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Comparing Traditional Photography and Digital Imaging Essay

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Comparing Traditional Photography and Digital Imaging

The traditional photographic process that has defined image reproduction for over 150 years involves a long drawn out series of chemical reactions beginning with the capture of light on silver film and ending with the fixing of the image onto paper or a transparency through the development processing. The final image is analog, which means it is composed of continuous gradients that are analogous to the gradients seen in the world around us.

Digital imaging, however, requires a completely different process. The image must be captured electronically on a light sensitive silicon chip. Each silicon chip contains thousands of pixels, which is "picture" plus "element", which …show more content…

When turning an analog image into a digital image, it changes the process of development from chemical to mathematical, because each pixel is represented my a number and stored in the computers memory for easy reading. This process makes the image true and impossible to tell how many duplicates of the image have been made.

Once information is in its digital form, it becomes very simple to save, alter, and duplicate. Because each pixel can be enlarged and changed on the computer screen, each piece of the image can be altered at will. Elements can be added or subtracted, changed in color, brightness, or contrast. Areas of the picture can be copied and moved to other areas of the image where other things have been removed, and this can be repeated indefinitely. People can be made fatter or thinner, the color of hair and eyes can be changes, or completely removed from a picture is so desired. When the image is finished, it can be printed or sent via telephone lines or satellite anywhere in the world.

Traditional photographs may be altered in four basic ways: in the set up of the model, camera, and lighting before the photograph is taken; in the way the photograph is taken; in the processing of the film; or by the addition or deletion of elements to the processed photograph, followed by retouching the whole image. Portrait photographers are especially adept at setting up the scene and subject so that it will appear in the most flattering light.

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