# Help! Student research on digital photography!



## littlemattc (Sep 21, 2009)

Hi all, new user to this website so not sure if this thread will be successful.

I'm a student in my final year of study where I am studying Product Design and my final year project is self directed therefore I have to select my own topic of interest, this being photography.

What I am interested in researching is if digital cameras add less value to photographs because of the difficulties in storing photos digitally, and therefore does this have an effect on the memories and emotions that photos provide. Photographs are important in peoples emotional lives and I want know if and how the digital age of photography is affecting this. 

Before digital cameras came along, people used to store their photos in shoe boxes or photo albums, often in an organized manner, but with photos being digital nowadays do people still go to the extra effort to get their photos printed and organized. 

Do people prefer digital cameras and the opportunities they provide or is it better to have a physical photo to reflect upon bringing back memories?

Please feel free to comment or add your own opinion to this post as anything will be appreciated to help with my research.


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## ann (Sep 21, 2009)

i hope they are making copies on a regular basis . I encourage my students to do so, but their eyes glaze over when they realize they just can't "throw them in a folder" and forget about them as they did negatives.

The feedback from my beginners "it is cheaper", however, they do not take into account upgrading, storage, etc. all those extra items that run up the tab. Neither do they print out many images.

I feel they are going to be very sorry when their family history is no longer available, but this has been my personal worry since digital began.

just my 2 cents


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## UUilliam (Sep 21, 2009)

Well... personally, For the Professional / Commercial photographer
Because the storage on digital is EASIER than film, more people are using it, therefore almost EVERYONE has a camera now, and most aunt n uncles have a niece/nephew who is "good at photography" so they hire them for pennies instead of hiring a Professional
This (although there has been arguments against this) is reducing the ammount of potential customers for pros, as everyone is looking for the cheapest route, not many people realise, you pay what you get.

But yeah, You can buy a 1TB drive for like £80 now... so it isnt all that dear, but it is better to buy smaller drives imo
So like 4 500GB drives, means 2TB sure.. it costs about £240 instead of £160 for 2 1tb drives
but this way, you have more backup drives and if one breaks, you have 3 more...
If you loose a negative file, you cannot retrieve it, but now we have recoversoftware (there is a new one just released that is freeware, Recuva made by the folks who make CCleaner  I recommend everyone buys it.)
If we loose a digital file, we can (sometimes)recover it


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