Digital photography is closer to the way we see the world, just as 19th century photography was as compared to 18th century painting. We just need to get used to it. An objective look at the way the human eye sees the world as compared to the way film or digital photographs render it, shows that in every measurable way properly processed digital images are much closer to our living experience than properly processed film images. Our eye sees both the shadow and the highlights in the world around us, for example when we stand in a dim room we are also able to see the view out the window. Can film recreate this experience? Absolutely not, but digital can because it has far greater exposure latitude than any film ever had. Does film really render color better than digital, can it differentiate subtleties of color as it moves from shadow areas or brighter area? How could it, inasmuch as it struggles with contrast, as illustrated by the room/view example. Contrast is not limited to the world of black and white. Paradoxically, the one area in which film actually is “better” than digital is that it renders a much sharper image. It requires a medium format sensor to match the sharpness of a 35mm piece of film. Scott Frances.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 07:54:28 +0000