Photography a Desk Job?

[Kirk Gittings]

Posted by Steve Simmons on the Stitching thread:

One of the questions for me is where do I want to spend my time - in some wonderful landscape location with a view camera or holed up in front of my computer.

Lets see

outdoors in the real world vs inside in front of a monitor

outdoors in the real world vs inside in front of a monitor

outside in the real world

For those of us who have been in LF photography for decades, I think we sympathize with Steve's essential point. Digitally based photography has become predominantly a desk job. This is particularly true if you do commercial work, because so much of what you do, even if you shoot film, has to be delivered digitally to clients.

[Marko]

Kirk,

As my reply to Steve's post in the stitching thread goes, it is not the matter of digitally-based photography, but of digitally-based processing.

It may look the same at the first glance, but it is not, for at least two reasons:

1. Camera work, be it in the field or in the studio, is essentially the same, despite a few relatively minor differences.

2. Even if the capture medium is film, processing can still be digital and past the scanning process, there is no fundamental difference here either.

Now, I am not a professional, photography is just a hobby for me, so I have both different perspective and incomparably less expertise in it than you do. In fact, I am in the exact opposite position: In my profession, computers are not just the primary tool, they are also the medium itself. So, I hope you will tolerate my opinion in this discussion, since a different perspective may contribute at least something.

That being said, here is my question regarding your opening statement: Using a laptop in the field, something like the way Betterlight users do, wouldn't it be concievalbe that at least a portion of the work be done right on the spot, thus reducing "desk time" back at studio? Or, from another angle, couldn't such use make it possible to deliver live proofs to the client and get the feedback while you're still on the spot?

[Greg Lockrey]

This would depend on how complete the photographer is. Is he a camera operator that passes the finishing work off to a lab? Or the complete photographer that has to be part of the process from beggining to end. Time in front of a monitor is no different to me that getting my hands wet in a lab other than I have better control with the monitor.

[JimL]

outdoors in the real world vs inside in front of a monitor

That could be rephrased as:

outdoors in the real world vs inside in the darkroom

Those who don't want to spend time in the darkroom can hire people to do that work for them. Those who can't afford it or want total control over the process have to spend time in the darkroom if they want to produce output.

So why aren't the digital shooters doing the same - hiring expert people to do the computer work so they can spend more time shooting? Is it because a lot of the "in-the-field/in-camera" work is now done by the photographer "in-computer", or that the darkroom aka computer is now portable and image editing can be done in the field?

I don't buy into this labeling of computer work as not being "real-world" - to me it smells a bit elitist (labeling one method as inferior or less genuine - real photographers don't sit in front of a computer). No matter how I shoot, it's my decision how I spend my time - as witnessed by my many binders full of unprinted negatives!

Jim

[Gordon Moat]

In the professional realm, there are digital assistants. Just like some prefer a darkroom to a lab, there are those who prefer user control over having someone else do the post work. Sometimes in the professional realm it can come down to what you can reasonably bill out to a client, so budget constraints can alter approaches.

What I got from Steve's comment were a few aspects. One is that he likes being outdoors doing landscape photos, something that probably several other photographers who enjoy landscape images could appreciate. The other was that landscape photography is a way to escape the office, and that computer eagerly awaiting your return to it.

I would prefer spending more time behind (or beside) a camera on location somewhere. Unfortunately, being a professional means lots of meetings, doing paperwork, and yes . . . even post processing to get that digital image file delivered to a client. Somehow in all that other stuff is working on concepts, updating my portfolio . . . actually using my camera gear. If I had that great "A" list of clients that I could afford assistants to do lots of the drudgery for me, I would be happy to have them.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

[Jack Flesher]

I clearly don't see Steve's point either: It's simply time in a wet darkroom versus time in front of a monitor -- the time and experience in the field can be identical depending on what you're capturing your images with.

[Dick Hilker]

As an amateur who prints digitally, I've found myself making decisions in the field based on the assumption that more of the finishing work will now be done at the computer than would have been possible in a darkroom. This has had the effect, in some cases, of relying too heavily on the computer work to do what should and could have been done better with the camera.

Unlike a pro, I don't have much real deskwork and equate my time working on images with the computer to doing the same thing in a darkroom.

[Kirk Gittings]

I clearly see Steve's point if you enjoy more your time in the darkroom vs. sitting in front of a computer.

Having been a full time working professional before the digital revolution and after (28 years), I spend far more time preparing files for clients than I ever did editing film and preparing contact sheets (or for magazines when we just shot the best transparency we could, took it to the lab to have it processed, edited the film and then delivered it). And every pro I personally know who's career spans the same changes says exactly the same thing from George Georgio (Playboy) to Robert Reck (Architectural Digest).

[Jack Flesher]

I clearly see Steve's point if you enjoy more your time in the darkroom vs. sitting in front of a computer.

This debate is not worth site bandwidth, but to be clear about my point, that isn't what Steve said... He said, "One of the questions for me is where do I want to spend my time - in some wonderful landscape location with a view camera or holed up in front of my computer."

I totally understand his point if he feels the way you phrased it Kirk, or if he was trying to say he'd rather shoot with a pano camera than stitch after the fact. But again, he didn't phrase it that way...

,

[Rick Moore]

One of the questions for me is where do I want to spend my time - in some wonderful landscape location with a view camera or holed up in front of my computer.

Lets see

outdoors in the real world vs inside in front of a monitor

If you darkroom is "outdoors in the real world," I agree wholeheartedly.

I've never been so lucky.

Since I still take my photographs with a camera (analog for now but I fail to see how using a digital camera would change this very much), it's hard to see your point. I've spent a great deal of time in darkrooms over the last thirty-five years or so, isolated from my family, breathing all kinds of toxic and semi-toxic fumes, exposing myself to a long list of toxins and carcinogens. Even with the best of ventilation and protective gloves and masks, one is still exposed to nasty stuff. I can honestly say I prefer sitting in front of my computer. Yes, doing digital procesing can be long hours of drudgery, just as darkroom work can be, but I find the computer liberating, not limiting.

An added advantage to me is the ability to load my scanned negatives onto my PowerBook and work with them any time and place I have a few minutes to spare, such as in an airport waiting area or a hotel room. I've even been able to work on images while sitting at a picnic table next to the Merced River in Yosemite Valley and in a chair on the terrace of the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim with the sun setting in the west. If your darkroom can match that, I'd sure like to see it.

In the end, it's still the images I produce, not the manner in which I produce them that matters to me.