PIXEL POWER - Must art and science go their own ways?

by Rod Eime

Part 2: The Technological Curve Goes Parabolic
Part 3: Don't Let the Truth Spoil a Good Picture

The Digital Age can just as easily be termed The Digital Revolution because, not only does it involve a radical change in technology, it requires a similar shift in thinking.

Just as the quill and the typewriter have given way to the word-processor and email, the art and science of photography is also yielding to the irresistible tide of technological change. As delicate silver halide crystals on gelatin make way for pixels in complex silicon matrices, photographers themselves are bending their minds to the possibilities that the new digital equipment permits.

Powerful software empowers graphic artists with enormous scope to transform and manipulate images into whatever their wild imaginations may conjure up. Blemishes and imperfections are dismissed with a mouse click, backgrounds and details added and removed in a whim, and the grotesque and supernatural manufactured to specification.

Stuart Hodgson, General Manager of Momentum Digital, has been computer enhancing for over twenty years. "We use a very powerful, purpose-built system that allows any Creative Director's wildest concept to become reality." That claim is supported by some of the images you see in this article.

By virtue of satellites, modems and the laptop computer, crack photojournalists can now have their images on the editor's "lightbox" literally before the dust has settled - and without the need for time-consuming film and processing.

"Ten years ago I was travelling in two taxis with nine cases and setting up a complete darkroom wherever I went," says Reuters' Will Burgess, a 15 year veteran of frontline photojournalism, "now we can go anywhere with little more than a knapsack and bumbag."

The digital camera is now truly coming of age. Only a few short years ago, digital image capture was a quaint notion supported by little toys the equivalent of the Instamatic. Producing files of about 1 Megabyte, these snaps were only suitable for display on a computer screen and were a long way short of editorial quality. Now Canon and Nikon build ultra-high quality Kodak works into familiar professional bodies that squirt razor-sharp 18 Megabyte images into laptops that, in turn, dispatch them via an attached satellite phone direct to the desks of major news networks anywhere in the world.

"Digital camera development is indeed moving at an incredible pace. Professional photographers not only need the competitive speed advantages that flow from no film processing, they need to take pictures with the control and handling of a traditional camera," says Stuart Poignand, Canon Australia's technical and professional sales manager, "They can use cameras like the Canon EOS D2000 in almost exactly the same way as their regular film camera, with all of their existing lenses. Canon applies exactly the same thinking to development of compact digital cameras for everyday use. It has to be easy to use, look great and produce beautiful quality pictures"

It seems feasible that the two, now quite different, forms of photography will continue to coexist in the foreseeable future with conventional film still yielding the best result for the consumer and amateur. Having said that, affordable digital printers of the inkjet and dye-sublimation variety are already appearing on the shelves of computer stores aimed at the home user. These peripheral devices now enable remarkably high quality output, although are somewhat hampered by their high cost consumables like paper, inks and dyes. Images can either be sourced from a digital camera or scanned using either a common flatbed or more specialised film scanner.

Harnessing the benefits of technology whilst retaining the allure of the artform is a delicate balancing act. While there will always be purists who reject outright this unholy departure from tradition, professionals with an eye for the result are much less romantic about leaving behind the messy and cumbersome trappings of classic photography.

The Technological Curve Goes Parabolic

Photography, like automobiles, has always been an accurate barometer of consumer technology. It reflects advances in both the art and science as well as end-user expectation. In a century and a half, the medium has developed from messy paste on glass or metal plates, to gelatine-based roll-film right through to today's totally filmless digital image acquisition.

The Frenchman, Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, who exposed a pewter plate coated in crude, naturally occurring bitumen for eight hours, produced the first real photograph in 1827. It was another ten years, however, before a usable process was developed and it was Niepce's associate, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, who is widely credited as the father of commercial photography. His daguerreotype process used light sensitive silver iodide and produced superbly detailed, if somewhat fragile, images that proved popular as portraiture.

Soon after this point, the basis of the photographic process was established, that being the exposure of a light sensitive silver oxide followed by development, fixation and printing.

Driven by public demand, technology was improving the tools, materials and the processes, and by the mid- to late1800s, commercial photography was in full swing. Kodak's founder, George Eastman, popularised roll film in the 1880s, effectively opening the medium to amateurs and hobbyists. His keen consumer sense enabled him to monopolise the emerging market with the manufacture of a simple “you press the button, we do the rest” camera that came pre-loaded with Kodak film. This philosophy persists to this day with the marketing of the cheap disposable/reloadable camera.

The next great leap occurred with the introduction of 35mm film and camera. Originally designed for cinematography, its still photography application came about almost by accident when a use for the offcuts was devised. Oskar Barnack designed the first 35mm Leica for Ernst Leitz in 1924 and the ball was set rolling. Colour positive (slide) and colour negative (print) was soon introduced and that, along with the Single Lens Reflex camera (SLR) ensured the popularity we enjoy today.

The gradual curve of technological process began to steepen in the late 1970s and '80s when electronic components were added. Precision automation of exposure and focus enhanced the ease of SLRs and formed the basis for the transition to digital currently being exploited by the major manufacturers.

Digital Image Capture is a totally different process than conventional photography, yet some components have survived the change. The lens, shutter and film plane remain, performing essentially the same functions, but instead of film, a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) occupies the light sensitive area. Pixels, the minute cells on the CCD, replace the silver halide crystals, and store Red Blue Green (RGB) information momentarily. After exposure the information stored in the pixels marches off in single file to the Frame Board where the image is reassembled and processed before being sent to the storage media, where it remains until downloaded. Storage itself varies, and can be either on-board RAM similar to standard computers, or even a floppy disc like Sony's Mavica camera.

Don't Let the Truth Spoil a Good Picture

Nowadays when we look at any image in a magazine or newspaper, much of what we see needs to be taken with a grain of salt - often several grains. Computing power has exploded in the last decade, putting impressively featured machines on the desktops of everyday people.

As part of this escalation in digital enthusiasm, photo manipulation software now abounds. The industry standard Adobe Photoshop is still preferred amongst professionals and serious amateurs, but numerous packages exist that more than satisfy the needs of home operators. Some even come supplied with exotic backgrounds where you can take the family on a virtual holiday - and have the pictures to prove it. We all can recall Epson's comic commercial where a young hopeful's "etchings" are replaced with manipulated photos of himself with celebrities.

In the public arena, however, greater issues of ethics and professional standards arise. We're not too fussed to see grossly doctored images in advertisements and commercials, but when they start to appear in the news, serious questions need to be asked. It is now a simple matter to delete, include or replace elements in an image, especially with the marginal quality often accepted by newspapers.

In a recent case, a popular car racing news magazine came under fire for placing the helmet of an emerging Australian driver in an F1 car he had never driven for a prominent front page spread in support of a tenuous rumour. Even though the paper never denied it was a fabrication, the easily duped were only going to find this out after buying the issue.

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