I Thought I’d Got the Hang of Film and Then They Moved the Goalposts!

BY NOEL GREENWOOD CPAGB

I remember a few years ago when certain SLPS members were extolling the virtues of “digital imaging” to anybody who was unfortunate to be within earshot that they were told (at times, quite forcibly) that it wasn’t “real” photography.

Well, I can now state from experience that it is just as infuriating, time-consuming, expensive and totally addictive as photography has ever been.

Firstly, the camera; you buy the all singing and dancing camera for the equivalent price of a small car and two weeks later they market a new model which tells jokes as well and your camera is worth the price of a moped. You then buy some bargain memory cards (remember some “own brand” films) and find in the middle of a shoot that the camera instructs you to format the card, or when you put the card into the reader your computer tells you that one in four pictures does not exist. Lesson learned, buy approved cards only.

It Pays To Advertise

You have now got your images into the computer which is where the fun really starts! Remember the Luddites of the nineties? There is no skill; it is unfair to darkroom workers you just press a button and have a drink while the printer produces a masterpiece. I don’t think so! As you open another box of paper and wonder why the last six prints bore no relationship to the colours on your monitor and whether the price of ink cartridges is included in the Cost of Living index you begin to pine for the smell of chemicals, brown elbows caused by those leak proof developing tanks and stumbling around in the dark.

After you eventually start to climb this new learning curve you will realise some of the advantages of digital imaging such as the ability to take numerous images and discard any failures without further cost and when you get a print correct you can save the settings and repeat the print as many times as you like, allegedly.

Tulip Fields

I hope my little rant will not discourage newcomers to digital photography as I am sure my recent heart surgery was not in any way occasioned by the trauma, expense, anxiety, frustration and, at times, despair during my introduction to the new branch of the art form.

Please send any comments to Noel