How Digital Photography Changed The World
Digital photography is one of those great inventions that might get lost in the crowd of technological miracles that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s. But the digital camera definitely holds its own as one of the best among inventions like the personal computer, the cell phone, and the Internet.
Digital Photography Saves Money.
Digital technology only became affordable and available during the mid-1990s, but already it is hard to imagine a world where people spent their hard-earned money for prints of pictures of blurry babies, overexposed children, and people with their heads cut off. Before digital photography, no one knew for sure which of their pictures were bad, so it was impossible to have just the good pictures printed.
No studies can be found about the amount of money saved by consumers' not printing bad photos, but it must amount to millions if not billions of dollars since the invention of digital photography.
Digital Photography Saves The Environment.
Processing traditional photographs used silver and other chemicals to process photographs. Massive amounts of water were required to rinse the chemicals from the photographs at every stage of the process. Finally, print after print was transferred to paper to create the "proofs" from which the customer ultimately selected the one or two photographs he or she wanted to purchase.
Because the process was so complex, film developing facilities were few and far between. Consumers dropped their film off at drug stores or kiosks, and the film was transported to and from a developing facility in a gasoline-powered vehicle.
Digital photography saves countless gallons of gasoline, water, and chemicals, as well as untold forests of trees.
Digital Photography Saves Time.
When traditional photography was all we had to work with, people used to drive to the camera store, the drug store, or photo developing kiosk to turn in their film; then, the waiting began. It took anywhere from a few days to a week to get photographs developed, so people had to plan ahead when they took their pictures. A parent who wanted to send a picture of a child for a grandparent's birthday had to purchase film about ten days before the birthday to allow time to have the film developed and printed and to mail the prints.
With digital photography, Grandpa and Grandma can get same-day birthday pictures of their grandchildren.
Digital photography saves consumers time and money, conserves water, and limits the use of harmful chemicals. Digital photography is clearly one of the greatest innovations of the digital age.
