Comparing film to digital - part IV
Feb 16, 2019 11:15:53 #
Feb 16, 2019 11:54:47 #
Thanks again for all the wisdom you share with us regularly and you should write a book sir.
You are that good.....go for it.
Jimbo
You are that good.....go for it.
Jimbo
Feb 16, 2019 17:05:17 #
I’ve found your film versus digital series terrific and very interesting with some great photos included! It takes me back to my early days of processing and printing my own film in my little darkroom under my home!
This brings to mind however the differences between the 2 media. Film and photographic papers contain silver halide grains (with colour filters/dyes etc to give the colour) which are sensitized by exposure to light enabling them to be developed chemically to darker silver metal grains. Undeveloped silver halides are removed by “fixer” leaving the dark image of the negatives and so on …... I won’t proceed any further with the process as I’m sure you know it all however its called analogue mainly as there’s no digital involvement! Its all stuff you can touch and see! Digital however has no analogue at all – light sensitive materials known as pixels react to light in a manner completely beyond the savvy of normal mortal photographers to give digital images recorded as 0’s and 1’s by some magic means to some other magic materials known as SD cards. These in turn can be inserted into the appropriate place on a magic box called a computer whence they will be converted back (by magic) to more pixels on the computer screen which, opposite to the cameras pixels, give off light when prompted by the magic 0’s and 1’s – Wow instant photos!
In the past to show our analogue photos to others we had to either print them on photographic paper, or if they were colour slides, project them onto a screen by shining light through them. I had a couple of little plastic magnifiers which had a place to insert the slide and then you could hold it up to the light to see the photo. Pretty good for sorting but not brilliant for viewing.
Digital photos reside on a computer usually and can be viewed at the click of a button or, if many want to view, then digital projectors connected to a laptop can be used with a screen almost as per the old film slides. Also many TVs nowadays will do slide shows from a memory stick – great if you have a good TV.
Now if you want to view (and/or store) your film photographs on a computer you have to scan them first. Also nowadays if you want prints you have to scan the negatives first as there are few places that print negatives the old way through an enlarger on to photographic paper. Digital printers require digital files to print!
So you scan your negatives and what do you have? YES a digital image consisting of 0’s and 1’s (usually a jpeg) which you can show on your PC, print on your inkjet printer or take/send to the printers to print for you. Also you have to scan anyway to be able to send via the internet to others or the Cloud etc.
I contend you have now completely destroyed the difference between film and digital – there can be no difference between 0’s and 1’s. Maybe this is why it’s hard to see any difference between the two.
It would be very interesting to see the same image taken with similar quality digital and film cameras with the two images projected onto a screen side by side. Naturally you’d need 2 projectors – 1 analogue and 1 digital. Alternatively printing both with the film the old wet process on photo paper and digital on good quality digital printing.
In considering the end results I doubt there’d be a lot of difference but as both better and worse are subjective terms then film buffs will approve one and digital guys the other.
This brings to mind however the differences between the 2 media. Film and photographic papers contain silver halide grains (with colour filters/dyes etc to give the colour) which are sensitized by exposure to light enabling them to be developed chemically to darker silver metal grains. Undeveloped silver halides are removed by “fixer” leaving the dark image of the negatives and so on …... I won’t proceed any further with the process as I’m sure you know it all however its called analogue mainly as there’s no digital involvement! Its all stuff you can touch and see! Digital however has no analogue at all – light sensitive materials known as pixels react to light in a manner completely beyond the savvy of normal mortal photographers to give digital images recorded as 0’s and 1’s by some magic means to some other magic materials known as SD cards. These in turn can be inserted into the appropriate place on a magic box called a computer whence they will be converted back (by magic) to more pixels on the computer screen which, opposite to the cameras pixels, give off light when prompted by the magic 0’s and 1’s – Wow instant photos!
In the past to show our analogue photos to others we had to either print them on photographic paper, or if they were colour slides, project them onto a screen by shining light through them. I had a couple of little plastic magnifiers which had a place to insert the slide and then you could hold it up to the light to see the photo. Pretty good for sorting but not brilliant for viewing.
Digital photos reside on a computer usually and can be viewed at the click of a button or, if many want to view, then digital projectors connected to a laptop can be used with a screen almost as per the old film slides. Also many TVs nowadays will do slide shows from a memory stick – great if you have a good TV.
Now if you want to view (and/or store) your film photographs on a computer you have to scan them first. Also nowadays if you want prints you have to scan the negatives first as there are few places that print negatives the old way through an enlarger on to photographic paper. Digital printers require digital files to print!
So you scan your negatives and what do you have? YES a digital image consisting of 0’s and 1’s (usually a jpeg) which you can show on your PC, print on your inkjet printer or take/send to the printers to print for you. Also you have to scan anyway to be able to send via the internet to others or the Cloud etc.
I contend you have now completely destroyed the difference between film and digital – there can be no difference between 0’s and 1’s. Maybe this is why it’s hard to see any difference between the two.
It would be very interesting to see the same image taken with similar quality digital and film cameras with the two images projected onto a screen side by side. Naturally you’d need 2 projectors – 1 analogue and 1 digital. Alternatively printing both with the film the old wet process on photo paper and digital on good quality digital printing.
In considering the end results I doubt there’d be a lot of difference but as both better and worse are subjective terms then film buffs will approve one and digital guys the other.
Feb 16, 2019 17:16:25 #
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