Old and New photography

Underneath are two different photos of trees. One analog photo, one digital photo.
There are some major differences to be seen, however before I explain these differences, take a look at them

Analog photo of a tree:

Digital photo of a tree:

The first difference that becomes obvious, is the size of the quality. Modern digital camera’s are more and more able to capture images of larger scenarios, maintaning the same quality.
The word quality has fallen, and that is my next comment. The overal quality and detail of the digital photo is by far superior over the analog photo.
The analog photo is taken from a low angle and is very nice composed, with the tops of the trees ending in the middle of the photo. Furthermore, there is a very nice light play going on, with the trees contrasting beautifully with the blue sky.
On the digital photo the tree is also centered, however there is a horizon visible, showing that the tree stands in a beautiful green environment. Although I did not look it up, this photo could be taken in the Lake District in the UK, since the landscape seems pretty familliar to me (I have been there). It is extremely detailed and the size is also impressive.

Underneath an interesting article on the difference between digital and analog photography, found on the internet while searching for more information on the topic:

Digital Photography vs Analog Photography


What is with this hype regarding digital technologies that are gradually replacing the (so-called) outdated analog technologies (digital cameras replacing analog cameras, digital telephony replacing analog telephony, digital television replacing analog television and so on)? So why is digital photography better than analog photography (film-based), or is it?

Advantages of Analog Photography

The analog technologies have the ability to capture the nature of the real world with great finesse, for example music, video or pictures captured on media such as magnetic tapes and photographic film. Digital technologies require a lot of processing power and bandwidth even from the state-of-the-art digital machines to archive the same level of finesse, and sometimes they are just unable to do that. So why is digital better? Although this is still an advantage for some high-level analog technologies (including digital photography), it is the only one and the digital technologies are catching up very fast.

Advantages of Digital Photography

Once the signal (either sound, pictures or video) is recorded in analog format, no matter how modern the analog equipment is, it cannot copy the signal perfectly. In comparison a signal recorded in digital format (or digitized) can be easily cloned any number of times. The ability to make identical copies and (as a result) to easily share digital material is what makes the Internet work and the digital technology to be the nemesis for the analog one.

Another great plus for digital photography (and all the other digital technologies) is that once the picture is taken, it can be easily processed. With a digital camera after taking photos the user have instant gratification by being able to view, edit and delete the pictures so it doesn't have to go through the developing process only to see them. Also the digital photos are stored in reusable memory (on memory cards), there are no consumables involved (as is the case with the photographic film in analog cameras) so the user can print a picture without waiting to develop an entire roll of film or wasting the whole roll for just a few pictures.

Digital Photography Overview

The storage devices for digital photos (memory cards, hard-disks, DVD's etc.) are getting cheaper and larger with every year so scores of digital photos can be stored on such devices. The photo-capturing devices are no longer limited to digital cameras but include mobile phones, PDA's and others. This in itself is leading to a whole new problem: a very large number of digital photos captured and chaotically stored in multiple locations without being adjusted.

To take on the issue of an increasing number of captured digital photos, specialized software has been built for sorting, viewing, sharing photos (from Google, Picasa) or for adjusting groups of pictures in one operation (BatchPhoto) just to name a few.

As a conclusion digital photography is definitively better than analog photography for amateur photographers taking into consideration the advantages of easy processing, copying, sharing and cheap storing but the analog photography is still a viable alternative for professional photographers because of the great quality that high-end analog cameras have.

by Cosmin Unguru, Apr'11 2006
www.Batchphoto.com