Photograghy studio's leap into digital future is paying off
BY AKWELI PARKER, The Virginian-Pilot
Photo by Tamara Voninski
Copyright 1997, Landmark Communications Inc.
Today, after 160 years of progress in photographic technology, just about anybody can take pictures with a simple point-and-shoot camera. Yet developing those photos remains an art along the lines of alchemy or voodoo. The practitioner deals with dangerous chemicals, uses specialized tools and a healthy dollop of intuition in achieving the final result.
Joel Becker Digital Photography is coming out of those Dark(room) Ages, using the latest advance in photo technology -- digital imaging.
At least half a dozen other Hampton Roads companies are seeing the light as well, but with equipment prices still in the stratosphere, Becker's switch to the cutting-edge technology has been a leap of faith.
So far the gamble's been worth it, says Becker.
``Jobs that used to take three days to complete can now be delivered in minutes,'' says Becker, a professional photographer in Norfolk.
``I would say the business has doubled or more than doubled,'' adds Sheridan Cline, the company's image manager and only other employee.
With the new technology, which they adopted about a year ago, scheduling is easier, they're able to make tighter deadlines, and clients have more flexibility.
``We don't even have to see them,'' says Cline.
Say, for instance, a company wants an image on its Web site. Becker's studio would merely shoot it, alter it onscreen, convert it to the Web's JPEG format for pictures and e-mail it to the customer.
Elapsed time: a couple of hours.
Becker learned photography in the Navy and has worked in the business since 1972. The company has been in its present location, on Virginia Beach Boulevard near Broad Creek, for 11 years.
For the most part, the company focuses on commercial and corporate clients, shooting objects ranging in size from goldfish to entire buildings.
A hacker's delight of desktop and laptop Macintosh computers allows Becker and Cline to manipulate and send images. A dye-sublimation color printer eliminates outsourcing for all but the most heavy-duty printing jobs.
But the crown jewel in the company's high-tech collection is a modified Nikon 35mm camera with a bulky digital backpack that holds a card-sized memory pack in lieu of film.
As might be expected with such leading-edge technology, the price is steep. The digital camera body itself cost $28,000, or enough to buy a low-end BMW.
It'll be a while before the investment pays for itself -- the camera's financed for three more years -- but Becker and Cline point to savings on film, chemicals and most importantly, time.
``It was a difficult decision to make a commitment, but the more we thought about it the easier it was,'' says Becker.
Although he and Cline had to dip into savings to keep the lights on for a time, he says ``now business is flowing to the point where the bills are being paid and we're actually taking home money.''
For all the merits of the technology, embracing it was a step into the unknown, according to Becker and Cline.
``It was a long learning curve for everybody, including customers,'' says Cline.
It's so new, that when they took the plunge a year ago, no one locally could even help them get set up -- they relied on a guy from Richmond who sold them the camera. When he wasn't around, which was often, Becker and Cline fell back on the manual.
In any event, Becker says, going digital is the next step for photography and will eventually send film and darkrooms the way of the daguerreotype.
``We decided if we're going to do this, we might as well do it now,'' says Becker.
Cheaper digital cameras have been available for years, like the ones on the consumer market that start at around $300. But, he says, ``we weren't thrilled'' with their lackluster performance.
One big difference between Becker's camera and digital devices on the consumer market is their resolution. Because of the massive amounts of computer memory required with any type of imaging, today's consumer machines offer the choice of a very few good-looking, high-resolution pictures or lots of less-detailed, low-res ones.
The studio's camera, on the other hand, stores up to 26 17-megabyte pictures per data card. Each picture consists of 6 million pixels -- enough so that at 6 feet away the camera captures a subject's every wrinkle, pore and hair in painstaking, sometimes embarrassing detail.
The studio generally charges $300 per shot -- pricy, but it includes a waiver of copyright and royalty fees. In addition, the company charges $75 an hour for graphics guru Cline's time on the computer -- a relative bargain considering it costs $100 an hour or more to send a picture out for airbrush work.
Customers, who Becker says don't pay any more for the digital service than they do for traditional processes, give the gizmos good marks.
``I was unfamiliar with it,'' admits Joy Ellinor, art director for Eastern Virginia Medical School, ``but I was very pleased.'' She often calls on Becker when the medical school or non-profit groups need brochures.
Instead of waiting days for unsatisfactory contact sheets to come back, she says, ``you bring it up right there on the shoot.''
Lynn Harrisberger, who runs the Harrisberger Creative ad agency in Virginia Beach, agrees.
``In advertising you're always under a deadline. Digital photography enables people to make deadlines that used to be unreasonable.''
Still, says Becker, the darkroom isn't dead just yet.
``I would still recommend people learn darkroom, maybe because I'm old-fashioned,'' he says.
Another reason: lots of people still use good old-fashioned slide projectors or need black-and-white glossies.
Cline, though, says she won't miss groping around in the messy, environmentally hostile confines of the darkroom. With digital imaging, everything from adjusting brightness and contrast to adding special effects to removing someone's blemishes is a mouse-click away.
Says Cline, who majored in art in college, ``it's like I've been waiting for this my whole life.''
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