Digitography is an Ellynism!

The term “Digitography” was invented by me… an image that has more intent and manipulation decisions done post camera rather than an “in-camera made” photograph. This term was born out of need from the many questions posed from my students over the past five years.  Students today often question the validity of digital technology and it’s role in photography.

Is Photoshop cheating? What makes a photo a photo and what makes that fuzzy line between the camera and software??? Great questions with lots of room of for dialogue!

I am a current day digital photographer with old skool roots.  Yes, it’s true I learned photography by taking photos in the snow, walking uphill both ways in -30 Celsius – all to find out after caustic laborious darkroom work I messed up!  In-camera skills back then were absolutely essential to photographic success.  Ok – there was always shooting Kodak Tri-X black and white film to save me when my exposures were off a stop in either direction BUT to compare to the ease of cushioning yourself with post shooting digital software…  I had less room for error.

Instinctively today’s students realize the dilemma of in-camera versus digital software decisions in photography thus the continuous questions raised.  That is why I came up with the term Digitography. To decide whether a particular image is either a photograph or a digigraph we can consider these questions in defining a photograph:

• Where in-camera decisions such as exposure, white balance, ISO, composition considered in-camera? Y or N
• Was manual exposure mode used to capture the image?
• Was depth of field decisions considered by Fstop and focal length choice?
• Was printing of the image considered when decisions were made on exposing and file capture (RAW versus JPG) ?

If the students answer no to any or many of these questions they likely have a digigraph – not a photograph. I have seen many a student manipulate their images in Photoshop post
shooting to counteract their lack of forethought of these fundamental in-camera decisions.  I have to wonder – is this because they are being taught software first or is it that they are not being taught how to be a photographer?

The most overused manipulation I have seen lately is the lens blur filter in Photoshop.  Now we old skoolers know if a fast lens is used we can more authentic depth of field control with less mousing effort – like a 50mm F1.4.  In the days of kits lenses that offer an 18-55mm range with the lowest Fstop range of 3.5 I can understand why they resort to the lens blur filter!

Beyond basic in-camera decisions that can now be controlled in-camera or manipulated in software, there are also digital trends like montage and high dynamic range photography that also have their roots in film photography process.  I see these techniques as definitely “Digitography”.  Perhaps their montaging predecessors were printographers. Hehe…  Now I am getting cheeky.

Is Digitography evil?  No…  BUT…   I see a need for definitions to be clear in this case – especially for my new skoolers.  We film rooted photographers take for granted all the nuances in making an image by in-camera decisions and forethought on “the print”.  Film experience gave us the confidence to make creative decisions with our cameras. For our digital world learners this is not the case.

As photo educators we need to continue to teach the fundamentals of camera operation so there will be choices out there in making either “photographs” or “digigraphs”.