Digital and Film
Just
listened to a story
on NPR about Herman Leonard losing a lot of his work that was in
his studio due to Hurricane Katrina. Sad, but it seems he managed
to keep most of his negs safe. His outlook is hard to beat, saying
that it will inspire him to get back into the darkroom. This got me
thinking about another difference between digital and film based
photography.
With film, if a neg (or chrome) is destroyed or lost, it’s gone.
The best you can hope for is to try to get a reproduction from a
print. Not the best by any means.
With digital, you can duplicate the original file in a virtually
unlimited number of locations that should effectively provide for
preservation of the original indefinitely. (Of course, with digital
it’s all to easy to not back something up and then do something
stupid and erase them in a heartbeat.)
Photographer have been storing negs for a long time now, but as the
migration to digital marches on, I wonder how the shooter of the
future will think about the difference. Will they see the fact that
there is one and only one original from film as terrifying? Perhaps
digital formats will become so bogged down with Digital Rights
Management that professional shooter will go back to film to ensure
they to provide the services they need to their clients.
Whatever comes to pass, do your best to protect your film and
backup your files.
Also, check out hermanleonard.com
to view some of his amazing photographs.
— Tags: tagPhotography
2005
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