So, where do we start ? I am dealing with something taboo here - Digital ! Everybody wants it, everybody uses it, everybody praises by it. We live digital ! Do actually people know what digital is and what it means? Today, I will focus only on the life expectancy of a digital file.
First, a digital file is VIRTUAL - it does not exist. I don't really think it comes as a shock to most of us, but somehow we tend to avoid this fact. Each digital file is an encoding of 0 and 1. Because of its structure it can be processed by computer devices. What is a computer ? It is a tool composed of hardware pieces (real) which activates sofwares manipulations (virtual), which than can be transposed into various acts (real), such as prints, coffee table books, robots, transactions, etc...Therefore, a digital file is a transitional information. Thanks to its ultimate compression it can be processed by a computer device and produce goods. We can say that a computer is a transformer of virtually into reality. So digital aims and succeeds in making our lives easier. It converts, transforms, reshapes, open dimensions, etc... But for how long does a digital image live ?
One of the main concern for a photographer is the life expectancy of the materials produced. They are like babies to us. Without their reality we cannot simply exist as a photographer. The worse nightmare is to be exposed to a fire or leak. All the proofs and years of dedication can vanish in minutes whether you deal with films or digital. That is a huge concern. Nevertheless, let's see how we can reduce the risks of loss.
Digital is a very fragile thing...
LIGHT STORAGE
CD/DVD: 5 years maximum. They are formatted or burnt only once and cannot be reused for something else.
USB KEY: same thing it is a transitional device, very vulnerable.
MEMORY CARD or STICK: they receive digital datas and cannot be used for long. You need to format them constantly after backing-up safely, separately, on various formats. If used regularly they become slow, obsolete and unreliable after one or two years, that's normal.
For safety reasons, do not buy new cards with huge storage (except very particular need), if you managed to collect thousands of pictures and realized there is something wrong with the card , you are in big trouble. Use alternative smaller cards to reduce the risks.
HEAVY STORAGE
SEPARATE HARD DRIVE: vividly recommended to purchase one, or two. They are compact ones that you can take in your bag, they are bigger ones that you should always keep safe at home. It is as precious as a computer.
That's the basics, but most people do not really know what is what ? what is it for ? etc...Most people just use laptops for typing texts, internet, news and social networks - and they store their images without any external back-up. That's when you are looking for trouble...so many stories of computer crashes and thousands of wedding pictures lost - nightmare ! Well obviously, that's a pain but that is also your fault. Why?
Digital is very flexible, convenient but ephemeral too ! What do you want really ? As a wedding photographer I keep on having discussions with competitors and photographers in general about the digital medium. At weddings, guests ask me every week " Did you switch to digital, what do you prefer ?" In both cases, I am very surprised by the lack of reflection dedicated to such a technology that drives our modern lives. People are obsessed by what it can do, but are not interested about what it is by definition.
So, here is the story:
- Digital is a great medium to work with as it is very flexible, compact and transformable.
But digital doesn't exist. Digital captures from reality and TRANSFORMS the information into something else. Our world is in 3D. Digital transforms it into a non defined dimension, or called digital, or I would say VIRTUAL. And something virtual cannot last by definition. Virtual or digital involves a high ability to store and process informations. The trouble is that the genuine materials will vanish fast. Some people say they shoot RAW as it is a better quality and will be better on the long run. I do agree, you have more informations, details and originality in a RAW file, nevertheless that doesn't change its state as a non-existing document. You can also find the best devices to store and save your datas but somehow that will disappear too as we change and will keep on changing formats, devices and collect virus, corrupted files, etc...It's like having a bowl of wool in your hands, very seductive at first but you know it will finish as a single thread.
NOTE: Everything single time you work on you pictures, transform then, send them, etc...you loose pixels and therefore damages its quality. So, it is a non-existing data which degrades rapidly. What is the point then ? ........That is its strength, think about it as a commercial value - fast turnover, no storage problem (real space wise) No responsibility after a couple of years for the photographer - it's great, it's digital !!!
FILM & DIGITAL
I am not shooting only with digital or only with films, I use both. Because each technology is better in a certain area than the other. There is no ultimate in life, only alternatives. I use digital when the budget is small, when I cannot afford to have processing and printing. Or when the customer only needs quick materials especially with corporate jobs. Most shoots are used for urgent releases, internet updates or cheap editorial purposes. They are just there to illustrate safely interviews, tabloids or adverts. For quite a few years now magazines stopped working with freelancers and employed graphic designers who take themselves photographs and to play with them. So Digital is convenient only when it comes to work datas on computer, but also for providing materials with sharp deadlines, and it cuts the costs down all along the chain. In the real world we actually apply the system described at first.
MY USE OF DIGITAL FOR WEDDINGS
I always propose the alternative of shooting with films at weddings. Negatives will last for ever, at least a century, for future generations. And they can always be scanned for digital needs.
Digital is great as it concentrate a huge amount of informations of soft storage. From them you can produce coffee table books online, order reprints, make copies to hand over to friends and families (that last case saves you a lot of time and money). You can save the original negatives in a safe place and use the digital files instead for your first orders after the wedding day. And because the originals are films, your digital files will have the film feel ( see sample above). The best digital cameras on the market will never replace analogue camera. Their concept is just completely different. I personally think that film is the most appropriate to translate the reality and preciousness of a wedding day in a REPORTAGE sense.
WHAT DO YOU RISK BY SHOOTING FROM A DIGITAL CAMERA ?
1/ from you personal amateur camera you are always risking to have first electronic problems. Most small devices are made with cheap materials and ships. Few years ago, Sony produced a bad ship that many brands used. More that 100 different range of cameras were affected.
Brands do not sell films anymore, therefore they have to sell a lot of cheap cameras, which are obviously not meant to last more that a couple of years.
2/ risks with memory cards
3/ when in your computer it exposed to introduction of new formats, computer crash, bad storage, etc..
4/ even if backed-up, datas will vanish in few years.
WHAT DO WE RISK BY SHOOTING DIGITAL ONLY ?
To simply create a void in our visual memory of our generation. That has already started...
Think twice about you interest in Photography. Do you want it to be consumed quickly and disappear, or do you want to save those special moments for other generations ?
FINAL WORD
Digital is a real need in today's way of working and communicating like I am doing now. It is very flexible technology and a great tool to produce goods of high standards. The main trouble is that it is not durable by nature as it doesn't exist.
Today, digital is used for its trend and for its ability to produce few goods that look fake, or too good to be true, especially in the wedding industry. This kind of wedding photography as nothing to do with Reportage. You can still approach the Reportage style, as we call it, with a digital slr, but you will not be able to communicate your work to other generations as digital disappears by definition. To do reportage is to report. If you wish to report on the short run you are doing it for money and fame and therefore are more interested in using digital when asked to do weddings. If you care and think long run, you better use films. But obviously that requires more knowledge, experience and guts.
Digital is a medium and a mode of binary informations to communicate and transform datas
on a virtual place. Digital has nothing to do with quality, it is simply convenient and cheap.
FEW LINKS
www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/stillimages/do-images-exist-in-the-real-world/
http://demo.co.uk/blog/MakingDigitalDurable
Themanualofphotography:photographicanddigitalimaging-googlebooksresults
wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=190423
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