Digital Cameras, Editing Software
Bring Technology to Photographers
By KRISTIN HUSSEY
WSJ.COM
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Over the last few years, technology has changed the face of photojournalism. In many newsrooms, digital cameras capture images on computer disks rather than on film.
But the technological advances have also raised questions of ethics. It's now much easier to alter an image using Photoshop or other editing software programs than before -- a practice that is nearly always considered unethical in journalistic photography. And publication of photos on the Web has opened a new area for copyright concerns and payment.
After a career as a photographer and photo editor, most recently as director of photography at the Anchorage Times in Alaska and picture editor at the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, Mark Dolan moved to academia. He is now an assistant professor of journalism at Syracuse University's Department of Visual and Interactive Communication at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. This year, Mr. Dolan is teaching a beginning photography/videography class for broadcast-news students, an advanced photojournalism course and a picture-editing class.
WSJ.com: Let's start with an overview -- how has technology changed photojournalism?
Mr. Dolan: It's still in the process of changing. For me, in a lot of ways, it hasn't changed it at all. Going from regular film to digital is just one aspect we're dealing with. That's really no more in many regards than going from a typewriter to a computer. That's just a tool. You still have to teach people how to make images that communicate, are storytelling and relevant to the story. That process doesn't change because you're using a camera without film.
In other regards it has changed the profession. For one thing, digital ... the quality is not quite there. The best image you can make is really not the best image you're going to get from film. But it's close.
Now people can shoot pictures and have that picture ready to transmit two minutes after it was shot, as opposed to before, where you had to get to a place to develop the film and transmit it. All you have to do is look at the last World Series and the late games they had -- if you can get pictures in 20 minutes early, that's a major factor.
When you talk about doing this for deadline, some of the most common deadline use is for sports. Although now we're entering an election and that's certainly going to be a deadline use.
Some [digital cameras] don't respond as quickly, so there's a little bit of a lag time between when you press the button and the shutter is released. When you're using a motordrive that's not digital, you can get as much as six frames a second or faster. With digital equipment, people are finding that that is significantly slowed down.
Another factor: Newspapers have Web sites and they want to get all they can out of their Web sites, so they're using video streaming. Some newspapers are now requiring photographers to shoot both video and still.
Q: From a teaching perspective, are students in your program now required to take classes that focus on the technological side of things?
A: Not really. In my advanced photo class, we bring in people to talk about digital cameras and transmitting pictures and shooting from remote locations.
It's important that they be aware of it, but at this point for these students, I believe it's more important for them to learn their craft, and that's really to learn how to make images that have impact and have content.
Nobody's going to get hired, or even get an internship, because they know how to use digital equipment. If they don't have a portfolio to show with compelling images, people are not going to be interested unless they're hiring for a technician position. But we're not training people to be technicians, we're training them to be journalists.
Q: What about some of the ethical questions that come up now that Photoshop and other editing programs have gotten so sophisticated? Do you have ethics classes now, and are they any different than they were before?
A: We have a strong program in photojournalism as well as a strong program in studio photography. There are some things that are perfectly fine to do in studio classes that you can't do in journalism classes.
You can't be creating elements in a picture or removing elements in a picture because you don't like the way they fit in there aesthetically, not for journalism. It's easy to do more sophisticated and seamless manipulation of a picture but it was never OK before [and isn't OK now].
There's always issues that come up and are discussed when it comes to photography and how images are manipulated.
Mr. Dolan survived a plane crash in Alaska while traveling to a freelance assignment -- and shot a picture of himself in front of the wreckage.
Making the basic rule that you should not do anything to a picture that you normally would not do in a darkroom -- that's the safest way to maintain your department. People, I think, get into trouble when they try to stretch what's allowable.
Q: In terms of photo rights and being paid for photos used on the Web, what is the trend for photographers?
A: It's hard to say. It's one of these things that's developing right now. Most of the work for that is being done by freelance photographers.
The short answer is, it's kind of coming together even as we talk about it. The trend is that it's a point of contention. That's the main thing. Generally, publications want more and more rights for same amount of money, or less. The interesting thing now is that all of this, this grab for photo rights, has largely come about as a factor on the Internet. More and more publications are trying to get that same thing they already paid for, for the magazine or newspaper, on the Web. And they want to do it without paying the person extra.
Because of the Internet, these photographers, who are dispersed all over, have an easy means of communicating their concerns to each other as a group. If photographer is having a problem, they can get the word out to thousands of photographers all over world.
Q: What are the main Web sites that photographers use?
A: News photographers generally use the National Press Photographers Association Web site (www.nppa.org); freelance contract photographers also use that and they use the American Society of Magazine Photographers site (www.asmp.org).
Q: Are you seeing an increase or decrease in interest in photojournalism? Or is it about the same as it's always been?
A: We're in an interesting time. It's a great time for me to be a teacher because it's easier to get students jobs. Right now there seem to be more openings for photographers and picture editors than there has been in well over 10 years.
I think it's a factor of the economy -- that it has been pretty solid -- but also the fact of proliferation of sites on the Internet.
America Online, MSNBC, any of these places that use photos are having to hire picture editors. They're hiring away picture editors from magazines and newspapers, creating openings at Web sites and at newspapers and magazines. |
