Photo Safaris - Want A Digital Camera?



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				Mexico's Colonial Heartland March 17–24, 2007
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				Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya September 7–21, 2007
				Australia Wildlife November 1–20, 2007

With this column I am starting a series of articles relating to digital photography—both digital capture and digital printing. In future columns Ill talk about a number of techniques including scanning, working in the digital darkroom, stitching together panoramic images with Photoshop, photographing in the RAW file format, and printing tips and techniques.

Lets start our discussion with the number one question Im asked when the word "digital" is used in a conversation (and Im almost always presented with this exact wording of the question): "Should I buy a digital camera?" My answer is always the same: "I dont have the faintest idea." Would you ask a stranger who doesnt know your habits, your interests, your budget and your preferences whether you should buy a Hasselblad camera or a pickup truck or an extra spicy burrito?

The real question about purchasing a digital camera is not whether you should buy one, but whether getting one will improve your photography in some way or just lighten your wallet. However, let me stop right here and say that

Ive certainly made many purchases for no other reason than Ive wanted an item. "I want that camera!" has definitely worked for me many times over. But aside from "camera lust" you should start by defining what you want to do with your photography, which in turn will go a long way in helping you make up your mind about that potential digital camera purchase.

Both digital capture and film capture have some real advantages and some real disadvantages. Film has been around a long time and has had most of the quirks worked out. Film cameras dont become obsolete quickly, but digital cameras definitely do. Film maintains its "image value," but will digital? That is, I am actively marketing images I shot 30 years ago; will we be able to do the same 30 years from now with the digital files we shoot today? Is this consideration even important to you? But digital cameras let you easily change the ISO rating between frames, tweak white balance either before or after you take the picture, depending on the file format you choose. And, when shooting in the RAW format, digital cameras even allow you to change the exposure bias after the fact—features that are impossible with film.

So why shoot film?

You already own the equipment.

You give slide shows (and no digital projector yet has anywhere near the image impact of a slide projected with even the cheapest Kodak Carousel).

You dont want to spend more time dealing with computer stuff.

You could take the money a digital SLR costs and put it towards a Photo Safari (Joe asked me to add this to my list!).

If youre a pro, youre a stock shooter dealing with agencies, and/or your particular markets still prefer film.

This last point is worth a note: do editors really like film just because they are used to dealing with it or are there any other considerations? If an editor receives transparencies from a photographer its readily apparent with a loupe whether the photos are usable or not, and many images can be quickly viewed on a light table. Lets say I have 100 slides. These easily fit on the light table in my office.

I can quickly get an overview of all of them, pick out the outstanding shots and loupe them, even make edits and arrangements on the table itself. If an editor receives digital files (even scans) there are more steps involved. A primary point is that while most editors use color corrected light tables, how many use color corrected monitors? Or—I think more likely—are their monitors the cheapest their company can purchase? Are we asking visual people to make visual decisions using the bottom line tools? To view those files they must stop whatever else they are doing on their computer and look at images one at a time. What was the 18^th picture back? Lets say you send in 100 shots of raccoons. How does an editor remember which is the one they want? And editors have been burned all too often wasting time with poorly done scans or digital capture files.

Part of many an editors preference for film is having to deal with a workflow problem. Lets say 100 photographers send in 100 slides each, a total of 500 slide sheets. An editor quickly views these on a light table and pulls one image per photographer. The result is 100 slides held, or 5 slide sheets total. Easy to handle, easy to view. Lets do this digitally. Lets ask the same 100 photographers to send 100 digital images (lets assume each is 60 MB, the same file size as a slide scanned on a Nikon 4000 scanner). This means the editor must deal with roughly 10 CDs per photographer, or 1,000 total CDs. Now the editor wants to hold one image per photographer. What to do? Either they can just keep the 1000 CDs—a logistical nightmare—or they go through and copy one file per photographer and either make a new folder on their hard drive or burn 10 more CDs. Now lets assume they want to find one specific image. They had best have put those images in a digital database or once again they are loading and unloading CDs, while stopping whatever else they were doing on their computer. Workflow is a major problem.

So why shoot digital?

You work photojournalistic subjects such as sports or news, or are under tight deadline pressures.

You run a wedding or portraiture studio, or do catalog photography (product photography is an area almost 100% digital already).

Your end use of pictures is primarily the web or email.

You want instant feedback.

You like working with computers.

You want to experiment.

One argument Ive heard in favor of digital cameras is that you dont have to carry film when you travel, which is indeed a plus with todays security measures. However, you do have to carry either a laptop (and its battery charger unit, AC cords, etc.) or a "digital wallet" type portable drive (with its battery, cords, etc.) or both, plus card reader, several flash cards, and possibly some blank CDs to burn (if your laptop has a CD burner built-in, otherwise you might want to carry one of these also). If youre going to be away from AC, better also carry an inverter to plug into a cars power outlet or cigarette lighter which will allow you to recharge all those batteries. The first thing you learn about digital capture—and computers for that matter—is backup, backup, backup. I recently talked with a fellow who went to the Patagonia region of Chile, planning to write his digital camera files to a portable "digital wallet" type drive, only to have it die on his first day in the field, miles away from any large town. Now what? If you cant download, youre dead in the water.

So to get back to the question of purchasing a digital camera, perhaps another basic question is "How much time do you want to spend in front of a computer?" To get the most information from digital files you should shoot in the RAW format, but this means you need to open and

tweak each and every shot you take. How much of a computer geek do you want to be? Are you comfortable dealing with software and file formats or does the thought of touching a mouse give you the creeps?

At this point you might think I am a curmudgeon who is adamantly against these newfangled digital cameras. Nope, Im not. Im currently actively shooting with a Nikon D100 (and eagerly awaiting the next generation of Nikon digital SLRs). But Im shooting both film and digital—right now about 90% film, 10% digital. It seems to me that most people who ask me about the purchase of a digital camera speak as if you can only use one or the other. Nonsense. Why not shoot both? Both have application for field nature photography, both have strong points and weak points, both offer the possibility of great prints through the digital darkroom. Folks, its not an either/or choice.



	Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc. P.O. Box 655, Vashon Island, Washington USA 98070 Phone: (206) 463-5383 Fax: (206) 463-5484 Email: info@photosafaris.com Copyright © 2008, Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc.