Ditcams’ Analog Roadblocks
by David M. Cole
Digital cameras continue their
inexorable march into the realm of news photography, despite the foot-dragging
of certain foot soldiers. Consider:
- The photo director at a 35,000-circulation daily moving to a new facility recently requested a full-blown darkroom, with multiple enlargers and the preservation of an ancient Wing-Lynch film processor. When management politely pointed out that newspapers were moving toward digital cameras (hereinafter called "ditcams") requiring only a token darkroom, the photo director pouted, "I hate those things."
- The good news from January’s Super Bowl XXXIV was that three-quarters of all pictures taken by newspapers, wire services and newsmagazines were shot with digital cameras, according to a report by Kenny Irby of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. The bad news? One-quarter were still shot using film.
- In response to ditcams’ rapidly falling prices, The Associated Press has dropped its technology-marketing effort, will no longer sell ditcams and is curtailing development of its digital picture archive.
The first ditcams of a decade ago were feeble. They had slow shutter speeds, responded in a peculiar manner to anything but pure sunlight, and made relatively low-resolution images. Oh, and they cost more than a good automobile.
Today, ditcams offer better speed, are better about ambient lighting and make big, mega-pixel images. Oh, and they cost little more than a really expensive computer.
For example, the Nikon D-1 camera, released last year, has a suggested manufacturer’s retail price of $6,680–but I found one on the Internet for $4,999. With all the accessories, it’s still only $7,000. And this is a camera that creates 3.8-megabyte TIFF files.
On the horizon: A new chip designed by color-scanning developer Scitex will bring better resolution and more speed to a camera able to use standard 35mm lenses at their normal 35mm focal lengths. (Current ditcams change the focal lengths of existing lenses, making them wider-angle.)
Nonetheless, the transition from film to digital is like the transition from four-by-five cameras to 35mm cameras, says Alan English, assistant managing editor for photography at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. Speaking at January’s SuperConference, English said the process is "a lot more complicated than just buying digital cameras for the staff."
English, whose paper has gone 100 percent digital, said that "the most major change" came not in the office, but in the field. Photographers not only have to acquire the images, but also must learn computer skills to extract them from the cameras and place them into laptop computers. Then they must learn to edit the pictures on the laptop and transmit them back to the office.
The veteran photo director broke the process of training his staff into three pieces: the academic, the practical, and "our way." His paper took a "streetwise" approach to training and equipping his staff, acknowledging some basic skills–specifically dealing with lighting–where the staff was lacking.
English said the paper now has a policy of using supplemental lighting on all portraits, whether they are taken indoors or out. This provides a generous amount of even lighting and makes consistent reproduction easier.
"We take a ‘no excuses’ approach to equipment," English said. This means that photographers must have the right flashes and other lighting equipment, as well as spare cameras, lenses and laptops.
Further, English said, the paper encourages photographers to make images "by the numbers," using neutral-balance techniques initially developed by television photographers for motion video. To illustrate, English showed a picture of a portrait subject holding up a white card so the photographer could get an accurate white-balance on the ditcam.
"Perfect exposure will go a long way," English said. "If they get it right in the camera, there is better reproduction."
At the Democrat & Chronicle, the pre-press imaging group works across the aisle from the photographers. The two departments cooperate and learn each other’s problems. English called this the "human part of quality."
Newspapers all should approach ditcams the way the Democrat & Chronicle did–by understanding the need for a holistic approach, that you can’t skimp on equipment, and that image reproduction is a problem of both photography and pre-press. That would convince the foot-draggers of the world to put their best feet forward.
Cole is a San Francisco-based newspaper consultant and editor of The Cole Papers, a monthly newsletter on technology, journalism and publishing. E-mail, dmc@colegroup.com; phone, (650) 994-2100; fax, (650) 994-2108. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily TechNews or NAA.