I can't disagree more with Erik's claim that:
"It seems with each technological advance things take longer, are harder to do, cost more, and deliver less"
In my color photography, scanning and printing digitally with a LightJet have allowed me to become an artist. For years, I was stuck with trying to pick a film/process/paper that would produce what I visualized. But unlike B&W, it was a process with precious little control. I had to carry negative and reversal films, choosing based on some guess as to whether Cibachrome or Type R would reproduce the color palette I saw. I had virtually no control over contrast or tonal range. Aside from exposure, it was pot luck.
I still capture the image on silver. But Photoshop gives me the artistic control that an ART should have. I can CHOOSE to faithfully reproduce what my eye saw, not what some particular emulsion/paper pair could manage. Or, I can CHOOSE to produce what I wanted to see... just like a painter with canvas. But now it is MY choice. And this technology holds new promise for B&W as well. Sure, N+ and N- developing let you change the overally slope of the curve, but with digital you can change the curve at every density. Sure, you want a good high-silver fiber based paper for the final product, but that doesn't mean digital cannot be used as a process in route to the product.
Now as Erik points out, having paint and canvas does not make everybody a Rembrandt. We have all seen the abominations in the typesetting that the advent of the Mac and Laserwriter brought to the world. Having typefaces and knowing how to use them are two different things... and a mouse and menu don't replace centuries of development of an artform like typesetting. But the response is not to go back to hot-lead, but to educate the users about the asthetics and sensibilities of the medium.
Another note, digital may not be so environmentally friendly as we hope. The digital cameras I have used go through batteries like ... thru a goose. If everybody would recharge batteries it would be fine. But most consumer still digital cameras use AAs. And on vacation, that means the family is going to go through dozens of alkaline batteries. That's nasty for the environment.
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