By Brittany Simmons
Special to In Motion
What once started as a grainy, barely visible image on a metal plate has evolved into an artform that can be whatever its creator wants it to be.
For some people, the evolution of technology is a burden, but for photographers it is a gift. Technology makes it so that beautiful images can be created like never before. Not only has it become more popular, but the expenses have also gone down.
“At first, I was resistant coming from film but now that I have changed to digital it is a good thing. You can do so much more in the digital dark room than the film dark room,” said Photo Professor Jayanti Seiler.
Seiler grew up as a child in the age of film, but is forever grateful for the development of digital based photography. Today’s digital darkroom consists of photo editing software such as the Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Light Room programs that can be bought for your computer. With these programs, simple things such as the lighting of the picture can be changed to make it brighter or darker, or create an object seemingly floating in midair.
“I don’t even remember how I survived without Adobe Photoshop before it came out. It is remarkable. The things you can do in seconds through Photoshop that would have taken hours in the darkroom using film. I run all of my pictures through Photoshop even if it is just to tweak little things to make my pictures perfect,” says Bret Hawkins, a graduate of the photography program at Daytona State.
The advancement of technology has helped the actual photographs look better, but in the process offers photographers themselves more exposure.
“Imagery is now able to be shared more commonly and people can get their work out through online exhibiting,” explained Seiler, adding that in the early years of photography, it was hard for artists to become well known and get work exhibited due to the amount of time it takes for a photographer’s name to travel the world.
It might have taken years for a photographer to have their pictures shown to enough people to have their name known, compared to now where you can e-mail your photographs to different art institutes and museums and have your name be known in half the time it would have taken before. Online galleries and websites bring those photos to an ever-growing number of people around the world.
“The only problem I tend to associate with all of this technology-based photography is that it is easier for people to buy a camera, buy Photoshop and watch a YouTube tutorial about how to make a chair float in a photograph and then that person instantly claims to be a photographer. When in reality, so much more goes into being a good artist: it takes time, dedication, perspective, and creativity. Not everything can be done through technology,” said Hawkins.
That’s something most people who dedicate their time to photography also agree on— what tends to be a problem with the technology revolution is claiming your own work can be a challenge.
“The negative is there is no more enmity. Anybody can steal your work and anybody can have access to your ideas,” said Seiler.
That’s what makes understanding the media ethics and laws, such as copyright infringement, more important than ever. In modern digital darkrooms, photographers also must understand and respect the boundaries of photo professions. What is OK in a portrait studio, such as Photoshopping out people’s wrinkles, won’t wash in a mainstream media newsroom.
Photo enhancing programs such as Photoshop are strictly forbidden in mainstream media outlets. There have been many cases were photojournalists were fired for using such programs. While technology may not have helped photojournalism through its editing software, it has helped make their jobs quicker and easier with digital printing instead of film.
In recreational use, the positives far outweighs the negative, but everyone needs to know the basics of photography. Along with high-tech digital based classes, DSC continues to offer darkroom experience so students can learn how the whole process actually works.
Even so, technology has expanded the scope of photography in ways that icons such as Louis Daguerre and Ansel Adams would never have dreamed possible.