EVERYONE’S A PHOTOGRAPHER NOW ! The photography evolution.
Not so very long ago photography was the preserve of professionals and serious hobbyists.
Many people had an uncle or a neighbour who owned an ancient Box Brownie that was dusted off for family gatherings, the results being less than flattering (assuming your head was still in frame !). More formal gatherings were often graced by the local pro who could be guaranteed to delivery high quality 6x4 glossy prints at a premium price. As parents we’ve all felt the pain of taking out a second mortgage to pay for school photos, despite our dear offspring doing their best to look bored senseless. And as a kid, I loved sorting through old black and white family photos with my Mum. A happy memory.
Photographs back then were for special occasions. A treasured record of a happy moment in time, in colour if you were lucky. Of course there were newsworthy shots in the daily papers and monthly magazines (no, not those kind……) featuring numerous gobsmacking images (on second thoughts….).
A surge in the world economy in the late 1960s and early 1970s and huge improvements in mass manufacturing processes, in Japan especially, led to a drop in price and availability for consumer goods. Cameras and camera equipment most certainly came into this category. Major manufacturers like Canon, Olympus and Nikon were able to offer more and more advanced kit at an (almost) affordable price. Cameras became lighter and less bulky and were becoming a common sight on the beaches of Torremolinos and Talacre. Holiday snaps became the norm, all captured on 35 mm film. Waiting for your photographs to come back from the developer, and the subsequent disappointment with the out of focus, over-exposed results, are long forgotten feelings today.
In 1975, Kodak produced the first “digital” camera. In a backward step, it was the size of a bread bin and took around 30 seconds to produce an image which was around 0.01 megapixels and saved to a cassette tape (ask your parents what a cassette tape is kids!!). It would be more than 10 years before what was the first truly digital camera was produced. Fujix’s DS-1P came with a 2MB memory card and could store up to 10 images. Neither of these cameras were ever commercially available but both represented significant steps forward in photographic technology.
Then in 1994 Apple (yes Apple !) produced the first affordable digital camera at around $1000. The Apple QuickTake was designed by Kodak and manufactured by Chinon in Japan. The QuickTake 100 had a fixed 50mm equivalent lens, an optical viewfinder and an LCD display to view the settings. It was Apple’s first venture into digital camera space. Again, the major players were quick to follow with their own DSLR offerings, each new model claiming to deliver more than its rivals and predecssors. We also saw the compact camera making photography even more accessible and convenient, and with basic image editing software included in Microsoft’s Office package, popularity soared again.
Five years later Kyocera launched the Visual Phone VP-210, the world’s first camera phone. Imagine it - a phone that had a camera in it !! In 1999 ! The real game changer, however, came in 2007 with Apple’s first iPhone. It may not have been the first phone camera but in terms of usability, convenience and desirability it blew the market apart. Today, the iPhone is the biggest selling camera ever.
Ok class, history lesson over.
Going from the old wooden large format cameras that we often see in cowboy movies, to Kodak film jobbies through to Polaroids, the evolution has been going on for over a century. We’ve reached a point where the majority of the world’s adult population has a camera with them at all times. There’s more tech in them than was used in NASA’s moon landings (the astronauts were issued with Hasselblad cameras by the way). Today’s smartphones come equipped with multiple lenses, Bionic chips (can I have ketchup with mine please?), night vision, AI, increasingly powerful sensors, and more and more megapixels have given everyone the capability to produce stunning images anytime, anywhere. I’ve just spec’d the latest iPhone model and, at the risk of losing a large part of my audience, here it is:
Pro 12MP camera system: Telephoto, Wide and Ultra Wide cameras
Telephoto: ƒ/2.8 aperture
Wide: ƒ/1.5 aperture
Ultra Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture and 120° field of view
3x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 6x optical zoom range
Digital zoom up to 15x
Night mode portraits enabled by LiDAR scanner
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Light Mono)
Dual optical image stabilisation (Telephoto and Wide)
Sensor‑shift optical image stabilisation (Wide)
Six‑element lens (Telephoto and Ultra Wide); seven‑element lens (Wide)
True Tone flash with slow sync
Panorama (up to 63MP)
Sapphire crystal lens cover
100% Focus Pixels (Wide)
Night mode
Deep Fusion
Smart HDR 4
Photographic Styles
Macro photography
Apple ProRAW
Wide colour capture for photos and Live Photos
Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
Advanced red‑eye correction
Photo geotagging
Auto image stabilisation
Burst mode
Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG
Still here? Good. Thank you.
The whole point of this ramble down memory (human not digital) lane is two-fold. Does the availability of all this tech make people better photographers and is the profusion of images on social media devaluing the art form?
Let’s look at the first point. I have no doubt that the majority of users will simply wish to capture a second in time (whether that be Tracey regurgitating 15 sambucas or their cockapoo wearing its new elf outfit) and that’s not a bad thing. I’m certain, though, that some folks will become more interested in expanding their photography knowledge and experience, hopefully through taking a ‘phone image that gives them great pleasure. I’ve got an up to date iPhone and use it on many of my landscape shoots, both for recording a location for future reference and to enable me to upload an image to social media in real time. I’m able to edit, crop, and reframe the image before uploading it and can honestly say I’m really happy with results. I know lots of other photographers who exclusively post phone shots on their social feeds and you’d struggle to see the difference between them and an image shot on pro kit. The only drawback will be if the creator wants to produce a large print. I’m not convinced that the resulting print will be of sufficient quality (certainly not for large sized commercial use) but I’m open to persuasion.
Which brings me to the second point. Is the art of photography now devalued by both it’s volume and immediacy? As someone who earns revenue from my work, should I be concerned? I’m as guilty as anyone else in this. I regularly upload phone shots to social media and I post stuff every day on a range of platforms, although the majority of uploads are pro camera DSLR images. Selling images to publications (including newspapers) has always been a tough game but when someone captures a great image on a phone, be it a weather event or a snap of a celebrity, they can send that image in seconds and get paid equally as quickly. Additionally, someone is more likely to want to hang one of their images on the lounge wall rather than purchase one of my outstanding landscape creations (apologies for the shameless plug there….). So there’s the commercial devaluation to ponder but there’s also the image overload devaluation which for me is a greater concern (you know who I mean here Tracey’s mate….). Will we reach a point where subsequent generations fail to appreciate a wonderful image because they’ve already seen 100 weirdly dressed cockapoo images that morning? Devalued and desensitised maybe?
Interestingly, the big hitters such as Nikon, Canon, Fuji etc have seen a steady decline in sales of “proper” cameras for a number of years now. I’m sure they’ll continue to innovate and re-invent but is the writing on the wall? Don’t be surprised if one of them goes bang sometime soon.
Lots to ponder but one thing’s certain - the evolution will continue and while I honestly believe that’s a good thing, I clearly have reservations.
Oh, and don’t get me started on video……….
