Over the last twenty five years working practices for professional photographers have undergone radical change and many traditional techniques requiring high levels of skill and experience have disappeared. This technological shockwave pushed many commercial practitioners out of business, as they could not evolve or adapt to the new challenges ahead.

To begin with the high-end technology was so expensive it was only for the elite few working on advertising campaigns. The digital capture equipment was cumbersome and for many it was like reinventing the wheel, and not quite getting it round! Photographers clinging to their traditional ways laughed at digital capture and said it would never be as good as film, but these words must have been ringing in their ears only decade later. Today the best digital camera equipment out classes film by a huge margin. It delivers staggeringly sharp and detailed images that we now taken for granted and are considered the norm by a new digital generation. Paul Wenham-Clarke has been a commercial photographer and lecturer throughout this digital revolution. He worked with Quantel Ltd the British company that invented digital manipulation with their Paintbox machine in 1981, now held as an exhibit in the Science Museum. Paul will relay his experiences and discuss their implications on today’s photographic professionals and art practitioners.