Impact of technology in photography

Hello and welcome to today's episode on Impact of

technology in photography. The content for this episode
has been researched by Sunil Saxena, who is an author
and journalist with over three decades of experience in
Print, New Media, Social Media, Media Education and
Media Research

In this episode you will learn about the arrival of the

digital technology in the last quarter of the 20th century
and its impact on photography. You will learn how the
cameras changed, and how the demand for photo films
started dwindling till the photo film went extinct and the
image sensors became the new rage. You will be told
about the arrival of point and shoot cameras and the
camera phones and how they changed personal
photography. You will also learn about the impact of
digital technology on photojournalism or news
photography. You will also learn how the new technology
has changed the way photographs are stored,
transmitted and shared. Besides this, you will also be told
about the dangers of new technology especially
manipulation of photographs, which is one of the
worrying changes that the new technology has
introduced.

The digital revolution began in the seventies. The first

electronic handheld still camera was unveiled in 1975 by
Steven Sasson, a Kodak engineer. The camera weighed
8.5 pounds, had 16 AA batteries and recorded images on
a cassette. But it was only in the nineteen nineties that
professional photographers first started taking interest in
digital cameras. By the turn of the century, the situation
had changed. The traditional film cameras went out of
the window, and photographers started switching to
digital cameras. The 130-year-old Kodak Eastman
company which had given the world its first digital
camera filed for bankruptcy in 2012 because it did not
change fast enough.

The arrival of point and shoot cameras and then mobile

cameras, also referred to as camera phones, changed
personal photography. Today, it is estimated that there
are 2.5 billion cameras being used by people across the
world. It is hard to guess how many billions of digital
images are created every day; how many are deleted;
how many are stored on memory cards, CDs and laptops
and how many are posted on the net and shared. The
only thing that can be said with certainty is that the new
technology has changed photography forever. The
change has also been accelerated by the dramatic
changes in telephony, computing and the rise of the
Internet.
Impact on camera

The first to change was the equipment – that is the

camera and its accessories. Film rolls made by Kodak or
Fuji, which were such an integral part of photography,
slowly started giving way to electronic or digital sensors
and memory cards. Initially professional photographers
were highly reluctant to switch to digital cameras. They
felt very comfortable with their manual SLRs or single
lens reflex cameras. They knew which ISO film to use
under which light conditions. They were also very
comfortable working in their darkrooms, and developing
multiple rolls of exposed films.

However, it was not long before the importance of

darkrooms started declining. The photographers, who
had spent a lifetime cutting and developing film in near
dark conditions, found that more and more organisations
were shutting them down. There was no need to buy
chemicals, developers and hypo-fixers and create
darkrooms. There was no need to provide space for
developing tanks and enlargers. The photographers were
instead prodded to come out of darkrooms and start
sitting in front of computer terminals because they
needed to acquire digital skills.

The photographers were told that they need to master

photo editing software. They were taught to scan
positives, and transmit them to different centres. The
contents of camera bags changed. Instead of several film
rolls of different sensitivity as indicated by ISO numbers,
the photographers started keeping memory cards that
they could change while shooting in remote locations.
Spare batteries, chargers and portable hard drives
started finding a place in the camera bags of
photographers. The photographers then started carrying
laptops and 3G data cards to transmit images instantly to
publication centres.

The result has been a revolutionary change in the basics

of photography. The photographer is no longer worried
about the number of shots he should take. The new
technology enables a photographer to take hundreds of
shots, delete them, and take a fresh set of shots. There
is no pressure of working with limited resources.

Another big advantage of the new technology is that it

gives the photographer an opportunity to check the
image. This ability to look at the image immediately after
taking it allows the photographer to take a fresh shot,
and come up with a better photograph. The
photographer also has the option to shoot a “burst” of
images. Under this facility, the photographer captures
several pictures in quick succession. He can then select
one image that best symbolises the moment --
something which required great skill in the past.

This is not all. The photographer now can digitally

remove the blemishes, and enhance the image. Let’s
learn how the new technology has impacted on other
aspects of photography.

Impact on photo editing

In the pre-digital era the photographer had to make sure

that he got his shot right. There was very little he could
do in the darkroom to improve the quality of a
photograph. He could, of course, crop the photograph but
it was a tedious task. It was impossible to undo a change
that was made to the negative. The same applied to light
effects. The photographer could only marginally improve
the contrast despite the fact that most photographers
spent years in the darkroom developing images.

Technology has undone this limitation. Today, every

photographer knows that he can enhance the quality of a
photograph with Photoshop, a photo editing software.
Among other things, he can play around with colour
balance, change the contrast, reduce noise, add noise,
crop the image or even change the focus. He can resize
the image, reduce resolution, create aging effects, add
reflections, create silhouettes or even rotate the image to
give a feeling of motion. There is no end to the kinds of
effects and changes that can be made with Photoshop.
Most important, the photographer can do all this without
touching the original. All that he needs to do is to make a
copy of the original and work on it. If he is not happy
with a change, he can undo it. It is as simple as that.

The use of Photoshop has become so common that

“photoshopping” a picture has become a verb. One
industry that has benefitted immensely from Photoshop is
advertising. Today, almost every second picture in an
advertisement is being “photoshopped”. However, this
technology has also brought in several dangers. An adept
photographer or a smart digital designer can use
Photoshop to insert people into photographs where they
were not present; remove witnesses from important
crime images; or plant faces of celebrities on bodies of
porn stars. The damage can be huge. In fact, there is a
small industry that has cropped up on the net that
digitally alters images for fun or to cause
embarrassment. Even historical photographs are not
spared. They are changed and circulated on the net
causing shock, horror and even outrage. The use of
Photoshop is so extensive that when you look at a
photograph you are not sure if it is the original picture or
has been retouched, changed or altered by a Photoshop
artist.

Impact on picture storage

It was not easy to store images in the pre-digital era.
Negatives had to be labeled and stored in boxes in a
dust-free and dark room, in case they had to be
developed again. But it was not easy. Despite best
cataloguing, it took hours to locate a specific negative.
And if the photographer was not meticulous and kept
pushing negatives in every corner of the cupboard then
the chances of finding it were really remote. Similarly,
the positives had to be placed in envelopes or arranged
in albums and stored carefully. But despite best efforts,
the images would get discolored over the years.

The new technology has changed the way images are

stored. There are very few hard copies of images. Almost
all images are stored digitally in CDs, laptops, tablets or
on the net. Smart photographers create backups to
ensure that they do not lose images in case a CD gets
corrupted. There are several sites like Flickr.com where
users can store photographs.

A big advantage of digital storage is that the

photographer does not have to dedicate large physical
areas to catalogue and store images as was the case in
the past. The DVDs can be labeled, date stamped and
stored in a small shelf. No large rooms or dedicated
space is required. Also, the number of photographs that
can be stored in a small space is much more. The
photographer also does not have to hunt for an image.
The digital technology has made search easy. A
photograph can be traced by name or by date in a matter
of seconds. However, for search to produce the desired
results the photographer needs to enter details about the
photograph such as when it was taken, where it was
taken and who all are in the picture.

Besides DVDs, photographers now use memory cards to

store and transfer images to laptops, desktops or
servers. The memory cards are small, and can store upto
64 GB of data. This gives the photographer the freedom
to shoot an unlimited number of images without fear of
running out of space. Further, they don’t need bulky
cartons to carry memory cards. They can slip them in
their briefcases and take them to their home or
workplace.
Several newspapers like The Hindu have converted their
physical photographs into digital images. Many of these
photographs are historic moments, and till now could
only be seen in newspaper libraries. The digital
technology has changed this. Photographs taken in the
19th or 20th century can now be browsed by any
individual, and even purchased online.

Impact on photo sharing

It was very difficult to share photographs in the pre-

digital era. The photographs were stored physically in
albums and shown to friends or relatives when they
came. Newspapers and photo services too had great
difficulty in transmitting photographs. The digital era has
made photo sharing easy for both amateurs and
professionals.

In fact, the first thing that an individual does when he

takes a photograph is to put it on Facebook. Within
minutes, the photograph gets seen by all friends and
relatives who are part of that individual’s network; many
even leave comments. Facebook is not the only place
where individuals share photographs. There are
dedicated photo-sharing sites like Flickr, Snapfish,
Photobucket, and Picassa Web Albums where individuals
can both store and share photographs.

The media too has set up accounts on sites like Facebook

and Twitter where it posts photographs. These
photographs are then shared by users among
themselves. As a result, the photographs get noticed by
many more people across the world than was the case in
the pre-digital era.

The number of photographs being shared on the net has

grown astronomically following the arrival of mobile
phones. Now, every individual with a mobile phone and
an internet connection posts photographs on the net.

Impact on social and cultural attitudes

The new technology has brought about a paradigm shift

in the way photography is “consumed” by society. In the
twentieth century, photography was used by families to
capture moments and experiences for future
remembrance. It was more personal and social. There
was also a cost and time element involved in
photography. Film rolls were expensive, and need to be
taken to commercial studios for developing. The number
of photographs taken at events such as birthdays,
weddings or family get-togethers was limited.

Digital technology has changed the way photography is

being consumed today. It is no longer family
representation or documenting of ceremonies. Instead, it
is used to document and share everyday experiences,
and can be called a form of social communication,
conversation, peer-building, and social networking. One
can even say that self-presentation instead of family
representation has become the new function of
photography.
The change has largely been brought about by mobile
phones. There is no cost of taking photographs or sharing
them. The trigger happy young generation captures
every sight that excites it, and posts it on the net for
sharing. This is sharply different to the time of analog
cameras. Not everyone had a camera then. Also, the
cameras were taken out on special occasions. Barring
photojournalists, individuals did not carry cameras with
them all the time. Today, the camera phones make it
possible to capture each and every living moment.

Impact on photojournalism and breaking news

Another field of photography that has been impacted
greatly by the new technology is photojournalism. Like
personal photography, photojournalism too has
undergone a sea change.

The greatest impact has been on time taken to develop

or transmit photographs. Before the digital technology
came into effect, the photographer had to first shoot the
picture, then hurry back to the office and develop the
photograph. The news photographer needed at least an
hour to cut, process and dry the film; then take another
hour to edit and print the film. This time would go up by
three times if the film happened to be a colour film. And
this processing time was needed for one event; for
multiple events happening simultaneously the required
time went up accordingly. In case, the event happened in
another city, then the photographer also had to factor
the time required to return to the publication centre or to
find an alternate way to send the physical copy to the
publication centre. This was a time consuming process.

The new technology has made news photography instant.

The photographer can shoot an event picture, select the
one he likes and then use a data card to transmit the
photograph to the publication centre. The time taken
from the point a photograph is taken to the point it lands
in the newspaper office is less than a minute. The Photo
Editor or the Design Editor at the publication centre can
review the picture quality and, if needed, digitally
enhance it using Photoshop. The process is shorter,
cleaner and takes less time to complete. The selected
photographs can also be forwarded to the Library for
archiving.

Another significant way in which the new technology has

impacted news is the way the common man is using the
digital camera, especially the camera phone. Major
political events such as London underground bombings,
the killing of Libyan leader Muhammad Gaddafi or the
hanging of Saddam Hussein were captured on amateur
cameras and posted on the net. The first reports of
natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, snowstorms,
rail accidents, etc are now posted first by the common
man. They are either redistributed by news agencies or
go viral on the net. In a small way, the new technology
has changed the way news is being broken today.
However, the new technology has also raised concerns.
There have been times when unscrupulous elements
have manipulated images using Photoshop to discredit
individuals, organisations and government agencies. This
is especially true of photographs that are posted from hot
spots. Many of them have been found to be doctored.
Major media outlets have now set up their own teams to
vet images posted on the net to avoid publicizing images
that have been deliberately manipulated. However, this is
not an easy task because there are hundreds of
thousands of images being posted on the net every day.

A quick summary of what you learnt today

Photography has undergone a revolutionary change in

the last three decades. The change has been brought
about by three factors: one, the switch from analog to
digital photography; two, the advanced editing processes
introduced by computers; and three, the emergence of
the Internet as a global phenomenon. The traditional,
analog camera which had held sway for almost a hundred
years after Kodak Eastman Company had launched its
Brownie camera in the 1880s was swept away by the
digital camera. The same happened to film rolls. For over
a century the photo films were the medium on which
images were formed. Their demand started declining
from mid-nineties. By the middle of the first decade of
21st century, their demand had become negligible. The
Kodak company, which was almost synonymous with
photography for a century, declared bankruptcy in 2012.
With the film rolls gone, the importance of darkrooms
diminished and soon they too became history.

The skill requirements changed. The photographers no

longer needed to master the processes of film cutting,
development and enlarging in darkrooms. They now
needed to learn how to work with photo-editing software.
Photoshop emerged as the most important photo-editing
software, and this gave a new dimension to photography.
Photographers now use Photoshop to digitally enhance
images, change colour composition, remove digital
blemishes, modify contrast and even add or remove
elements from photographs.

Another important change was in the way photographs

were stored. The era of storing negatives and positives in
large, dedicated areas ended. The photographs are now
saved as digital prints on memory cards, CDs, laptops or
web-connected servers. The digital technology has also
improved archiving and cataloguing. It is easier now to
store or search for photographs as compared to the hard
copy or analog era.

The new techno logy has also changed the contours of

personal photography. Photography is no longer limited
to capturing personal moments or documenting
ceremonies. It has become more a form of social
communication, conversation, peer-building, and social
networking. The change has been brought about by the
arrival of mobile phones and the rise of Social Media. The
young generation shoots any sight that fires its
imagination, and posts it on Social Media for viewing and
sharing.

Photojournalism is another major field of photography

that has changed. News photography has literally
become instant. Photographers now find it easier to shoot
images and transmit them to publication centres
instantly. Several news organizations encourage their
photographers to post images directly on the net.

The flip side of new technology is image manipulation.

Several unscrupulous elements manipulate images to
give a different impression about an event. This is a
danger that needs to be guarded against. Otherwise, the
new technology has changed the basic face of
photography.

This is all that we have in today’s episode. We hope you

enjoyed learning how the new technology has changed
photography. We will return with much more information
in the next episode. Till then, Goodbye.