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Learning Center Myths, Misinformation & Misunderstandings
Learning Center Myths, Misinformation & Misunderstandings
Myths, Misinformation & MisunderstandingsWell-meaning reporters and marketing hype all contribute to problems in communicating digital information |
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Page 8 of 8 Even if we never made any prints from these printers and compared them, there are two things that should make one suspicious about the super-high dpis for inkjets: the highest photo-quality settings on some printers aren’t available when the high dpis are chosen; and the pro printers using the same print technology as their sibling consumer printers don’t typically include these high numbers. You have to buy printers with high-dpi capabilities, but you don’t have to set them to such heights. Digital Images Only Printed By Gnomes People don’t print digital images (so who does, then?). This is an interesting myth that has appeared in quite a few places and has gained urban legend status. The implication is that digital photographers don’t care about prints anymore (which you’ll see isn’t true). There’s a truth on one level, however; photographers don’t print as many digital images compared to the total shot judged against how many prints were made in the peak of print film usage. Let’s examine this rather big distortion of reality. First, when photographers used print film and went to a local processor, they only had one choice as to which images to print—print them all and double prints when possible. With digital, photographers have the choice that they have always wanted—just print the photos that need to be printed. Photographers aren’t printing fewer desired photos; they’re printing the desired photos instead of everything. Second, in traditional photography, going back to black-and-white work, no one ever printed every photo. Photographers would make proof sheets of the negatives, then only print images that had potential for making an attractive print. The days of “print everything” print-film processing was a distortion of the reality of photo printing. Third, the digital camera offers more possibilities of experimenting to find a good shot, resulting in a lot of images on a memory card that never have a need for a print, since only the best shot is needed for that print. Finally, digital photography offers other ways of sharing images than prints. If you can attach a photo in an e-mail to a friend or relative, there’s no need to make a print to send off to them, which was viewed, then discarded anyway.
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