I find the photographic experience has two aspects in this regard:
- I want to see my results, from either film or digital, as quickly
as possible to see what I did technically. This helps me reinforce
what I'm doing right in terms of exposure and camera operation ...
"Did I get the focus right? Did I get the exposure on target? Where
could I have done better?" are the questions I ask myself immediately.
- From an aesthetic point of view, I often haven't sufficient
distance from the picture taking experience to be objective about the
results for a month or more ...
It doesn't matter whether I'm shooting with a film camera or a
digital camera, these are common to my photographic experience. For
instance, I'm just beginning to be able to make objective aesthetic
judgments about the photos I made on the trip in May-June, and I've
been going through photos from last Summer's trip to the Isle of Man
with a fresh eye now. Lots of stuff is coming up this way.
The major advantages of digital capture are 1) I can do the
immediate, technical review even on the spot if I feel like it. This
is particularly useful if I've traveled a distance and won't be able
to return anytime soon, or if the setup is costly. B) I can be more
opportunistic about things ... I can make exposures in ways that I
wouldn't bother wasting the film on before (or couldn't afford to
waste the client's time/money/film on...). And c) the media is much
more accessible a year later, the tools for browsing years of picture
taking and making those aesthetic judgments are more easily managed.
Godfrey
On Jul 26, 2005, at 3:53 PM, Shel Belinkoff wrote:
I don't think that it's digital per se that's helpful here. I
think it's a
matter of your preferred or self imposed style of working. If you
could
shoot TX and get the processed film back to you as conveniently,
would one
way or the other matter? I'm the opposite, even when I've shot
digital. I
like some distance from the photographs, look at them more than once,
sometimes over months or longer.
Shel
[Original Message]
From: Juan Buhler
A good photographer is one who gets the results she wants, regardless
of ratios or tilted horizons. Digital has allowed me to get closer to
the pictures I want, but mostly because I shoot somewhat more with it
and because of the fast turnaround. I used to sit on a roll of tri-X
for one or two months before developing it. Nowadays I edit my
pictures the day I shoot them.
