Digital photography

When we think about modern technologies, we often describe them as digital. Everything what is connected with the newest techniques is called in this way. The word "digital" is commonly used in such filds as computing and electonics. In short it is the techniques, which make possible the conertion of real information into numbers system. Today this technology is wialdy used is in many our daily activities, for exapmle in digital photography. The opposition of the word "digital" is "analog". "Digital" refers to method of input storage of data and transfer. The word comes from Latin languge "digitus", which means fingers.

What does the word "digital" mean?

Here is the definition of this word. Digital is connected to digits or the representation of them. As the computing is considered, digital is the synonym of binary. All information in computers is coded as the mixture of binary digits called bits. A bit often represents two values, 2 bits mean four values, 8 bits equal 256 values. If the value falls between two amounts, it is represented as the lower or the higher than the value of two. The digital representation is shown as a value coded in numbers, so their range is quite wide. On the other hand, the amount of the values is limited with the amount of bits, which was used.

Now I would like to present what the digital photography is. But at first I should define what the photography means. Photography is considered as the technique of creating permanent pictures on the smaller surfaces thanks to the photochemical features of light or other kind of the energy. Photos are very important in modern society, because it is the medium, which is used to spread information. Moreover, photos are tools in technology and science. They are also the form of art and the popular hobby. Photos are used in businesses and all kinds of industries and more in documentations and advertising. Many scientific researches in fields such as astronomy and biology are dependent to the photography. First cameras invented in the 19th century were very large and uncomfortable. At the beginning of the 20th century when the roll films with the smaller box cameras were introduced, the photography became very popular. Today there are a lot of equipments offered for professional photographers and amateurs. What is more, in the recent years the traditional photography has been replaced with the new one called digital. The digital photography is closely connected with the computers and image-creating programmes. Traditional techniques are replaced by electronic ones.

Digital photography is the opposition to traditional film photography. In this kind of photography the electronic sensors are used to record images. They are stored in forms of binary data. The pictures may be seen on every computer. This digital technology of taking photos is today used in photo cameras, film cameras and mobile phones.

Digital photography revolutionized the professional and traditional photography and the new filed was invented called the image processing. The pictures are conversed into the data by means of binary system. Thanks to the computer we can improve the images. There are a lot of programmes, which make it possible to change the picture. The first example of such programmes is the Scitex, which was invented in the 80s and was used in marketing industry. This programme makes it possible to erase some elements, to change colours and to adjust sharpness and contrast. The other programme is Macintosh's Digital Darkroom, which is less difficult in usage and allows similar operations. It is said that the quality of computer-created images is very high and professional colour and laser printers print very good pictures in the whole range of colours and saturation. There are also some computer programmes, for example Presentation Technologies' Montage Slidewriter or the Linotronic, which produce the magazine-quality pictures.

Now I would like to explain how the digital photography is working. As I have already written, the pictured are recorded as amounts. Every single element of the picture is captured as a given amount. So the scene captured with the digital camera isn't similar to the original scene. The digital image consists of numbers: 15,873...75,355...2,838...

So how are the numbers converted to the original scene?

They are converted by means of the computer and software programmes. They create the original scene and translate the numbers into the whole pattern of light and colours.

Where is all the information recorded?

Traditional films use the crystals to capture the data. In digital cameras, the scenes are captured on a chip made of silicon. The chip seems to be the small rectangle located in the middle of the camera. In every type of cameras the chips are used. They are very expensive. The bigger the chips are, the more expensive they are. So the small ones are used in a typical camera, which significantly lower the costs. The chip's surface is consisted of small dots, which seem to be the grain in regular film. The dots are made of silicon. They are responsible for the information recording. They also receive the light streams from every part of the original scene. They change the light streams into the electrons. The stronger streams are, the bigger amount of electrons is produced. Then the electrons are recorded with another chip and converted into amounts.

The first chip is a light-sensitive chip is called CCD, which stands for charge coupled device. This kind of chip has a great number of small dots made of silicon. They have unique feature: they are very sensitive to light. They are responsible for converting the light into the electric current which is transmitted to another chip. This chip changes the current into the numbers. So every details of original scene such as the intensity of colours and light, which are captured by CCD chip is accumulated as numbers.

How capacious are the chips?

Every 35mm traditional film contains many billions of small grains and each of the grains records a "microscopic" part of the original scene. This kind of film records billions of bits of information. The silicon chip is a kind of limitation of modern digital photography. The popular silicon chip used in cameras record only the thousands of small parts of information. The better chips may capture hundreds of thousands. Films may record much more: billions of parts. It seems that modern digital photography can't be compared with photos took with the traditional camera. We should be aware that the technology is changing very fast nowadays. The new solutions are invented and the digital cameras are improved every year. It is said that the digital photography will completely replace the traditional one. Some traditionalists claim that the digital photos will never be better than the traditional ones.

Why the digital photography is better than the traditional one?

So if it is proved that the quality of traditional photos is higher than the digital ones, why so many people decide to buy digital cameras? I think that the quality isn't the only one criterion the people are counted with. The digital pictures can be easily sent by e-mails or over the mobile telephone. The traditional photos may be sent only in traditional way. So we are able to send the pictures just seconds after they were taken. In traditional way, they will be delivered within couple of days.

The other positive aspect of digital photography is connected with the publishing. Some newspapers insist on their photographers to take photos with digital cameras. They may be sent very easily even by means of the mobile phone without any delay. So the morning edition of the newspaper publishes the pictures taken last night. The quality of the pictures doesn't matter, because it is quite good to print in the newspaper. As we know, often the pictures printed in newspapers are black and white and aren't sharp enough. So the digital pictures are ideal to print in the newspapers.

The other advantage of digital photography is the fact that they can be uploaded to your private website. It would be much difficult if we decide to post the traditional pictures on the website. The quality of digital photos is good enough to present on the Internet, because the computers screens are consisted of small rows and dots, which convert the electric stream into the original image with the full range of colours and light.

Moreover, in digital photography you see the taken photo just seconds after it is taken. The traditional photo should be developed and processed. The Polaroid photos also need to be developed and processed, but the camera does it very quickly. When the digital photos are considered, they don't require be developed. All you have to do is to push the shutter of your camera and after a few seconds the image is shown on the screen of the digital camera. If the picture isn't good you can easily erase it. You don't have to pay for developing bad photos. It is one of the best advantages of modern digital cameras.

Buying and developing the traditional films are very expensive. By using the digital camera you needn't have to pay for films and their developments. The printing of digital photos is getting cheaper and cheaper.

The digital photography makes a lot of things easier. Thanks to the digital photography we can take a lot of photos and then send all of them without any costs. It is very favourable in many professionals where photos are required such as journalism, insurances, real estate and more. Let's consider an example. The real estate broker may take photos of many estates and upload them on the webpage. If he does it by means of traditional camera it will cost a lot of money, because the development of them can be very expensive. Instead of using the traditional camera, he can use the digital one and the costs are getting lower. He uploads the taken pictures on the web site on his own and there isn't any spending.

Thanks to the proper programmes we can improve the picture by changing some elements or the background. If the photo is too dark, we can make it brighter. We don't need the traditional darkroom.

So is the digital camera better than a traditional one?

There are a lot of advantages of digital cameras.

First of all, you may review your pictures, without the necessity of developing traditional films. You may see pictures may be seen just after they were taken. Also you may correct them on your own or just take another one. If you want to print some picture, you chose the most successful ones. So the worse may be erased immediately. What is more, you may take a lot of picture of the same place and change some settings to check which ones will be the best. In traditional photography it would be quite expensive. You are able to take as many pictures as the camera's storage may save. The storage in computer is cheaper then developing every film. You can send you pictures to your friends or family without scanning. Moreover, the quality of them won't change for worse. If you have got your own good printer, you may print your photos on your own. There is also the possibility of printing your pictures directly form the camera. Modern digital cameras are often smaller and more comfortable then the traditional ones. Your pictures can be also shown on the television by means of a cable, which connects the camera and TV set. Moreover, all your pictures may be stored as backup in CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. It is also believed that the CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs will last longer then the negatives. If you want to experiment with the photo camera settings, you will be free to carry out your improvement of techniques, styles and light.

I think it is better, when you take a lot of photos and the high quality isn't required. The digital camera makes it easier to take photos and the costs are lower. You can send them very quickly without any other expenses. But if you need the high-quality pictures or you want to enlarge them, it is better to use the traditional camera. However the digital photo cameras are still much more expensive than the traditional ones, I think that the purchase of this modern camera is more profitable. The costs of printing photos will be much lower than developing the traditional films.

The digital photography is getting more and more popular nowadays. They even overtake the traditional ones. Many people consider the digital photography as their favourite hobby. It is so exciting to take so many photos from the single one party or the single one event. We also can use the one of programmes offered by the digital cameras to take the better photos.