The time was 2007, and CIPA (the Camera & Imaging Products Association, representing Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Kodak, Casio, Panasonic, Sigma, Hoya, and Fuji) showed that the score was thus:

Digital Cameras: 6,926,337

Film Cameras: 720,475

Through November last year, CIPA reported 11,199,175 digital cameras shipped. It’s pretty hard to argue, digital has won. But, even with the plethora of Nikon digital SLR cameras and Canon Powershot digital cameras and Sony digital cameras and blah blah blah out there, there’re a few things about photography that haven’t changed. Not as a result of image stabilization, nothing to do whatsoever with megapixels and ISO, and they don’t care whether you’re using a point-and-shoot or a DSLR.

They’re the elements and principles of design and composition.

Now, I’m sure Chuck and Jody at the least are intimately familiar with these, but here’s the shakedown for those wondering how design matters to their photography.

Design, as an art field, is the purposeful application of art as a form of communication. It uses, as its foundation, a handful of basic principles that are derived from visual Gestalt theory and human psychology. In short, these points are the underlying points for all visual arts, and that definitely includes photography.

There are, typically, seven “elements” of design:

1. Color
2. Value
3. Line
4. Shape
5. Form
6. Texture
7. Space

These seven elements interact through a group of nine principles:

1. Balance
2. Emphasis
3. Harmony
4. Movement
5. Pattern / Rhythm
6. Proportion
7. Tension
8. Unity
9. Variety

A very good explanation of all of these elements and principles can be found here, and I highly encourage everyone to give them a quick reading over (even if you’ve already learned this before, it never hurts to get a refresher.) Good photography is the act of recognizing elements and arranging them in a frame according to one or more of the principles, and being able to recognize and use these ideas will do more to make you a better photographer than more megapixels or higher ISO ever will. The cameras we sell are tools, and every year we have better and better tools to sell you, but at the end of the day it’s up to you to use them, is your craft up to it?

(Note, I’ve got a few points more to cover on some of those, but not all of them, so for the truly curious I’ll repeat my earlier link explaining them all: http://nubloo.com/design/the-5×5-secret-rules-in-design-and-advertising-part-2-composition. Next time: Seeing in Color)