What Does Digital photography Mean
We explain what digital photography is and what it is for. Also, its history, main characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.
What is digital photography?
Digital photography is a process of capturing still images through a camera obscura , very similar to that involved in traditional photography , but instead of using photosensitive films and developing chemicals, it captures light using an electronic sensor made up of units photosensitive.
The images thus captured are also converted into electrical signals and stored in an electronic memory , following the same formats and communication protocols as digital memories of computers , and applying various format and compression mechanisms to the photograph taken.
Digital photography, as well as traditional photography, lends itself both to the registration and documentation of historical, family or personal events , as well as for artistic exploration, adding to these senses the possibility of intervening or modifying the image computationally, once it has been taken. and stored.
It is a revolutionary technological advance that forever changed the photographic industry and enabled the emergence of digital visual arts .
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History of digital photography
The first digital camera in history was created by the Kodak industry , a pioneer in the photographic industry, in 1975. Developed by Steve Sasson, it was the size of a toaster and a very poor resolution (0.01 megapixels) In addition, the process of saving the image to digital was extremely slow: 23 seconds it took to save a black and white photograph on a cassette tape, and the same time to retrieve it once stored.
However, those early attempts opened up a huge field of development, leading in a straight line to modern digital cameras with enormous resolution, shooting and saving speed, as well as other modern capabilities such as digital (and non-optical) zoom ), or even the digital SLR system.
What is digital photography for?
Digital photography was the logical step in the photographic industry in the face of the accelerated computerization that began at the end of the 20th century. The need to be able to transfer the images taken to a computer system without first going through a development and subsequent scanning process, in which the image could be damaged or distorted, was a great advance in the world of visual management, speeding up the times. and lowering costs, by being able to take many photos in a row and preview them without having to wait for development .
Characteristics of digital photography
Digital photography introduced the word "pixel" (from picture element , in English) to photography, being the smallest unit of image that captures a value of gray or color . Thus, the more pixels a camera takes, the larger and more complete the image it captures .
On the other hand, digital cameras incorporated the ability to digital zoom, bringing the image closer through non-optical magnification, and also the ability to take videos , impossible with a traditional camera. As technology advances, cameras improve in all aspects and even allow filming in HD values.
Advantages of digital photography
The main advantages of digital photography are:
- Immediacy. The ability to take photos and dispose of them at once, without having to go through a development process in which the images could also be damaged, is undoubtedly a huge contribution. The photograph is available within moments of taking it.
- Cheapening of costs . By cutting out film rolls and the entire development process, the photographer saves a fortune on material that may also be useless once developed.
- Storage. A digital card can hold a lot more photos than a roll of 48 photos that was common in the past. In addition, you can modify the compression format of the images or delete the defective ones to maximize the storage capacity.
- Technical advantages. The latest model digital cameras give the photographer technical information in real time, about the RGB values of the image, its histogram, its ISO values and many other things that it previously lacked.
Disadvantages of digital photography
The main disadvantages of digital photography are:
- The cost of the cameras. Since they are small computers now, professional cameras are really expensive.
- Electronic noise. Due to the constant electrical flow inside the camera, images have a margin of “noise” or image flaw that is more noticeable when using low ISO values. For many photographers the grain of a 35mm film is much more pleasant than that of a digital camera.
- Resolution. While an ordinary 35mm film had the equivalent of a resolution of approximately 87 megapixels, which is still unattainable for a digital camera that is commonly around 45 megapixels.