Photography Is Dead
Do most photography schools today concentrate on film or digital photography?
I’m considering attending a local photography academy after I finish high school, but I’m not sure if they focus on digital or film photography. Have most schools converted to digital only, or do you have to be familiar with both? I have absolutely no experience with film photography and don’t plan to get into it, because I know its a dead end road. Sure, its out there right now, but 10 years from now? Probably not. Anyways, what I’m getting at is do you think I would need to learn how to operate a film camera and be able to use a dark room? The name of the school doesn’t specify its focus, its just called the Academy of Photography.
Film is film and once processed, never forgets, whereas digital is volatile and can be lost when the battery runs down. Professionals still prefer to use film over digital for the really serious artwork, though the high end digital still cameras are making inroads, at least in the fashion industry. I disagree, film is NOT a dead-end, but I do agree it is declining in popularity. Film makes art that can not be done with digital so it will always have that niche. Digital has one advantage, instant gratification. Both have good points and bad points. In my opinion, you should go both ways by doing film first (experience counts) and then adding digital later after you get the basics down. What film schools teach is more the what and how to take pictures, light effects, that kind of thing and the camera you use is mostly irrelevant to the process of framing a really good picture. Just look at ANY of the photographs taken by Ansel Adams for example. He used what at the time was old technology, a simple “box” camera. Every picture of his is better than just good… each is a work of art. If you have decent film and a good lens as Ansel Adams had, you too, can take a great picture, worthy of becoming art as his work did. At my local community college, they offer courses using both standard film and high end digital and they recommend taking a film course first and then the advanced classes with digital. More of the entertainment industry is going to digital only over film every day. The cameras are physically smaller, and there are no chemicals in processing and all of the editing is done on a computer. You can’t tell a book by it’s cover, so the name “Academy of Photography” itself means nothing. Why not just pick up the phone and call if you want to know what this school teaches? All I can do here is tell you what is offered at my local community college and express my personal opinion… I have not found any digital camera that I could afford that fits my hands so well as my trusty old (over 50 years and counting) 35MM Nikon F2…
Is film photography dead? Never!
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