oxes, to display their information. This gives digital images the boxy look that most people usually identify them with, the more pixels present, the less boxy and more pleasing the picture looks. However, to get a significant amount of pixels requires a certain amount of memory. Memory storage is perhaps the biggest hindrance to the development of digital photography. For example a relatively high resolution picture may require over one hundred megabytes of memory. (Mills, 16-17) This means that a prospective digital photographer would need to purchase a few high priced memory sticks in order to be able to shoot off the equivalent of a roll of film. Here a major change to photography can be noticed, the substitution of reusable memory sticks for one time use film. This change can be looked at in a number of ways both good and bad. For one, as soon as enough memory sticks are purchased to fulfill the needs of the photographer it is never necessary to purchase more because it is reusable. However, a drawback to this change in photography is that once data on a memory stick is erased in order to record over it that file is lost forever. This contrasts traditional film in that with film a negative is produced that the photographer can dispose of at his or her own leisure. However, changes that are brought about by the introduction of digital imaging are not limited by any means to just storage media, resolution, and cost. In order to see the larger effect of digital imaging it must be understood just how intimately bound this new technology is in everyday life.Perhaps one of the most up and coming changes that digital imaging has had on photography is its introduction into the world of biometrics. In a magazine article written by Warren Webb he describes the effectiveness of digital photography in biometrics saying, “Fingerprints, handwriting recognition, facial photographs, and retinal scans are all forms of identifying...
