Black and white photojournalism by award winning photographer David Lee Longstreath
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tales from the trail

from Film to Digital

3/6/2023

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Transitioning from shooting film to digital images completely spoiled me.  Had I never known anything other thanTransitioning from shooting film to digital images completely spoiled me.  Had I never known anything other than a Nikon LS4000 film scanner my mind would have always been wrapped around the 15 minutes that one quality scan would require. Add in the time spent working on the image in Adobe LightRoom and then saving the file to a hard drive would mean about an hour for the completion of one frame. Along came digital, fortunately, and instead of chugging along at 20 mph I zoomed to 300 mph. These days, scanning images would require a functioning darkroom and dust free office. It would also require that I have some film to soup, scan and print on matte paper with a full archival wash. With digital images, however, I can zip from start to finish in about 10 minutes, never get my hands wet and thanks to digital programs such as Silver Efex Pro, simulate just about any Tri X film one could imagine. I lost my love for the art of making big prints the day Vin Alabiso, then the AP's executive photo editor, introduced me to digital photography at a company workshop. a Nikon LS4000 film scanner my mind would have always been wrapped around the 15 minutes that one quality scan would require. Add in the time spent working on the image in Adobe LightRoom and then saving the file to a hard drive would mean about an hour for the completion of one frame. Along came digital, fortunately, and instead of chugging along at 20 mph I zoomed to 300 mph. These days, scanning images would require a functioning darkroom and dust free office. It would also require that I have some film to soup, scan and print on matte paper with a full archival wash. With digital images, however, I can zip from start to finish in about 10 minutes, never get my hands wet and thanks to digital programs such as Silver Efex Pro, simulate just about any Tri X film one could imagine. I lost my love for the art of making big prints the day Vin Alabiso, then the AP's executive photo editor, introduced me to digital photography at a company workshop.
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Novice Buddhist monks in Yangon
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    Tales from the Trail
    Stories and thoughts from a 40 year veteran shooter.

David Lee Longstreath is a retired wire service photographer with more than 40 years experience on assignments around the world. He currently lives in upcountry Thailand.


​Contact me at dlongstreath@mac.com

Prints available at
Fine Art America.com


  • Tales from the Trail (blog)
  • Fine Art for Sale
  • Afghanistan Diary
  • Pakistan Diary
  • Tattoo Madness
  • Brother No. 1
  • Brother No. 2
  • Earthquake
  • Body Snatchers
  • Ladyboy
  • East Timor
  • Gulf War 1
  • Pakistan border camps
  • Forgotten War
  • One Survivor
  • My World in B&W
  • 10,000 Dead
  • Thaipusam In Malaysia
  • mondo bizzaro
  • About
  • Contact
  • Brutal Land
  • Tales from the Trail (blog)
  • Fine Art for Sale
  • Afghanistan Diary
  • Pakistan Diary
  • Tattoo Madness
  • Brother No. 1
  • Brother No. 2
  • Earthquake
  • Body Snatchers
  • Ladyboy
  • East Timor
  • Gulf War 1
  • Pakistan border camps
  • Forgotten War
  • One Survivor
  • My World in B&W
  • 10,000 Dead
  • Thaipusam In Malaysia
  • mondo bizzaro
  • About
  • Contact
  • Brutal Land