Digital photography uses electronic devices to take a photograph of a particular item and translate the image into binary data, which is readable by a computer. In recent years, the sale of digital cameras has outstripped the sale of traditional film cameras and many retailers have indicated that they are retiring their film camera lines. Digital photography allows the individual taking the pictures to immediately see the images that they have taken and delete any that are not up to standard without having to develop the pictures first, as with film photography.

The Popularity Of Digital Photography

Digital photography is gaining in popularity around the world. Many professional news photographers have switched to obtaining their images digitally because of the high quality of digital images and the ability to immediately review the picture to ensure that they captured the shot. Digital photography is also used by a number of amateur photographers who post the images they take on websites and send the pictures through email to family and friends. Images obtained digitally are easily manipulated with photo editing software which can turn almost any picture taken into a quality photograph by using special filters and effects to alter the appearance of the photo.

Commercial photographers are split on whether digital photography is a good medium to use. Some commercial photographers believe that the images obtained by digital equipment are inferior in quality to images obtained by traditional methods. Other photographers believe that the photographs obtained by digital photography are too easily manipulated and therefore may not be authentic. Many photography contests will not allow images taken using digital equipment to be submitted because the authenticity of the photograph is hard to verify.

Advantages Of Digital Photography

Digital photography has many advantages over traditional film photography. The most noticeable advantage is the ability to review photographs as soon as they are taken. If a photo is blurry, off center, or the subject’s eyes are closed, the photographer can just delete the image and take another one. Another major advantage is that after the initial expenditure to purchase a digital camera and memory card, the hobby does not need additional purchases. There is no need to purchase additional film, processing equipment, or numerous filters and flashes to sustain the hobby. There are many things that can be done with digital photography that cannot be done with traditional film. The wide variety of applications available for use in digital photography has made the hobby one of the fastest growing hobbies in the United States.