Upon reading this topic I am genuinely conflicted because I am an avid fan of all kinds of photography be it traditional dark room, digital, or even the currently popular Instagram. Originally I was going to argue film-based photography is best because it is my go- to when I am feeling artsy, but then I decided to make a pros and cons list and I was surprised at what I came up with.
Ultimately my decision for the sake of this paper is that digital photography is more time-friendly and therefore user-friendly. I will not assume the opinion of “best” or “preferable” because quite honestly I think both are equally superior to each other.
I use the term time-friendly because our generation is obsessed with either being lazy and doing the bare minimum and will achieving results or speeding through tasks, again, to achieve minimum results. Both of these reflect my generation’s inability to complete a task as thoroughly as is usually required.
The benefit to my generation's simplicity when comparing photography types is the simple point and shoot method is usually all that is required of digital photography. A small portion of people have the patience now a days to line up a photography shot and take into account the lighting, aperture settings, angle, and the fact that you can’t immediately see and delete a photo if it is not immediately presentable. They also can’t even fathom the amount of time and preciseness it takes in a developing room to actually develop film.
Most people prefer to shoot a few dozen photos, look over them, red-eye correct on the camera itself, enhance the colors, plug it into the computer, Photoshop to alter their image to something they can not achieve in real life, and then instantly print. The dark room process of this can take hours or even days for particularly difficult negatives to produce one image, not to mention the price of chemicals, materials, and equipment.
Another one of the main advantages of shooting digitally rather than traditional is there are so many more options available. It seems like all electronic companies are producing digital cameras now compared to how practically no companies are selling film cameras anymore. It is an obvious winning point for digital photography when even Kodak, the one time leading camera company, is discontinuing film sales. In comparison, companies such as Nikon have dozens of digital cameras for sale ranging from those for the lazy snap and shooters to the professionals that are depending on them to build a career.
With all of this taken into account, it is sadly clear that the majority of the world has chosen digital over film and that is the direction in which photography is headed.
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