Photography in Digital Era
September 14, 2017
Photography is an exclusive thing and very expensive in the past. Developed from black and white negative films to digital format, big box to the camera, now everybody can take photos beautifully with their own gadget, especially from the smartphone. Smartphones nowadays are incredibly amazing, same goes with the built-in camera attached. Some of them have superior features such as high resolution, fast capture, high-ISO and image stabilizer (mostly in the high-end smartphone). People start to think that they need camera no more, their smartphones are more than enough, although digital camera (usually called as DSLR: Digital Single Lens Reflex) still a needed for the professional photography. Well, wildlife photographers are impossible to capture flying eagle in perfect detail with their smartphone, because they need specific Tele-lens to do it. But I believe that nothing impossible in the future. Even a camera-phone with 41 megapixels resolution has existed! (hit Nokia Lumia 1020 on Google). Even my digital camera just barely has 18 megapixels. What a crazy world we live in -_-
This immense acceleration of technology in photography affect positively and negatively, or kind of disruptive technology. Companies in the film industry like Kodak, Konica, Agfa, went bankrupt because it’s no more relevant with the available tools nowadays. Say goodbye to the analog camera and instant camera (Indonesian: Tustel). Even some of the company could last in the film industry, now they just served to niche market that still loves using negative films and analog camera (like me :p) such as Ilford. But, new technology in photography make it accessible to everyone, and everyone can be a photographer thanks to the sophisticated smartphone camera. There are a lot of people want to go deep into photography, but they can not afford one because DSLR is bit expensive, even for the (most) low-end DSLR we have to pay around 4 billion Rupiahs, excluded the accessories such as the lens, tripod, lens cap, and so on. It’s not fully bad things actually.
What I concerned is, misuse of this technology tend to grow over time. Many people took photos and being irresponsible concerning the private matters of the objects, irresponsible spreading explicit contents in social media (e.g. accident/war victims, nudity/porn), editing without permission, etc. In my opinion, the photography ethics still relevant and important, whatever the medium is. We shouldn’t make photo just common thing, as simple as:
- mention the photographer when you upload your picture. Maybe that looks simple, but it means a lot. It means you appreciate your photographer for taking a good picture.
- Do not distribute photos if that’s not your own capture without permission.
- Stop taking pictures if the object refuse. (unless you are a paparazzi). I am sure you’ll feel irritated if someone keeps taking pics of you without permission.
- Edit the photos reasonably.
May we become a righteous and responsible photographer in this digital era. Remember, the best camera ever made in this world is our own eyes, and photography is a tool to keep the memory alive J
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