Digital Photography 101

A brief primer to digital photography:

Why digital photography?

We use digital phones. We like electric cars. We prefer digital music and streaming services. We prefer to stream digital tv and shows via Netflix, YouTube etc. So why not the same philosophy to digital photography?

How about film?

Girl dancing. Berkeley, 2015 #portra400 #streettogs
Downtown LA father and son. Father opening popsicle with knife, 2011 #portra400
Auto show. Kodak Portra 400.
Istanbul street portrait. Kodak Portra 400, 2013.
Suits nyc. Portra 400.
African-american cop cutout. Downtown LA, 2013 #flash #portra400

Film photography is great, but so is digital. It isn’t digital vs film, it is digital and film.

For example I like reading ebooks on my iPad *and* I like reading paper back books (Iliad by Homer, Penguin edition) and I like to write in my books with pen. The best approach is hybrid:

Embrace both.

The best way to approach digital photography

Downtown LA, 2016
Washington DC, 2018. Pentax 645Z
Man cleaning golden display. His blue glove pops out of the scene. NYC, 2017. Pentax 645Z
Cindy in Alexander’s apartment. Pentax 645Z
Cindy in Madison, Wisconsin 2017
Tilting the horizon to make a more dynamic portrait of Cindy.
Downtown LA, 2016 / PENTAX 645Z
ERIC KIM x PENTAX 645z
ERIC KIM x PENTAX 645z
PENTAX 645Z

My simple suggestion:

As automatic as possible.

The ideal digital camera is a point and shoot camera; a “set it and forget it” camera which only requires you to point, frame, compose and click the shutter during the decisive moments you find personally meaningful.

This can just mean shooting in “P” (program) mode on your camera, or just shoot fully automatic. On the Panasonic-Lumix cameras I really like the “iA” intelligent auto mode.

To RAW or Not to RAW?

I am anti RAW. Back in the days of early digital photography, RAW was necessary because the standard JPEG photos looked aesthetically ugly. But now, JPEG film simulation modes actually often look *superior* to their processed and massaged RAW file image counterparts.