Wednesday, January 24, 2007 10:34 PM CST
Demise of the darkroom
Digital photography closes door on film development in high schools
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
Gone are the days when yearbook classrooms smelled of film developing chemicals.
With the advent of digital photography, high school darkrooms are becoming a thing of the past. And darkroom techniques -- if taught at all -- are imparted mostly to cultivate students’ appreciation for the history of photography, according to educators.
“I think digital photography is putting the conventional darkroom out of existence,” said Jay Ballard, a science and driver’s education teacher at Neoga High School who used to lead a photography club.
Interest in that organization waned just before digital photography became the standard. But even if the club were to be revived, Ballard doubts club members would spend as much time in the school’s darkroom as they did previously.
“I think I would insist on using it so they see the history” of photography, he said. “It’s so much simpler with digital (cameras), to shoot it and see what you’ve got right away, and then transfer it to your computer and enhance it.”
Ballard also believes it is much easier and faster to process digital pictures -- to employ darkroom techniques, in other words -- with a computer.
And there is a cost savings in the digital era, as film and darkroom chemicals and equipment can be expensive, said educators.
At Charleston High School, the yearbook staff began converting to digital photography four years ago, according to advisor Janice Barger, who also teaches business.
“I don’t think the school has a darkroom,” she said.
The pictures from digital cameras are of higher resolution than photos scanned from film negatives, Barger reported. She said digital photography “is less expensive, and much easier. It saves time, (and) it’s improved the quality overall.”
MHS graphic arts teacher Tom Epperson, whose advanced class handles the printing tasks for the Mattoon school district, bid farewell to darkroom lessons about two years ago, opting for all-digital photography. The decision was made easier by school computer upgrades, as well as the ease of producing color pictures from digital cameras, he said.
“I thought I (had) better start going that way,” he said. “The speed, the quality -- it’s so much faster. And a big motivator for me was we could go to color, and spend less time at it.
“We try to stay as current as we can in here. (Digital photography) is cheaper, faster and it’s the way the industry is going.”
Even so, Epperson talks about the school’s darkroom with a touch of nostalgia. After all, he built it when he started at MHS almost 30 years ago.
And that darkroom is still in use, albeit by another instructor. Rick Hartom incorporates darkroom skills into his communications class at MHS.
“My emphasis (on film photography) is primarily historical,” he said, noting the class also touches on video, computer-aided drafting and graphic design, and traditional drawing design.
“And I personally enjoy it,” Hartom added. “I think traditional skills are really important -- they help you understand state-of-the-art in modern times.”
At Neoga High School, Ballard regards himself as “one of the last holdouts” because he still uses film cameras for his personal photography. However, he rarely develops his own film in a darkroom, preferring to send his negatives to a lab for processing.
“The darkroom is still there,” he said. “It just isn’t used.”
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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