Why illustrations are better than photography

I received an interesting comment on my previous post about Botanical Illustration about why illustrations would be preferable over photographs. I thought it would be worth an in-depth explanation for others who might have the same question.

Not to come to the defense of my work too quickly, but there are four primary reasons that make illustrations more useful than photographs for scientific purposes.

First, illustration allows the artist to enhance particular traits (especially diagnostic ones) and de-emphasize those that aren't critical. With a photograph, the entire image is equally "resolved" with no single feature more prominent. Scientists or enthusiasts looking at the illustrations are focused on the diagnostic features rather than unimportant traits which can be obscured with too many details.

Secondly, the items being drawn are sometimes extremely small. Major features might be only 2-3 mm long with critical details being 0.2mm or even smaller in size. These details are nearly impossible to photograph without specialized equipment.

Third, It is quite difficult to effectively light an object that you are photographing from 1 or 2 cm away. There's simple no way to fit a flash or off-camera light into the space between the lens and the object.

Fourth: and probably most importantly, the samples being used for the illustrations are prepared specimens. In the case of botanical illustrations, I am working from pressed specimens that lose their natural structures in the process. Flowers are crushed flat, leaves no longer curve gracefully like they do in a live specimen. A photograph would be unable to restore "life" to the specimen, but with illustration, the artist can breathe new life into the sample and give it a natural appearance more useful to a botanist.

Good question. I hope that helps give a different perspective on why illustrations are still used in the age of computers. Obviously a lot of illustrators are starting to implement computer illustrations instead of pen & ink, but it requires digitizing tablets to be able to do it effectively.