camera in totally manual mode. The only concession to automatism is using back button focusing, because aging eyes need a bit of help. But we set the focus before final framing, because it allows us to select the focus point and work out DoF for ourselves.
Using the light meter in spot mode has both the advantage of not having to carry a separate meter but, allowing you to meter for the zone system. This is an amazing advantage of digital over small format roll film. Every image can be measured individually and exposed to optimise the available lighting against the dynamic range of the sensor, which varies with the chosen ISO. Then, in "development", you can bring out all that lovely detail in the digital image, just like you could with film. The only difference is that film has to be exposed for the shadows but digital has to be exposed for the highlights. Just as with sheet film that can be individually developed to compensate, so can digital be developed on a frame by frame basis - something that roll film cannot easily do.
Taking this manual approach with digital has been revolutionary for our photography. Try it. But don't forget that the skills required are sometimes more than anything you've ever learnt from film.
I use a Nikon D850, but it might just as well be a box Brownie. It will more than likely be the last camera I will buy because it does everything I need it to do. When I unwrapped it, the first thing I did was read the manual and find out what was automatic by default. Then I turned everything off.
Why spend so much money if I didn't want all the bells and whistles, you might ask. Simple. I adore making large prints and 46Mpx makes that possible. The only thing that tempts me from time to time is a tilt/shift lens, but then I regain my sanity, realising that I really don't take that many architectural shots and those I do take can be corrected in post processing, was long as I plan for what the crop might remove.
@Martin Henson thanks for posting this video. I hope it inspires those who don't want to use film to slow down and improve their photography.
Oh, and the ultimate challenge is to go out with a digital camera and only take one shot, which you don't look at until you get home.
Thanks for an interesting post Martin. Guilty on all counts most of the time although the tech and the approach does come in useful sometimes as Joanna has already said. In my case it usually takes the form of bracketed exposure or multiple exposures where the time element would not allow you to do it manually. For example getting the subject in the right place in the frame in motor sport when you only have seconds to make the shot. Not impossible with a single shot but the success rate tends to be better. The single shot intent is a worthwhile ambition though.
Last edited:
I think the original post was aiming more at what we had lost, and I am thinking about camera technique, and the way pictures are taken at the present time. I use both film and digital, A. because that is what I cut my photographic teeth on, and fully understand what it is capable of and B. I also use digital when I need something in a hurry. When I am on a motorcycle tour I am rarely in a hurry. (unless if I am going to be late for the ferry)!
There was an article a couple of years ago in one of the photo magazines (forget which one) which covered this very topic and the consensus by the author was, that with the advent of the all singing and dancing electronic cameras no one bothers any more to really get to grips with the 'art' or craft of understanding how a camera and lens work together. I tend to agree.
When I used to go on my long continental motorcycle trips I used to take my Nikon F6 and 2 lenses plus 6-7 35mm films and I would use the exposures sparingly whereas if I had used digital the temptation is always there to fire half a dozen frames which is for me not photography. Hopefully the next tour will be in early September.
Last edited:
Now watched the video…..
Interesting watch and not quite what I was expecting
To get the ‘best’ of digital and film, in addition to his existing suggestions you could also add (eg)
- cover up the screen on the back of the camera so you can’t see it once taken
- print ALL the ?36 shots that you take (ie the same end result as sending off the film which, for me, was the only option - I never developed and printed my own images)
- even better if there was a way of (say) printing them directly from the camera without being able to look at them
All boils down (I think) to self discipline - not something that I have in abundance
Interesting watch and not quite what I was expecting
To get the ‘best’ of digital and film, in addition to his existing suggestions you could also add (eg)
- cover up the screen on the back of the camera so you can’t see it once taken
- print ALL the ?36 shots that you take (ie the same end result as sending off the film which, for me, was the only option - I never developed and printed my own images)
- even better if there was a way of (say) printing them directly from the camera without being able to look at them
All boils down (I think) to self discipline - not something that I have in abundance
I don’t use even half the bells and whistles on my 5DsR but do love the detail of 50mp. I have one custom setting which I use 80% of the time and which is based on the Av setting I e i let the shutter speed sort itself out. This suits me fine as most of my shots are landscape. Camera is at f9.5 most of the time and at base iso. The one thing I don’t think is any kind of sacrifice is lens IS, as I hated lugging a tripod around. I love IS
Me too - in spades. It opens up hand held shots that at one time I would have hesitated to try and capture, particularly using longer lenses.