My trip down to St. Louis really put the zap on digital photography for me.
I took several shots that I really like, but the sky in each image looks like crap. I’m having a hard time with the look of digital skies… first, you have “banding” because photons do not make indentations on a digital sensor. This causes sharp falloff between shades of gray rather than a nice fade. Next, you have that dull aluminum look to deal with. This is more of a problem with black and white than it is with color.
Sure, you can add heavy grain effects, but digital grain falls in a straight line, rather than a random pattern. It’s really difficult getting a digital sky to look natural. Why? Because it’s not!
Look closely, you’ll see what I mean. Once you “see” it, you’ll be able to recognize digital from film straightaway. You’ll never look at images the same. At least for me, I truly like the look of film above digital. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could have the same ease and speed that digital offers when using film!
I’ve spent days fucking around with these digital photos, NOT being creative, but attempting to cover-over and enhance all the digital shortcomings. No, it’s not me, it’s the nature of digital. I look at aluminum skies all day long in other people’s images. It’s just that most people don’t “see” it – you have to slow down and really look before you start to notice the obvious.
No matter how you slice it, B&W digital skies are extremely problematic. While digital has its place, and I shoot digital myself, it is just not the same as film. Next time I go down I’ll be sure to take some film captures.