"There is a digital divide between film use and digital photography use," he said. "It is gentrifying photography, because it really requires a personal computer to take full advantage of digital photography, and a third of U.S. households still don't have a PC."
Changing Lives
The human side of the story is still unfolding as people go digital and start exploring.
For her photo book, the author was able to clean up pictures using entry-level software, making family history immediate and memorable.
(Julia Ewan -- The Washington Post)
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Digital Snapshot Digital cameras are displacing film models, creating new markets for photo-sharing Web sites and image-editing software.
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Bob Feldman, 53, a partner at Silicon Valley's largest law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, said his high-end Nikon digital camera gave him a second chance at becoming the photographer he always wanted to be.
Feldman said good sports photography requires taking a ton of pictures to learn the correct settings. Digital made it easier by giving him instant feedback on the results of aperture openings and shutter speeds. He has taken thousand of pictures of his son, Nathan, since he became a ball boy for Stanford University basketball four years ago. He also snaps away at other sporting events just for fun.
"I think I am just a year or two ahead of everybody," he said. "In a few years, millions of people will be doing this." Analysts predict booming sales of camera phones will make photography a more casual affair, pushing it out of special moments and into every nook and cranny of people's lives.
"Before, would I have thought of taking a picture of a plumbing part and taking it down to the hardware store to make sure I get the right part? No," said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president for Adobe Systems. "Can I do that with my cell phone today? Absolutely."
Adobe's Photoshop program has long been the editing tool of choice for professional artists and photographers. Lately the company has been courting digital hobbyists with a less expensive version called Photoshop Elements, basically a virtual darkroom.
"People who previously never even knew a darkroom can get sepia-tone images from color images and achieve all the traditional darkroom processes on the computer desktop," Lamkin said.
Caterina Fake, co-founder of the Web photo-sharing site Flickr, uses her camera phone to send her mother pictures of airport baggage-claim areas each time she lands on trips, to let her know she's arrived safely. Flickr, like other Internet photo services, can display photos sent via e-mail or wirelessly from cell phones and laptops.
A friend of Fake's recently had a baby, and her family documented the event live from the hospital with camera phones, posting the images online so others could watch remotely. "It is a little like having your own personal TV channel or broadcast channel," said Fake.
