Film? Digital

When I first got into photography there was more to it than today, the greatest change was that it used to require film. Film was expensive in a few ways, first was the fact that you had to buy it, then because the rolls came in certain numbers of exposures you had to be careful what you shot.  Film came in 12, 24, and 36 exposures. Film also came in speeds, there was 64, 100, 200 and 400, (later 1000) ASA. Each speed had its purpose, the lower the number the less light needed to get the shot you wanted, if you were shooting at night, 400 or 1000 were a must and even then the shot could be grainy, requiring a flash to add more light. The higher the speed film the more light it absorbed allowing a faster shutter speed so as not to allow moving targets to blur. Because of the costs involved you didn't go shooting willy nilly like you can today. You framed the shot, you set the focal points, (focus) the aperture and shutter speeds. As you progressed in photography you would get better as you went, making each adjustment for light and refocusing as your subject moved and advancing the film between each photo. As you know, today you pretty much just snap away, the digital memory of the camera or memory card can hold many photos and todays cameras pretty much make all the other settings for you. the other cost of photography was development. Unless you had a darkroom of your own, this required mailing out or dropping your film off at a photo processor. There teh technician could make some changes during development to try to save what you couldn't get right. this was pretty much limited to brightness, contrast, and color tint and saturation. If you blew the shot what you paid to have developed would oft be disposed of. Today anyone can take a decent photo. The camera does most of the work and what you didn't get right can be corrected on your computer using a myriad of programs. Today, having a good eye for framing a photo really isn't needed, once back at the desk you can re-center a shot and even customize it to be something it never was.

Photography as an art form is all but dead, at the same time though, today's technology allows a person to capture accurately what possibly would have been missed before, just by simply holding the button. 

It also allows you to get more shots of the same thing.

Objects in the shade were almost impossible in the past due to backlight contrast. Items half in and half out of the shade were totally dismal.

Not today.