Photography. It's all about a lens focusing an image on a light sensitive plane. It's been that way since Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took this view from his window in 1826.

Two centuries later, things are much different and improved. The 21st century has seen the replacement of film, bits of light sensitive silver compounds stuck on a piece of glass or plastic, to tiny semiconducters embedded in silicon.

What's changed.

Digital is vastly better than film

The digital sensor is roughly 10 to 50 times more sensitive to light than film. Photographing anything moving, or hand holding a camera just got that much better.

It's also much cheaper. Here's a comment I made in 2000 when I shot film:

• Slide film is touchy. Plan on doing lots of bracketing. Expose this stuff mumbling the mantra: "Film is cheap... Film is cheap..."

Film wasn't cheap. Back in 1990, I was paying ~$0.25 per processed print. That's about $0.52 in 2021. Once you've bought your digital camera, you're only paying to charge it's batteries and to store the photos you want to keep.

My 35mm cameras back then could take 36 (38 if you loaded your camera in a dark room) photos per roll. My Canon 6D could store 9700 JPG photos on it's 64GB card. A battery could give several hundred photos before needing to be replaced.

Providing you store your digital photos on stable media (CDs or DVDs come to mind), they will never deteoriate. Film will. My Agfachrome slides from last century have faded to the point of unusability.

Digitial has a more linear response to light than film. Twice the light means twice the amount of exposure. Film? Not so much.

Image Stablilzation (Canon's term). The computers controlling the camara are so fast that they can sense your unsteady hand holding of the camera and move a lens element or the sensor itself to compensate for your jiggling hand. When I got my first digital camera (a "consumer grade" Canon Rebel T2i) I was amazed that it's cheap zoom lens produced sharper photos than my Leica M3 with it's Summilux 50mm f/1.4 lens. This was because the Canon had image stabilization. The Leica was put on the shelf, and later sold. I never used it again.

Most high end digital cameras (including cel phones) will have software to compensate some of the errors inherent in all lenses. They can remove vignetting, some chromatic abberation, and color balance the photo. With film, one could "dodge" vignetting out in the darkroom, use filters to color balance the light, but chromatic abberation was there to stay.

Film has a few advantages.

Film cameras could be totally mechanical. You never had to worry about batteries going flat. If you knew how to expose in various light conditions, you were good to go.

Film has a wider dynamic range. This means that you could take a photo on a sunny day, and get detail in the brightest clouds to the darkest shadows. Landscape photographer par excellance Ansel Adams developed his "Zone System" to take advantage of this. It's almost useless with digital, with its narrower dynamic range, although recent advances in sensor technology are increasing the dynamic range of digital sensors.

What's unchanged.

Lens resolution. A 35mm Leica photo, carefully exposed on "slow" (ISO 25 or slower) film from 1927 has almost the same resolution as one taken on a very high resolution sensor (A Canon 5Ds, for example) with a sharp lens (A Zeiss Otis or Sigma Art). That's comparing similar formats. A good big camera (say a 4x5 graflex) will always out resolve a good little camera. Depending on the film used in that 4x5, it's resolution will surpass even the finest "full frame" 35mm digital cameras.

What's REALLY changed

Cell phones

Every cell phone nowadays has a digital camera built into it. Some are really good. If you only want to post your photos to friends on the internet, or make 8x10 or smaller prints, your results will be pretty much indistingushable from those taken with the finest full frame digital camera with the finest lens.

And. They are so much easier to carry around. Everyone's a photographer now. It's been long known that the most important part of making a photo is the nut behind the camera. Many of today's defining images (that's the term of art for a photo nowadays) were take with cell phones by someone who just happened to point that cell phone camera at a very news worthy event.

The point is this: The camera you have with you is what you'll use to get the picture. In this respect, cell phones are the most important development in photography since the advent of the 35mm Leica, and it's multitude of imitators.

Now. Curmudgenon that I am, I'm far more comfortable with a camera, that does one thing well, than a cell phone, which does a phenomenal number of things poorly.

Note: If you're carrying your bulky, heavy, full frame camera with it's superb lens (for me currently, that a Canon 5Dsr and a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art lens), people assume that you're an expert photographer simply based on the size of your camera! This is not an advantage.

Video

I suppose I need to mention this, as the growth of this activity has become huge in the 21st century. Cell phones do it with ease. Back in film days, this was a rather involved thing to do. No longer. That said, it is, in my opinion, a very different art form than still photography. The former is like a ballet choreographer, the latter like a painter. Very different skill sets. As you humble author has only worked with stills, that's what this document will focus on.

Notes on digital photography

Complexity

My leica M3's manual was 39 pages long. My Canon 5Dsr's manual? 530 pages. Well over 13 times longer! What this means is that the 5Dsr does many more things than the old Leica. It also takes that much longer to master. Of course, you can simply set the Canon's mode dial to automatic, and it will automatically set the shutter speed, aperture, focus, color balance, and even choose the best ISO speed for the shot. You had to manually do all of this on the Leica. But: If you only were to use the camera in this way, it would be nothing more than a very high quality cell phone. Sometimes, that's all you want or need. Most of the time, you can do a better job by tweaking the many controls on the camera.

Electronics

Batteries

You'll need a goodly supply of these. When you're shooting several hundred shots, you'll need to have backup batteries in your pocket to swap out when your battery goes flat. This is especially true with "mirrorless" cameras, as their electronic viewfinders take quite a bit of electricity to produce their images.

Memory cards.

This is not too much of an item for a still photographer. My 64GB card can easily hold a full vacation's photos for me. Nevertheless, I always bring along a spare, just in case.

Raw or JPG?

Some self styled experts will tell you that serious photographers always "shoot raw". Raw gives you more data per pixel (actually the amount of red, blue and green light in each pixel) some of which is lost when the photo is converted to jpg format. This is true. That said, in most photos you'll not notice the difference, if you set your jpg quality to as high as it will go. The photo then takes about 1/3 the space on your memory card. Personally, I've always shot jpg, and only rarely wished I had been shooting raw. Jpg is also a universal format, virtually every web browser and post processing software understands it. If you shoot raw, in general, only expensive (Lightroom, I'm looking at you) general post processing software or the camera's manufacture's much less capable software will be able to deal with it. You "pays yer money and takes yer choice" on this one.

DSLR or Mirrorless?

Full discolsure. I've only shot DSLR for the past decade. The Leica M3 I used to use was sort of like a mirrorless camera, but that doens't stop me from having opinions about this often contentious topic.

DSLR pro

• What you see is what you get. There is no electronic screen between you and your subject.
• That electronic screen is sucking up your battery's electricity. The DSLR saves it for taking the photo itself. You get more photos per battery charge with the DSLR.
• The DSLR's mirror helps to protect the sensor from dust falling onto the sensor or shutter while changing lenses. That dust will not look nice on your photos and could jam your shutter. It's a good idea to point your body at the ground to prevent dust from entering it when you change lenses, for either type!
• While it's never a good idea to point any camera at the sun for a long period of time, a DSLR's mirror will reflect the solar image into it's pentaprism, where it will do little damage. A mirrorless, left on a car seat, pointed at the sun, with the lens cap off of a fast lens will burn your sensor into uselessness.

DSLR con

• The DSLRs mirror needs to get out of the way each time you take a photo. You never see the instant the picture was taken, the camera shakes a tiny bit with each picture (this never improves sharpness), and the mechanism adds to the complexity of the camera (this never improves reliability).
• The rear element on the DSLR lenses need to clear the mirror. Optical designers need to compensate for this. This means that lenses with a focal length of less than 65mm or so are not as sharp as their mirrorless bretheran.
• DSLRs are larger and heavier than mirrorless.

Cell phone, micro 4/3, APS-C, or full frame?

There's a reason that the professional photographers you see taking photos of news events aren't using cell phones. That's because a good big camera will always produce better photos than a good little camera. These folk need to get the best pictures that they can, so they carry the biggest cameras that they can get away with and still move around to get the best angles for their photos. They only use cell phones when their cameras break, or are lost or stolen.

• The smaller the frame size, the smaller and cheaper the camera. If you're lugging gear on a month long trek in the wilderness, this is a big deal. In some crime ridden areas, it's a very good idea to not be carrying a big, expensive looking camera.
• If you never want to enlarge your photos to more than say 8x10 inches or view them on a computer monitor, a good cell phone photograph will be almost indistingushable from one taken with a full frame camera.
• You won't be able to crop (just us a part of a photo) as much with smaller sensors. I often crop my full frame photos, and my viewers are none the wiser.

Accessories

Filters

While these were an important item back in the film days, with the exception of polarizing and neutral density filters, almost everything that the colored filters did for film can be done with post processing software. Some people keep a UV or clear glass filter on the front of their lenses to protect the front element, but I don't. That filter, when it gets dirty, doesn't add to the quality of your pictures. It also adds another element to your lens, which the lens designers never planned for. Again, it doesn't help you photos, even if the filter is perfectly clean.

Lens hoods and caps

I always use a lens hood. It protects the lens from bumping into things, and it keeps stray light from entering the lens, which helps to increase the contrast of my pnotos. When the lens is not in use I always cap it. And the camera body as well. As my 1960 Leica M3 manual stated: "It's better to keep your lenses clean than to keep cleaning your lenses."

Tripods, monopods, chest pods.

The more stable your camera, the sharper your photo. Granted, image stabilization is a wonderful advance, but even with this, the less the camera shakes, the better. Let's review ways to hold the camera.

• At arm's length, taking a "selfie" or looking at the screen on the back of the camera. I alway cringe when I see this one.
• Hand held, camera braces aganist your face. Much better than arm's length, but still not great.
• The camera has a table top tripod screwed into it's tripod socket, and the tripod is braced against the photographer's chest, the camera against their face. Better still, but not perfect.
• A monopod. This removes almost all of the vertical camera shake. The best technique so far, and the monopod can double as a walking stick.
• A tripod. A good sturdy tripod is perfect. Note that most camera manufacturers will tell you to shut off your image stabilization when the camera is tripod mounted. The image stabilization mechanism would actually be very slightly deteremental!

So. If tripods are best, why aren't we all using them all the time? Obviously, they are a real pain to set up and use and utterly lack spontanity. Unfortunately, the easier and more spontaneous the method, the more camera shake.

By the way, mounting your camera to the tripod or monopod with a quick releases speeds things up a bit.

Gear Acquisition Syndrome

You can't buy quality, you have to grow into it.
-- Stuart Brand, in the Whole Earth Catalog.

Once one gets into photography, a very common affliction might begin to manifest itself. The desire to get more and better cameras, lenses, and their attendant gadgets can be overwhelming.

There are two kinds of fools:

• Those who never splurge on lovely new equipment.
• Those who continue to do it even after they've learned not to.

Storing and showing your photos

This is one that took me decades to learn. Your photos become a visual diary of your life, and those around you. Initially, you might glance at them or show them off to friends, but after a bit of time, they become history. My photos go back over half a century now, and they have become history to all who are in them and other who want to know what things were like back then.

What this means is that you should keep your photos that can't be taken again. Mostly, this is the people who are in them, as landscapes rarely change. Cities, events, weather... These protean things are forever preserved in your photos, so even if they aren't perfect, hold on to them. You can never go back in time for a retake.

The future

I wrote this in 2000, trying to guess the future

• Technology changes. One of these days, digital will evolve to the point that serious photographers use it. Today, it's set up for tyros (that's where the market is!), but one of these days, leica like cameras with superb lenses and high resolution 40 Mpixel backs will appear, and, presto, the serious photographers will all switch. The photojournalists already have.

I just noted that recently, Nikon came out with their new top-of-the-line M9. It has no shutter (like most cell phones) but has a top exposure speed of 1/32,000th second. It can make 20 high resolution (45 MB pixels). It has a dynamic range with its stacked CMOS sensor that rivals film. With this camera, you just take a second's worth of photos, and choose your best one. How photographers will use this marvel will remain to be seen.

So. What is the future of still photography? Despite the rising popularity of videos, it will not go away. You can judge a picture in a moment. A film takes time. They are very different art forms, and still photography isn't going to go away any time soon. The final product, a picture, will hang on a wall, on computer screens, or illustrate books (another medium that won't go away). Weather you're using an old film camera or the latest and greatest digital, the mission will be the same. Find something worth looking at and preserve it in a photograph.

An appendix of random thoughts and data

Add 19 stops to the sunny 16 rule for exposures in full moonlight. If you're shooting 1/1000th @ f/16, you'd be shooting 2 seconds at f/1.0. Add another 2 stops for a half moon.

For the moon itself, add 3 stops to sunny 16. To begin to fill the frame with the lunar disk, you'll need a 2000 mm lens.

Preset the exposure and focus, and put the camera on a shelf or brace it against a wall, and use the self timer. This trick works best with wide angle lenses, as they are a bit more forgiving of framing errors.

f stops:

full, + 1/3, + 1/2, + 2/3: full, + 1/3, + 1/2, + 2/3

The difference in the light that enters the lens between full stops is a factor of 2. Going from f/2 to f/2.8, for example, halves the light.

Lens Coverage, in Degrees:

In a dark room, where you can't get any reading at all, meter on the light source, and then add 4 stops.

There are lots of lovely, elegant bags, backpacks, and other conveyances for cameras out there, and some of them are very good. Most of them have a serious flaw. The look like containers for expensive equipment, and therefore invite the attention of thieves. Avoid bags like these. Sturdy old suitcases, diaper bags, lunch boxes, and the like, are far better. Not only do they carry and protect your valuable equipment, they hide it. I've been known to use a photographer's vest on occasion, but only in such circumstances where it's unlikely to become a target for thieves

Most of our shots are hand held. If you use a tripod it's only a little harder to also shoot an old film 4x5, with its attendant swings and tilts that most other cameras can't match.

Shoot the fastest shutter speed that you can get away with despite it's requiring a wider lens aperture, up to about 1/125th.

Focus carefully. Squeeze the shutter release. Relax. Hold your breath. Lean against anything you can find. Put an elbow on a knee... anything that steadies you is fair. I've talked to those who say that they can shoot between heartbeats, although I've never managed this one.

This is as much psychology as photographic technique.

Plan on taking a lot of pictures until your subject relaxes.

Most women, and a majority of men, really glow if you put a baby in their lap, or at least close by

Being a stand up comic helps.

Focus carefully on the eyes.

Use off camera flash, with a reflector to one side.

I've also found that reflectors alone, sans flash, work very well. When a subject is told that they have to relax and hold perfectly still for up to a second, something comes over them that they seem to take a good picture. 19th century photographers figured this out a long time ago, and it's worth rediscovery.

Have the subject look about 30-40 degrees away from the camera, and then, holding their head steady, look back at the camera. The three quarter profile this creates causes most people to look pretty good.

Squinch: Ask your subject to squint, but only a tiny bit. This often results in a better photo.

Final thoughts

To take a good photograph, take a lot of photographs.

The most important part of a good photograph is the photographer.

A good photograph preserves a decisive moment.

A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.
-- Edward Steichen

Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.
-- Diane Arbus

Photograph: A picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.
-- Ambrose Bierce

When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes.
-- Anonymous

Your first ten thousand photographs are your worst.
-- Henri Cartier-Bresson

It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter.
-- Alfred Eisenstaedt

Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real.
-- Ansel Adams

It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... They are made with the eye, heart, and head.
-- Henri Cartier-Bresson

If I have any ‘message’ worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no shortcuts in photography.
-- Edward Weston

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.
-- Aaron Siskind