A response to the experiment....

Early this morning I received an e-mail from a disgruntled reader of my blog who just happens to be my brother. My brother Jeff has been a photographer for longer than he would care for me to mention and without question he has made a huge impact on me as photographer. I think it is an interesting dialogue so I thought I would post it.

Here is what he had to say about my last post " A little experiment" (and yes he makes no regards for proper punctuation):

i have tossed and turned over your little experiment.
grabbed some actions and have ridden across the countryside to stand up for digital.


and here is even your fancy dancy border - so think twice before you bash my pixels again you racist. the "4 x 5" polaroid is just a better composed shot. the highlight on the ground, the low angle and the framing with the background all make it a superior shot.


The racist comment is a bit strong (and used for comedic purposes) but he brings up a couple good points. First, could my digital image be made more interesting with some post production work? Absolutely as he shows by running a few photoshop actions, adding the funky polaroid border, the digital image is more interesting, in fact it looks more like a film image.

Second, the "4 x 5" image was a better composed image and that is the reason it is a stronger image.

I agree that the "4 x 5" is a better composed image (the highlight was a result of a change in light over the time it took me to setup the "4 x 5" and shoot) but that is part of the point of my post if the process alone makes me slow down and take a better composed image isn’t that evidence of it being a better tool for the job at least for me? Also, and I didn’t make this a part of the post and I should have, all of those images are basically out of the camera. I increased the contrast a bit on each image but that was it. I know that digital could be made to be stronger but I wanted to compare just the shooting and immediate results of the image taking process. I see the post production process as something entirely separate....and besides if your digital post production process is just to make the image look more like film why not just shot film in the first place? That is if you could find a lab to process it...