Framing: By this, I mean taking the time/effort to actually take the picture that seems like a good picture. With “no roll” cameras, this sometimes goes out the window: You can take a zillion pics and (later) pic the best. But I used to go into the woods with my 4×5 view camera with 12 double-sided film holders (24 shots; less than a regular 36-shot roll of 35mm film). While I always carried extra film and a changing bag, I never needed it. Under those constraints, I took so much time to frame the pic, set the depth of field, wait for the sun to move beyond the tree … etc. Totally different. While I love that I can burn digitally through dozens of rolls of formerly physical film photographing this or that, the best pics I’ve taken – digitally – have been very heavily composed. Focus on this, not that. Make sure the fence is/isn’t in frame. And so on.

Take this sorta artsy picture of a trash can in the snow, with the shadows from the snow fence falling on the snow. Notice how the snow fence shadows line up with the ribs of the garbage can? Very much on purpose, and – to me – a better pic for making this effort.

Mode choice: BW vs color. Sure, can convert, but if you shoot – intentionally – in BW you’re thinking differently than if color. You look at light and shadows in a very different way. If doing color, more of a shades of colors, juxtaposition of yellow vs. blue and so on.

In the picture to the right, I made a very conscious decision to use a black and white – actually, infrared (IR) – camera. This picture would have been considerable different if it had been taken gray scale or in color. Might have been good, but not what I was looking for.

Depth of field: Makes all the difference in non-I’m-here-with-my-friends pics. Pic of a woman/cat/tree with just one important part in focus, the rest softer. Harder, but more powerful – less “capture the moment” snapshot pics and more of here’s what I think is important [for whatever reason]. (NOTE: both are good; just different).

In this nasturtium picture, I deliberately focused on the flower only, leaving the background/stem fuzzy: Now you look at the blossom only.

No end of roll: The best portrait pics are those when you tell the subject that there are just a few frames left, just chill … and magic. With digital, there is no “end of roll.” On the non-Luddite side, you can take a zillion pics, and three might be great, vs. one or so pics in a couple of rolls of film. Coin toss to a degree, but it’s a tool (…hey, almost end of roll, relax.) that’s now gone.

I actually don’t have that good an example of this to show right now (need to scan same): I haven’t done too many portraits, and they have not gone as well as I would have hoped. I’m more of a nature/architecture photographer.