Over the course of time that modern multi-dye layer color imaging has existed–from the 1930’s to the present, many chemical processes have come and gone–until digital imaging became the medium of choice in the early 2000’s. Dye stability in older color prints produced through wet chemistry processes has vulnerabilities to ultra-violet (UV) energy, humidity, heat, general atmospheric deterioration as well as a host of other factors. Digital print output has constantly improved and is now considered to be far superior to the vast majority of the earlier wet chemical processed color prints.
In the realm of color slides and transparencies, which can be digitally scanned and printed, Kodachrome is considered the gold standard of dye stability. With the exception of Kodachrome, most early color slide/transparency processes have not withstood the test of time without some level of deterioration.
The overarching reason for the deterioration of color photographic images is the inherent instability of the organic dye layers that form the image. (The manufacturers of color film and photographic paper almost always print disclaimers of dye stability on their product packaging.)
By contrast, black and white film and photographic paper images, essentially microscopic grains of pure silver suspended in a hardened gelatin emulsion, when properly stored and displayed, last decades with little to no deterioration for the very reason that silver is an element that reacts very little with oxygen and other atmospheric compounds.
Exposure to direct sunlight or the UV from fluorescent lighting tends to degrade almost any image or dye system over time, including non-photographic pigments found in paints, fabrics, and building materials.
Digital files (so far as is presently known) do not degrade in image quality over time, but the various media on which digital files are stored is subject to deterioration for a variety of factors. Digital files must either be viewed on a monitor or printed to be viewed and appreciated. On the other hand, as stated previously, properly processed black and white prints possess permanency attributes unmatched by most color materials. An additional benefit to black and white film based photography is that properly processed black and white negatives have similar permanency standards to black and white prints. For example glass plate negatives of early Colorado photographers’ works still exist and can be printed, though many have been digitized.
So why capture landscapes in color? The answer lies in digital photography technology.
Software enhancements and changes to digital files have few limits. Digitally captured landscapes can be altered to such a degree that there is little resemblance to the original scene. The question then becomes, “How much is too much?” There comes a point when an image has been so altered that it has become “artificial” and too far removed from the originally captured image.
The issues of digitally altered images “going too far” are for the most part irrelevant in film-based black and white literal representational photography. The majority of landscape photographers still using film seek to image a landscape scene as they see it–perhaps taking modest interpretive license in terms of composition, lens and filter choice, point of view, exposure and tonal placement. The lesson here is that the film medium has inherent limitations, while the digital medium has few constraints. Each has its place in the world of photography.
Finally, what is the subjective difference in the “look” between digital prints and silver halide digital prints?
Because actual photographic prints are composed of coatings of randomly dispersed suspended particles of silver in a hardened gelatin emulsion, there is a “scattered grain structure” that forms the image. The grain structure of the original negative is also represented in the print, creating two superimposed media in the one printed image. Smooth tonal gradations are the hallmarks of photographic prints. The photographic print is thought by many aficionados to be the ideal means of representing the subtleties of the natural world. Viewed from the perspective of painterly technique the black and white photographic print is “microscopically pointillistic.”
There is an analogue in the world of cinematography to the photographic print. Movies made on film have a distinctly different “look and feel” than those produced using digital video technology. The randomized grain structure of movie film creates a softer, more authentic atmosphere of reality that cinematographers aspire to achieve for certain themes.
Contrasted with the random structure of a conventional photographic print is the orderly lattice structure of the digital print, in which an image is formed by microscopic dots of colored ink arranged in tiny rows and columns. Digital prints have a certain look of intensity and sharpness when compared to color photographic prints produced on earlier light sensitive photographic papers processed chemically. Because digital color prints are almost 100 percent of all prints now produced, the resulting colors today are what most viewers accept as “standard.”
Over the ninety years or so that color photographic printing technology has existed succeeding generations have accepted the color standards of their time. These standards have changed with prevailing technology. What was viewed as “good” color fifty years ago appears drab and faded compared to the digital color prints of today.
One of the shortcomings of digital printing technology, whether color or black and white, is the issue of “clipping,” most evident in brilliantly sun-lit clouds or snow scenes. “Clipping” is the loss of subtle gradations in high brightness values in a print, analogous to distortion of high notes in an audio recording. If one scrutinizes a digital landscape photographic print of a winter scene and/or one incorporating sunlit clouds, the highest brightness values in the snow and clouds often clump together, losing tonal differentiation.
Properly exposed and developed large format black and white negatives yield prints that faithfully separate the highest brightness scene values without the troublesome “clipping” effect. The smoothest possible tonal transition is one of the major hallmarks of large format fine silver halide photographic prints. Landscapes in reality are a palette of endlessly subtle shadow and highlight transition. Large format film-based black and white photography is unmatched in revealing these subtleties in ways that draw the viewer’s attention, prolonged gaze and ultimate wonder.