DIGITAL IMPACT ON PHOTOGRAPHY

Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film. The captured image is then stored as a digital file ready for digital processing (colour correction, sizing, cropping, etc.), viewing or printing.
Until the advent of such technology, photographs were made by exposing light sensitive photographic film and used chemical photographic processing to develop and stabilize the image. By contrast, digital photographs can be displayed, printed, stored, manipulated, transmitted, and archived using digital and computer techniques, without chemical processing.
Digital photography is one of several forms of digital imaging. Digital images are also created by non-photographic equipment such as computer tomography scanners and radio telescopes. Digital images can also be made by scanning conventional photographic images.

Advantages of consumer digital cameras
The advantages of digital photography over traditional film include:

• Instant review of pictures, with no wait for the film to be developed: if there's a problem with a picture, the photographer can immediately correct the problem and take another picture
• Minimal ongoing costs for those wishing to capture hundreds of photographs for digital uses, such as computer storage and e-mailing, but not printing
• If one already owns a newer computer, permanent storage on digital media is considerably cheaper than film
• Photos may be copied from one digital medium to another without any degradation
• Pictures do not need to be scanned before viewing them on a computer
• Ability to print photos using a computer and consumer-grade printer
• Ability to embed metadata within the image file, such as the time and date of the photograph, model of the camera, shutter speed, flash use, and other similar items, to aid in the reviewing and sorting of photographs. Film cameras have limited ability to handle metadata, though many film cameras can "imprint" a date over a picture by exposing the film to an internal LED array (or other device) that displays the date.
• Ability to capture and store hundreds of photographs on the same media device within the digital camera; by contrast, a film camera would require regular changing of film (typically after every 24 or 36 shots)
• Many digital cameras now include an AV-out connector (and cable) to allow the reviewing of photographs to an audience using a television
• Anti-shake functionality (increasingly common in inexpensive cameras) allow taking sharper hand-held pictures where previously a tripod was required
• Ability to change ISO speed settings more conveniently in the middle of shooting, for example when the weather changes from bright sunlight to cloudy. In film photography, film must be unloaded and new film with desired ISO speed loaded.
• Smaller sensor format, compared to 35mm film frame, allows for smaller lenses, wider zoom ranges, and greater depth of field.
• Ability to use the same device to capture video as well as still images.
• Ability to convert the same photo from color to sepia to black & white

[edit] Advantages of professional digital cameras

The Golden Gate Bridge retouched for painterly light effects

• Immediate image review and deletion is possible; lighting and composition can be assessed immediately, which ultimately conserves storage space.
• Faster workflow: Management (colour and file), manipulation and printing tools are more versatile than conventional film processes. However, batch processing of RAW files can be time consuming, even on a fast computer.
• Digital manipulation: A digital image can be modified and manipulated much easier and faster than with traditional negative and print methods. The digital image to the right was captured in RAW format, processed and output in 3 different ways from the source RAW file, then merged and further processed for color saturation and other special effects to produce a more dramatic result than was originally captured with the RAW image.

Recent manufacturers such as Nikon and Canon have promoted the adoption of digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) by photojournalists. Images captured at 2+ megapixels are deemed of sufficient quality for small images in newspaper or magazine reproduction. Eight to 24 megapixel images, found in modern digital SLRs, when combined with high-end lenses, can approximate the detail of film prints from 35 mm film based SLRs, and the latest 16 megapixel models can produce detailed images that are thought better than 35mm film images and the majority of medium format cameras.

Disadvantages of digital cameras

• Whereas film cameras can have manual backups for electronic and electrical features, digital cameras are entirely dependent on an electrical supply (usually batteries but sometimes power cord when in 'tethered' mode).
• Many digital sensors have less dynamic range than color print film. However, some newer CCDs such as Fuji's Super CCD, which combines diodes of different sensitivity, have improved upon this issue.
• When highlights burn out, they burn to white without details, while film cameras retain a reduced level of detail, as discussed above.
• High ISO image noise may manifest as multicolored speckles in digital images, rather than the less-objectionable "grain" of high-ISO film. While this speckling can be removed by noise-reduction software, either in-camera or on a computer, this can have a detrimental effect on image quality as fine detail may be lost in the process.
• Aliasing may add patterns to images that do not exist and would not appear in film.
• The possibility that in the future certain digital file formats (for example, JPEG) may become obsolete/replaced.
• Dust particles can adhere to the cover glass of the image sensor in digital cameras, resulting in persisting dust spots in images. Film cameras use a fresh piece of film for each shot, so dust does not build up on the film. Digital image sensors may be cleaned with a simple cleaning kit or professionally, and some digital cameras have built-in sensor cleaning mechanisms, mitigating this problem.

For most consumers in prosperous countries such as the United States and Western Europe, the advantages of digital cameras outweigh their disadvantages. However, some professional photographers still prefer film. Much of the post-shooting work done by a photo lab for film is done by the photographer himself for digital images. Concerns that have been raised by professional photographers include: editing and post-processing of RAW files can take longer than 35mm film, downloading a large number of images to a computer can be time-consuming, shooting in remote sites requires the photographer to carry a number of batteries and add to the load to carry, equipment failure—while all cameras may fail, some film camera problems (e.g., meter or rangefinder problems, failure of only some shutter speeds) can be worked around. As time passes, it is expected that more professional photographers will switch to digital.
In some cases where very high-resolution digital images of good quality are needed it may be advantageous to take large-format film photographs and digitise them. This allows the creation of very large computer files without speed or capacity disadvantages at picture-taking time.

^{(with help from http://www.wikipedia.co.uk/) no copyright intneded. These words were mine and my friends on wiki.}

File Types

JPEG: Possibly the most common file type, JPEG files are small, good quality and compatible with pretty much every peice of hardware and software in the world. JPEG files are compressed to make them smaller and easily stored or transferred.

Advantages -

• small files size
• good compression/loss ratio
• most popular for displaying/sharing online
• universal compatibility

Disadvantages -

• compression can lower quality
• does not preserve layers
• limited to maximum bit depth of 8-bits per channel

                    
TIFF: TIFF files are larger than JPEGs but as a result they are higher quality and feature lossless compression, which means they can be reserved as many times as required and not suffer quality degradation. TIFF files can also be saved with layers created in photoshop preserved, so when re-opened all the layers are still separate and editable.

Advantages -

• high quality
• lossless compression (smaller than original file, yet not as small as a jpeg)
• preserves layer information

Disadvantages -

• larger file size
• not supported by all software/hardware
• any bitdepth supported (restricted by software/application)

BMP: BMP or Bitmap files are generally uncompressed and retain all the image information of the original. However it cannot preserve layers, is not universally compatible (it was created by Microsoft) and is generally obsolete due to the TIFF file format having all of BMP's pro's plus more, and less of the cons.

Advantages -

• preserves all the file data (unless software compression is used)
• compatible with all Microsoft-friendly software

Disadvantages -

• limited bit depth
• larger file sizes than jpg
• does not preserve layers

PNG: PNG files were created for internet display and transfer and are capable of storing alpha channels and therefore the transparency contained in an image ( 8 bits as opposed to GIF's single bit of transparency). Like TIFF they feature lossless compression and so have larger file sizes than jpegs, and like GIF files (which PNG was created to replace) can store animation information.

Advantages -

• can store 8 bit alpha channels
• saves animation data
• compatible with most web browsers
• lossless compression

Disadvantages -

• larger file size than jpeg
• does not preserve layers

RAW: RAW files are saved when taking the actual photograph, and as the name suggests it saves the raw image you have just shot so during editing blown out highlights or too dark areas can be recovered as the data in those areas have been saved even though they are not visible at first. RAW files are much larger than jpeg, i have had them as large as 20mb (whereas the largest jpeg i can remember having is about 3mb). Special software is required for opening and editing RAW files, such as photoshop or Capture One.

Advantages -

• captures all the data in the scene, whether exposed correctly or not
• large overhead for editing (can change the white balance etc AFTER shooting)
• maximum quality/size

Disadvantages -

• maximum file size (very large compared to jpeg)
• can only be opened in special software
• comes in many different formats (1 or more file extension for each manufacturer)
• cannot be uploaded or displayed online without conversion to other format

For most of my work and for this project i will be shooting in RAW, saving as TIFF or photoshops native format PSD for the duration of the editing then either saving as a TIFF or JPEG for final presentation depending on what is being done with the image