Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Transitioning From Classical Photography To The DSLR Era

The pain of adjustment is real and much felt for the traditional photographer who has been schooled in film. When it comes to the digital era, most people often say that things are made much easier. For sure, there are pros and cons to each mode of the craft that we are equally passionate about. It is still, however, a challenging process to transition.

The trigger mentality takes a little getting used to. Back in the day, the typical mode of operation was to take ample time to capture an image, with one’s best effort in making use of whatever available light there is reflected by the image, with no more than a few tools that are relatively crude compared to today’s DSLR technology.

Image source: youtube.com
Nowadays, the mode of operation is much simpler. One only has to shoot, re-check the screen, and shoot again. Thanks to the memory card, a photographer no longer has to memorize which shots are good enough.

A classical photographer who is oriented in a different manner may have to deal with the compulsion to see how the shot comes out in print, even when he is already using a DSLR to take his shots. Until such time that he does not see the final output, he has to deal with a certain amount of nagging doubt. By all means, this is irrational, but it exists nonetheless.

Image source: davd.photo
The experience of transitioning from film to digital varies from one photographer to another. For a few, there is still a learning curve that needs to be dealt with.

Keith W. Springer is a retired event photographer from Brooklyn, New York. As photographers never really retire, Keith enjoys discovering Photoshop and Instagram to keep up with the trends. For more interesting details on photography, read this blog.