Digital Wedding Photography

With digital cameras becoming very popular generally it naturally goes that wedding photographers should also be embracing this technology. Digital cameras at the beginning had a low pixel capacity and while smaller pictures were of reasonable quality larger pictures looked very grainy. With the increase in pixel capacity digital cameras can now come close to matching the traditional 35mm camera and they have the capacity to do a lot more.

The digital camera has the facility to give immediate feedback as to what an image looks like. This allows the photographer to take more risks with lighting, angles etc as these cameras have great capacity with added memory cards. As digital photography is processed on a computer its easy to produce variants on an image such as black and white, sepia tone and general editing. Photographers can allow clients to view pictures of their wedding online before choosing which to include in the album and the process is much easier as no scanning of photographs is required.

Photographers are now able to colour-balance and otherwise manipulate images in ways that traditional techniques cannot offer. Model digital cameras have an anti-shake feature that allows good stills to be taken without a tripod. Settings on digital cameras are much easier to adjust, for example, if the ISO speed setting needs to be changed due to weather conditions. Digital cameras have a smaller sensor format and this allows for smaller lenses, wider zoom ranges, and a greater depth of field.

While the digital camera does offer lots of advantages and conveniences there are disadvantages. Unlike a traditional 35mm camera which have manual backups for electrical operations the digital equivalent is dependant on an electrical supply from a battery. Digital sensors have a less dynamic range than film but this is improving all the time. ISO image noise may appear as multi-coloured speckles and this may be more unacceptable than the grain of film. Aliasing or distortion may add patterns to the digital image which just doesn’t appear in ordinary film. The camera sensor needs to be professionally cleaned if dust particles attach themselves to the sensor. Some studios and individuals will have invested in equipment for standard film and will be slow to change to digital. Older photographers may have built up a reputation with film and not want to move to this new format with all the learning involved.

Digital photography is here to stay and it is improving all the time. Professional photographers are seeing the advantages of digital photography and with the choice of both digital and traditional photography the best of both worlds can be experienced.