Cambridge Photography - High School Senior Portraits

At Cambridge Photography we have embraced digital image capture. After spending many years using photographic film to capture our fine art photographic images and glamour photos, we are now nearly 100% digital photographers.

Yes, we know that there are still those who throw bricks and make snide remarks about digital photography as a fine art medium. Five years ago, the detractors were right, today they are not. Digital capture, as a photographic medium is now the equal of photographic film when the two media are viewed as a whole. Yes, there will continue to be detractors. There are still those who lament the move away from glass photographic plates, sheet film, or even older photographic processes, and toward roll films!

Yet, photography has always been coupled with technology. As new technology has allowed new, safer or more convenient ways to capture images, photographers have embraced the new technology, and adopted it widely, when it has made sense to do so. The overriding factor has always been: Quality. In our judgment the quality of digital fine art photography equals or surpasses that of traditional silver based films and papers.

Here, direct from Greeley Colorado, is our white paper on digital photography, and our take, at Cambridge Photography, on the state of fine art digital photography.

Cambridge Photography White Paper:
An Appreciation of Photographic History

Photography is a rapidly developing medium....no pun intended. Niepce and Daguerre started it all, capturing permanent images without the use of an artist’s pencil. Only one drawback....the images could not be re-produced. Paper negatives, wet plates, dry plates and a host of other processes followed over time. Finally photography evolved to the use of modern roll and sheet film, which have, in themselves, evolved considerably since their inception.

During photographic history, spanning just 175 years, the process by which an image is captured and permanently affixed to a media has changed and evolved a number of times. Not counting the many technologies that did not come into widespread use, the average lifetime of photographic image technology has been just 35 years. Modern roll film technology has been the longest lived in terms of general use, and certainly has contributed to the popularity of photography by bringing the costs down. It is the relatively long tenure of silver based films and papers as the primary means of capturing images and affixing them permanently to paper that is the problem. Many people have forgotten that they are not the original, nor are they the perfect, photographic technology.

Today, the technological wheel is turning yet again. Modern roll film will be with us for many years, just as some people are still capturing images via Daguerre’s process. However, film is losing hold. Digital technology is rapidly providing a substitute to film as a media for capturing fine art photographs and affixing them permanently to paper.

There is no perfect way to capture a photographic image....no matter the technology used. Whether it be film or digital capture the photographer plays a crucial role as to what the outcome will be....there is crucial artistic input from the photographer. If this were not so, how can we explain the difference between family snapshots and the work of photographic artists such as Ansel Adams or Walt and Lynn Kendall of Cambridge Photography? The artistic inputs provided by the photographic artist are the main differences. It is a way of seeing light, of artistic competence in capturing the image, of artistic maximization of the image so as to provide the visual impact that the artist wants to convey. Some have accused photographers of manipulating images....Ansel Adams was fond of saying that he maximized the visual impact of images. This is no different than what a painter does in our opinion.

The Arrival of Digital Photography

As photographic artists we at first resisted digital capture and printing as a way to produce our images. However, we did dabble. We have witnessed quantum leaps in the ability to capture and affix images permanently via digital means. Finally, the day arrived, when in our best artistic opinion, we could provide digital images that were just as artistically pleasing as those that we could derive using film. But, that’s not what pushed us over the edge....

We believe that digital printing technology now allows us to produce our work in a way that is just as visually pleasing but is much more permanent than through the use of traditional photographic papers. Instead of color photographs that we might expect to last without fading and degradation for 10 or 15 years, or pushing the edge with Cibachromes® for perhaps as much as 50 years, we can now produce fine art photographs which we are reasonably confident will not degrade for 100 years or more. (Some even say 200 or more years.)

Yet, there is another factor in our decision to convert to digital capture technology....X-Rays. The simple fact is that X-Rays, like visible light, exposes traditional film. So, a conundrum for photographers who travel far afield to capture their images: How do we keep our film from being over-exposed from X-rays? We tried lead bags.....the X-ray operators just boost the power to see through the bags. We used to mail our film back and forth....parcels are now being subjected to very strong X-rays. It normally takes several exposures to X-rays, but film is ruined....useless in the artistic process once it has been “fogged.”

So, the increased security procedures attendant to modern travel are what finally pushed us over the edge. Could we afford to lose several thousands of exposures, representing several thousands of dollars of investment to security measures? No.

We are able to capture images digitally, print them digitally, and have perhaps even greater artistic influence on those images, while avoiding the pitfalls that film presents in the modern travel world. All this is achieved without sacrificing image quality. The images are different, just as there is a difference between Daguerre’s work and Ansel Adams’ work....they were using different technological processes. However, both applied the crucial artistic inputs which make their work art. We have made the move to a new media, but apply the same artistic inputs that we always have.

What We Do to Produce Our Fine Art Photographs

Whether it be a painter or a photographer it all starts with the eye. One must see the scene, see the light, think about composition, and apply the relevant technical skills with paint or camera to begin to capture the image and affix in permanently.

We start by seeing and imagining. We use the marvel of professional digital cameras to capture the fine art photographic image....this time not on film, but as a digital file or digital negative if you will. This is our fine art image; there is no other exactly like it. The light will be different, the composition will be different, and the artistic inputs will never be the same again. Just as with a traditional negative, the same image cannot be reproduced exactly. Just as with a traditional negative, the digital image can be copied and printed. It can be treated in a way to maximize the final visual impact of the photograph....the artist can apply his talents, vision and inputs to the process, whether he or she be working with a negative or a digital file. Just as with a negative a digital file is not perfect....it is not exactly what the eye sees....that is a fact of photographic life....it is what the photographic artist wrestles with.

Once captured the photographer then has the task of carefully preserving the image. The possibility of significant degradation when using film is very great. The possibility of degrading a digital file is also great if it is not properly handled. We are convinced that how the digital image is handled after leaving the camera is the key to photographic excellence. We have learned from colleagues and we have learned from hard experience how easily digital image files can be ruined and what we must do to preserve them.

We capture all of our fine art photographic images personally. We still produce some film based images, but the majority of what we now exhibit is digitally based. We stand in the rain, we stand in the sun, and we stand in the snow to capture our images. We sometimes stand for hours waiting for a truck to move, the light to be right, the scene to be as close to perfection as possible. We cannot ignore the telephone pole, the truck, the bad light and paint the scene as a painter might.

We take great pains to maintain the quality of the digital negative as we transfer the images from the camera to other storage media. Without giving away our artistic and trade secrets, suffice it to say that we utilized advanced technological means to preserve the quality of the image so that our artistic inputs may be applied to a high quality digital negative. It is the same kind of care we used to use in developing film and preserving the resulting transparencies or negatives. Again, we do this work personally.

Choosing the images to spend hours with is the next step. This is the difficult part for all photographic artists....which images deserve the sweat of your brow...the artistic inputs that you will supply with many hours of anguish to obtain the final artistic product. Many hours are spent culling images.....all done personally by Walt and Lynn.

Finally, a few images that deserve further work emerge from the many. At this point we used to go into the darkroom. Today we spend our creative juices in the “dimroom.” Instead of altering exposures using an enlarger, instead of dodging and burning with our hands and other tools, instead of the many other things that were done in darkrooms to preserve and enhance the visual impact of the finished work, we do these same kinds of things at a computer.

A computer you say! Blasphemy! Can’t be artistic!

Well, I’m here to say, as a photographic artist who has worked many years with film and in a darkroom.....the computer doesn’t do the work any more than an enlarger did the work. The artist’s brain....his or her vision.....does the work. The computer is but a tool....every bit as useless as an enlarger.....without the artistic input of the artist. Just as we used to control and adjust color, exposure, dodging, burning, cropping, etc. in the darkroom to maximize the visual impact and make the final product conform with our artistic vision.....we do the same today in the dimroom. As with all steps, these are the personal artistic inputs of the artists: Walt and Lynn Kendall.

Once the dimroom work has been done and the fine art photograph is ready to print, we personally print them. We use only acid free, museum quality/archival materials. We have moved away from traditional photographic paper because newer technology allows us to affix an even more permanent image to paper. Plus, we have the opportunity to use paper textures that we were not able to use before. The vast majority of our prints are made on German Etching Paper or Epson Archival Matte paper. The one exception to the above is our very large prints....we simply do not own large enough equipment and have our 20" X 30" (30" X 40" matted) fine art photos printed by Fine Print of Fort Collins, Colorado. Fine Print is a well known firm, which prints under our direct supervision.

Finally we mat all of our finished work personally, again using the finest acid free museum quality/archival materials. Those works that are framed are also personally framed by us.

Our goal: A fine art photograph that conveys our artistic intent powerfully and accurately. We strive to retain the visual impact of what we saw....The essence of ordinary places.