It took many years for digital photography to catch on due to a lack of software available such as that of Photoshop (only marketed in 1989). However, come 2003 digital camera sales surpassed that of the film cameras according to the Photo Marketing Association. With this new digital world some companies thrived such as that of Epson and Hewlett-Packard whereas others such as Kodak, who in 2005 decided to cease production of its black and white printing paper thus assisting to seal the fate of darkroom photography.

Advertising as text without any pictures accompanying the text is found to be considerable boring to a mass audience and is not an effective way of advertising a product, with peoples love of pictures, photographs soon became a staple of the daily paper and in the last quarter of the 20th century most newspapers made the transition to colour printing for photographs on their news papers to appeal to as many consumers as possible.

Amateur photography for the masses can be seen as a positive and a democratic social phenomenon, being that it is easy to buy and learn to use a digital camera this is making everyone a visual recorder of his own life, but likewise it is a successful, capitalist business phenomenon. Without the lure of fortunes to be made from millions of customers, it is unlikely that the businesses that have made such an impact would have entered the field.