The real advantage to a traditional photography education lies in
learning about light and exposure. This of course is best accomplished
with a manual camera. Darkroom education helps extend the learning
process by showing how technique leads to results. Of course the
principal is correct in his belief that these skills will soon be
useless in the real world for anyone who wants to take photography
beyond the hobby stage. Of course digital photography involves the same
rules of light and exposure, but I'm sure the students will be using
point and shoot digital cameras. I don't know how much control these
cameras offer. Perhaps some of the most important knowledge can still
be communicated by implementing exercises that call for varied depth of
field, backlighting, etc. The ideal solution would be to equip them all
with *istDs and K series lenses. That would be like giving them the
K1000 of the digital world. As far as digital darkroom skills are
concerned, I'm sure this can be a great learning experience. But they
should take things beyond the computer screen and make some inkjet
prints. I think I'd have to vote for digital in a close call.
Paul
On May 25, 2004, at 5:20 PM, Kevin Waterson wrote:
My childrens school is to be offering photography as
a subject. I have talked to the principle about this
and he is very keen about an all digital photo lab
type set up.
He stated that with a darkroom there was could be problems
with Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) with the use of
chemicals and children with asthma. Also as the world was
going digital this would be a real world solution. The
school is well equipped with computers, so there would be
no need to build another (dark)room for processing. Added
to this there is no cost of film.
He did say he could be swayed if there was a compelling
arguement in favour of film. If you have any reasons why
children should be learning in a darkroom, I would love
to hear them and pass them on.
Kind regards
Kevin
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Kevin Waterson
Port Macquarie, Australia
