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2003 was a year of enormous change for us. We decided early in the year that technology was moving so fast it was innevitable that we would be capturing images digitally eventually. Rather than hang on to the "old technology" we decided to get in early and so for most of the year we shot digitally using the Fuji S2 Pro. It was a rollercoaster ride, although we have never regretted the move. In fact it seems inconceivable in 2007 that we would still use film. When they learnt about our decision, Practical Photography magazine asked us to write a series of articles about our experiences. This ran for most of the year in PP and we actually wrote the articles and shot the pictures in real time each month. Sometimes this meant that we contradicted ourselves in later articles and occasionally said things which we later regretted! However, the complete set of articles are reproduced here in largely the same format as they were originally published in PP. Sometimes the writing is a bit cheesy but that's what a monthly photo magazine needs to sell. We hope that you find them interesting and useful. We are about to write a new article with our current thoughts on digital to be published on these pages in the near future

Part 6 - I am not an anorak

In this article Judith puts her own particular slant on digital and tries to dispel the myth that you have to swallow the computer manual or have a degree in electronics to master the wonders of a digital camera.

I am not a techie, I am not a camera anorak, I am normal (as the advert goes!) and I will quite openly admit that I was very apprehensive about taking the digital step. I felt that I was being 'rail-roaded' into doing something I couldn't manage. I can take pictures, and good ones, I think, (I do have an ARPS to show for it) but I don't really have a technical brain to remember 'white-balance, microdrives, firewire downloads and DPOF settings'. I know what looks good and I know when its not right, but the reasons why - I can't always fathom. It had taken me several years to understand the intricacies of film and the Nikon F100 - another big learning curve was the last thing I wanted. Hubby, Neale uses electronics, computers and all that stuff every day and is completely au-fait with the jargon - just 10 minutes with the manual and he is off snapping. I can still lose icons, taskbars and toolbars on the PC desktop and maintain that 'it just disappeared when I clicked it'!

But, incredibly after just a few months I can't even imagine returning to the "film age". There is really no need to understand all those technical details, shooting with the Fuji S2 Pro is very similar to the F100 - just a bit easier! If I do make a mistake I can delete it, re-shoot and hopefully get it right. My photography is improving faster, as I can actually learn from my mistakes instantly. Before, I would have to wait for films to come back before discovering errors and by then I had forgotten what I had done in the first place!

Often after a shoot there would always be failed film - from both of us - for many reasons, mostly wastage through bracketing to get the perfect exposure, but often really silly technical errors. Now, gone are the days when I would have to ask stupid things - the most common example being if the scene was predominantly white should I use + or - exposure compensation (I just can't get my head around that one!). Now I can decide myself by taking the shot, 'chimping' the histograms (previewing the LCD screen for those who haven't seen last months article!), and either delete it, alter the exposure and re-shoot, or pat myself on the back and award myself a double cornet with two flakes!

Compositional and lighting errors can be avoided as well. How many times have you got the films back, seen the results, and moaned that you wished that 'the tree was further down to the left' or that it would have been better if you'd waited for that cloud to move further to the right or left?

The digital read-outs, histograms and previews are a revelation not a tribulation - you can instantly have a picture with the correct exposure now and after a five minute 'tutorial' session 'chimping' a complicated scene I'm now pretty confident with the concept. Keep the histogram profile away from the ends to avoid burnt out highlights or deep shadows. Hey I've cracked it! With the S2, you can now even tell when a particular colour in a scene will burn out. The cottage for example showed a spike of over-exposure in the red channel of the histogram - I guess it was the rust! so half a stop of under-exposure was added - perfection and I'm even getting the jargon right too! YES I CAN DO IT.

Converted - Yes definitely. So all you photographers who don't think you can cope with the technology - try a digital and you'll be surprised. You'll get hooked! Oops where did that icon go! NEEAALE!!

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