World's Best Prints

In an article entitled, World's Best Prints, photographer Galen Rowell writes about his experience in converting from traditional film to digital imaging. In this article, Rowell, an internationally know nature photographer, explains that his best photos "resulted from a passionate participatory involvement with the natural scene before [his] lens." Rowell states that his concern is not with fiddling with technical aspects of the camera to create a perfect shot, but instead, he is concerned with "spending as much time as possible in the wilds doing the things that gave my life meaning." Essentially, throughout this article Rowell is trying to express the advantages one can obtain by using digital imaging. Rowell explains those involved in fine-art photography are highly resistant to digital manipulation, frowning upon the changes that could be created through Adobe Photoshop. However, according to Rowell, digital imaging allows for "faster and more consistent photography." With his conversion from traditional film processing to digitizing images, Rowell found that he could increase the size of the print without compromising the tonality or the sharpness of the image. In other words, the image quality, in terms of tone and sharpness, of the large, 50-inch digital prints were the same as the image quality of the 35 mm originals. As Rowell states, with "traditional enlargements color and contrast do fall off as they are spread ever larger and thinner through a lens, but digital information being fed into a scanning laser will expose a 5-inch print or a 50-inch print with equal color and contrast." The picture above illustrate the idea that large prints can have the same image quality as their smaller, 35 mm counterparts.

Rowell completed 45 large photographs with the help of digital imaging tools, prints he refers to as Crystal Archive LightJet photographs. In his exhibition of these photographs, a show entitled Veridical Visions, Rowell was approached with viewers asking whether or not the images had been manipulated. Thus, with the involvement of digital processes, Rowell was immediately forced to prove or validate his photos for those concerned about the truth of what he represented. In response to these concerns, Rowell says that he made his belief that "nature photographers have a sacred trust to print no more or less than what was actually before their lens, unless the image is disclosed as digitally altered or presented as digital art." However, it is also Rowell's belief that photos need not show flaws that were not before the lens, such as those flaws introduced by scratches, emulsion flaws, enlarged grain or inaccurate color shifts. Therefore, Rowell is claiming that the uncontrollable flaws introduced by technical difficulties are actually qualities that get in the way of an accurate representation. In a sense, traditional photography cannot fully capture what is before the lens. For Rowell, digital image processes have allowed results that are "more accurate renditions of what [he has] witnessed and recorded." Thus, here we can see that digital manipulation has actually increased the truth and validity of the photograph by removing scratches and grain, as well as correcting color shifts. Using digital technology, staying away from embellishment or over manipulation, can actually allow the photographer to create prints that are closer to what he/she actually saw when they took the photo.