impact of digital camera on society

The world of today has become nearly completely digital.  More and more, people are turning to digital technologies to help them in their daily lives.  Digital music, videos, and perhaps the most commonly-used digital technology, cameras, have more than replaced the ways in which we used to use these technologies in our lives.  Digital cameras, especially, have exploded into the mainstream of consumers’ lives, and have easily become the preferred choice for photography.  These cameras have had a dramatic effect on society on the way photography is done today, for a number of reasons.

            A recent survey was conducted by The Digital Journalist asking its readers the impact that digital had in their lives.  Out of all that responded to the survey, not one of the readers longed to return to film.  All of them preferred digital for their photojournalism.  In university of Texas ,the course on Advanced Photojournalism is taught entirely on digital.  The wet labs are in the process of being shut down.  This means that students who emerge into the profession take digital as a matter of course.”   some interesting findings from the survey was that they  expected that most readers would rank speed as the number one effect that digital has had on their work, but in fact, only 20% of the respondents actually did.  It also reported that, “A far larger number wrote that digital has actually stimulated their ability to experiment.”  According to some people , they find that they are able to shoot more varied pictures and try different techniques since they are  able to monitor their shots as soon as they make them.  This happens to be one of the biggest reasons for why people are switching to digital cameras - the ability to know what you have before you leave, so that if you don't like what you have you can usually stay at the scene until you get the something you like, by clicking the same seen over and over again until we are satisfied.  This feature of digital cameras wipes out the possibility that one might go back to the darkroom and find out that they missed something important. With this very cheap technology  people tend to take more photographs thus catching almost every  happy moments of their life which can be cherished later .

            However, there is also negativity surrounding the use of digital cameras.  Jayne West writes in an article for BBC News that digital photos are causing us to “lose the past.”  What he means by this is that we lose the sequence of images that captures the events leading up to whatever image is chosen for publication. When you shoot traditional stills, you shoot rolls of film and there are a series of pictures taken while you wait for the news to happen.  You shoot everything in the possibility that one of those shots may be the news story.  With digital capture, the photographer arrives and shoots his images in the same way.  But, because of storage issues on the camera, he will have to delete some of those images as he goes along.  A whole collection of material, that may well be far more interesting in the months and years after the even than in the hard news context, is being lost at that stage  In short, West is making the claim that, because of the digital capabilities and limits, many of the photographs are lost, thus losing a possible alternative viewpoint in the process.

            Jane Wakefield offers another positive opinion for the use of digital cameras in an article titled, “Digital Cameras Capture Imagination,” also published by BBC News. Digital photography gives you the ability to decide what you want to print and the freedom to manipulate images, unlike going to traditional photo print shops where you might get just four decent images back.  A great example of the capabilities of using digital photography is that, for couples staying away from their parents , for the price of an e-mail, the first proud picture of your newborn infant can be sent to grandparents the other side of the globe in an instant.”

One more interesting effect of ditalization of photography is that we can edit the image according to our requirements. This has both negative and positive effects , positive is that  we can use our creativity and modify the image this has become a career nowadays and the negative side is that due to the modifications one can defame famous people ,there are lots of scams involving stars and ministers ,who knows they are real or morphed or modified images . This can be used as means to take revenge even .

There are definitely pros and cons associated with digital cameras, but this has been the norm for new technologies for years and will continue to be.  The ultimate decision to use digital or film is left up to the consumers, as it should be.  People must evaluate how they will use their camera, and make a decision based on that.
                                                                                                          prajul bagri
                                                                                                          ch09b045