Digital Darkroom vs. Digital Camera - a confusion?

[ch1]

A while back I decided to move beyond my rudimentary understanding of PS and take a course in digital darkroom (i.e. a class in PS). Last night was the first class.

There are only six of us in the class and at the tender age of 54 I am the youngest! Only the instructor is younger than me.

The other students bring a variety of photo experience to the class - one has over 50 cameras in all formats (made me feel like a slacker) and another just has a P&S.

What I found striking was when several spoke of why they were taking a class in PS they indicated it was because they wanted to learn more about how to use their digital cameras!

Fortunately, the instructor pointed that the class was geared to digital processing and that right in the lab room there was both a Nikon 5000 and a drum scanner for those that wanted to scan film, slides or prints to use for class assignments.

But this got me to thinking - apparently a lot of folks don't seem to realize that the means of "image capture", whether film or silicon, is a distinct step from "image processing". Many apparently equate digital cameras with digital processing as one in the same. I have to wonder how many more people would continue to use their film gear if they knew that it could be processed digitally just as effectively (or more so?) than images from digital cameras?

 

[gbremer]

It's funny, most of the people I know who have digital cameras don't even save their pictures on their computers let alone actually make prints. It's almost like they have a compulsion to record the things they do, but immediately move on to the next thing without doing anything with the pictures they take. Even the "good" pictures are nothing more than a novelty to be marvelled at and forgotten after a few minutes. The tiny display on the back of the camera is good enough for them, plus they get instant gratification. I think that for these people film has already been forgotten and those of us who still use it are weird.

I'm starting to scan my negatives because I can't have a darkroom at home and the local arts center closed down last year. If I had a choice, I'd have a traditional darkroom and do my own printing because I love the craft of it.

 

[anaanda]

I've gone back and forth over the last couple of months between digital printing and traditonal darkroom printing. Fortuntely I can do both because I have some room in my garage. I just printed in my wet darkroom for the first time in months and realized I enjoy it more than digital printing! My goal is to settle on one film, and one developer for some time and one printing method..

 

[ch1]

It's funny, most of the people I know who have digital cameras don't even save their pictures on their computers let alone actually make prints. It's almost like they have a compulsion to record the things they do, but immediately move on to the next thing without doing anything with the pictures they take. Even the "good" pictures are nothing more than a novelty to be marvelled at and forgotten after a few minutes. The tiny display on the back of the camera is good enough for them, plus they get instant gratification.....

Yes, the instructor alluded to this instant-gratification phenomenon. She equated it to the one-time popularity of Poloroid cameras. As I recall, Poloroid used to advertise the cameras as kind of party-time shoot the pic camera, laugh with your friends and then, m/l toss them away! It was a great way to sell film!

 

[Silva Lining]

It's funny, most of the people I know who have digital cameras don't even save their pictures on their computers let alone actually make prints. It's almost like they have a compulsion to record the things they do, but immediately move on to the next thing without doing anything with the pictures they take. Even the "good" pictures are nothing more than a novelty to be marvelled at and forgotten after a few minutes. The tiny display on the back of the camera is good enough for them, plus they get instant gratification. I think that for these people film has already been forgotten and those of us who still use it are weird.

I'm starting to scan my negatives because I can't have a darkroom at home and the local arts center closed down last year. If I had a choice, I'd have a traditional darkroom and do my own printing because I love the craft of it.

Heh, I have 62,000 digital pictures on a RAID, guess I make up for those that throw them away!

 

[TEZillman]

George,

I just finished a PS class and had much the same experience. The initial sylibus indicated that the instructor was going to cover scanning film, but he completely skipped it until another student and myself asked him about it. Even then, he covered it from the viewpoint of "converting over" to digital. Frankly, I got quite tired of comments like "for those of you who still use film" or "back when we used film" from the instructor. I canceled my registration for PS II.

Interestingly, I took a course in nature photography last year at the same place and that instructor didn't own a digital camera. Talk about two ends of the spectrum.

 

[ch1]

George,

I just finished a PS class and had much the same experience. The initial sylibus indicated that the instructor was going to cover scanning film, but he completely skipped it until another student and myself asked him about it. Even then, he covered it from the viewpoint of "converting over" to digital. Frankly, I got quite tired of comments like "for those of you who still use film" or "back when we used film" from the instructor. I canceled my registration for PS II.

Interestingly, I took a course in nature photography last year at the same place and that instructor didn't own a digital camera. Talk about two ends of the spectrum.

Indeed, I heard a lot of that last night. Several in the class were "jonesing it up" comparing their latest digi P&S purchases etc.

In my case the instructor's day job is working as m/l a PS drone in an ad agency. While it was clear she has a camera - I didn't get a "warm, fuzzy" that she was a "real" photographer. She also mangled it trying to decribe to some neophyte the difference b/w RAW and jpeg.

But I'm taking the course for my purposes, not theirs, so just kind of "go blank" when a bunch of 60-somethings try to act "with it" by talking about digi-this and digi-that. Besides, maybe some of them will give me their old film gear "just to get rid of it".