Interview with photography student Haylee Schiavo.  “Digital vs. Film”

1. What is your personal viewpoint about the conventions of both digital photography and photoshop?

I’m a fan, photography and photoshop allow me to make a good living.

2. Do you prefer digital or film photography? For what reasons?

I’ve barely used film, and never in a professional capacity. If digital photography didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have any interest in photography. I took art in high school but never photography. I graduated nearly 20 years ago, and photshop didn’t exist. All the kids in photography class were always doing the same black and white shots of spider webs, railroad tracks and doorknobs. Didn’t look very creative to me. I wanted to draw or paint.

3. Do you think that people who support film photography are just conservative with their beliefs in trying to keep the traditional ways alive?

I’m not sure it has anything to do with being conservative, traditional yes. There have always been purists who want to dig in and hold on to what they know. Some people just don’t want to learn anything new.

4. Do you think that people who support digital photography and photoshop are strong with liberal beliefs and think that it is a modernized version to make average photos look more appealing? What is your own stance on this?

I absolutely use it make average photos more appealing. If an artist is trying to achieve an aestheticized look, he or she will always use whatever tools available to enhance his or her work.

5. Since photoshop is commonly used to alter perceptions to the public, such as to make a picture of a model more beautiful, do you think this is morally wrong (as it alters reality)?

I do not. Subjects who make this complaint would rarely want themselves to be displayed, under bright lights, to the public warts and all. That said, many of my photos take my models the other direction and enhance dirty, gritty characteristics.

6. What is your stance on the controversy of using photoshop. For example, some people believe that it is a mechanism simply to make the photographer better. Do you think photoshop makes a photographer less aware when taking photos (like how they set up the shot, since they can just change it in photoshop to make it better)?

I was unaware that there was a controversy. The majority of the “working” photographers in the industry use photoshop to finish their images. Whether they do it themselves or it is hired out. The amount of use varies of course. As far as photoshop covering up bad photography, I’d say it happens a lot. It was the only thing that got me by my first year of shooting. Photography, more specifically lighting, is much more important to me as I grow as a working artist. I want better quality images to bring into photoshop. Additionally I don’t think it should matter what tools any artist uses, the final result is what is important.

7. What are the benefits of film photography? (end product, equipment needed, cost, time, etc)

I see very few. There was a time where film just plain looked better. We’re past that point in my opinion. It is a costly, timely, environmentally unfriendly process. It is a dinosaur and it’s working itself out of the genre.

8. What are the benefits of digital photography? (end product, cost, time, etc)

Cost, time, quality. I can show my client what I’m getting in real time. For me it’s better in every way.

9. Do you think digital versus film photography attracts different variations of crowds (younger, older, religiously affiliated, liberal, conservative, teens, etc.)

I’ve been lucky to have had fans in all groups. I’d say my subject matter might appeal more to a certain demographic.

10. Do you think photoshop gives the artist the ability to be more unique with their ideas, or is film better for that?

Photoshop gives the photographer a ton of latitude that doesn’t exist with film photography. Not to say that it’s impossible to be creative with film. There have been many film photographer who pushed the envelope. Many of the techniques say Ansel Adams used in the darkroom are the very same techniques used by many modern photographers in photoshop today. Burning, dodging, blurring, unsharp mask were all around before photoshop. They are used in much the same way now. They may be faster, but it still requires a skill and an eye.

11. Do you think that film photography or digital photography can give you more limitless possibilities in being unique from other photographers (both in present, and past).

When I started using photoshop 4 years ago it was very easy to stand-out. There are a lot more people shooting now, like any art form you have to find a way to stay on the leading edge. I strive to do this through content since my style is hopefully always evolving.

12. Do you think being a film photographer or a digital one bring more job offerings?

I know when I’ve worked with clients in bigger cities they’ve always wanted a digital file and they want them to be a minimum size and want them quickly.

13. Would National Geographic support photoshop (even if its just to alter the value and contrast) to change a photo?

I can’t speak for National Geographic, but I can’t imagine why not.

Closing-

Baudelaire said “Photography is the refuge of the failed painter”. That might have been true for a while, but with the advent of better lighting, higher resolution cameras and photshop, we now have a whole generation of digital painters who are in my opinion doing quite a justice to the photograph.