# Digital Photography at Professional Photography Studios (Portraits) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995 "2002-10-12T20:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnW77707](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@JohnW77707](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnW77707)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995/1 "2002-10-12T20:33:49Z")
Mrs. W. took the girls to our local photographer for some photos to send to the grandparents, etc. Apparently the photographer has switched to taking pictures with a digital camera. Presumably this high quality, but I got to wondering – how can a digital camera possibly produce anything with the same clarity and vibrant color as a professional film? (Note: I haven’t seen the output yet). Is there some process to convert the digital image to film, so it can be developed in the traditional manner? Are the digital images just _that good_? Or should be I prepared to complain about low-quality shots? JohnW77707 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995/2 "2002-10-12T21:57:53Z")
If the photographer has got good enough gear, your eyes won’t be able to tell the difference. You shouldn’t be “prepared” to complain about poor quality without even seeing the product. Why couln’t they bring the product home? There’s nothing to develop. One possibility is that the photographer laks a hi-res digital printer, and had to send the file elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995/3 "2002-10-12T22:56:33Z")
I would like to know if the colors match correctly – have they managed to faithfully reproduce colors in professional equipment. I have been using good-quality (3 megapixel) consumer digital cameras for snapshots for the past couple of years with great pleasure. The resolution is so good that a 5x7 or a 8x10 looks like it was taken with film. Except for one weakness… color. The ccd (at least in my camera) has a strange sensitivity to colors. One day I proudly displayed a photo I took on the screen to a friend’s mother and she said: “but my dress isn’t blue, it’s purple!” and right she was – Barny purple – but the camera missed it. Likewise, when I take pictures of things that fluoresce slightly, everything looks out of whack. One bit of evidence that the ccd shifts colors around a bit can be seen by looking through the camera at a infrared remote – you can see the infrared flashes. Are there any professional photograpthers out there who can vouch for accurate colors in the really good digital cameras? ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995/4 "2002-10-12T23:04:10Z")
I just had Aaron’s portrait done at a studio with digital equipment. So far, the colors look “normal”, but I haven’t gotten the finished prints yet. The pix are in the second link of my sig. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995/5 "2002-10-13T00:49:41Z")
I always run digital images through Photoshop to adjust the colors. Once the images come out of the camera you can adjust them on screen and you have to know how to adjust the colors to work with your printer. A profession portrait photographer should be able to do this, and would be expected to do this to produce prints. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995/6 "2002-10-13T01:26:45Z")
A guy I work with, an amature photographer, still uses large format? (big) film for portraits. He say’s the photos look better than with his high-res digital camera. He has the latest and greatest mac software for his digital stuff. I was just talking to him about this a couple weeks ago. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2002, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/digital-photography-at-professional-photography-studios-portraits/131995/7 "2002-10-13T01:36:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Why couln’t they bring the product home? There’s nothing to develop. One possibility is that the photographer laks a hi-res digital printer, and had to send the file elsewhere. - - - There was an article on Slashdot about this a couple weeks back; it seems that when a pro photographer takes photos and sends the film out to be developed, the developer sends back the photos scanned hi-res onto a CD for the photographer to proof. The reason the phtographer doesn’t let you have the CD is because of the way they charge for their work: they often don’t profit much charging for the “session”, they actually expect to make money by charging a lot for copies of film photos. If they sold you the digital photo CD, you’d be able to make as many perfect copies yourself as you wanted. ~ So now, many are willing to sell you that master CD (if you ask about it), but they will usually charge a higher price than for their biggest regular (film print) package because they know if you have that CD you probably won’t be buying any more copies from them. ~