'A Medium Format Shooters Photographic Process'

Dean Taylor · May 11, 2015

"Photographer Andrew Jamieson was recently asked to give a presentation at work on his medium format film photography process. Instead of sharing a slideshow, Jamieson filmed this beautiful 4-minute video that covers how he loads Tri-X film into his Hasselblad, meters and shoots his photos, develops his film, scans it into a computer, and post-processes the images in Photoshop.
'I develop my own film, I do all my own retouching and I shoot with a range of digital SLRs, 35mm and medium format cameras,' Jamieson writes. 'Ive been working on a personal project over the last year which looks at capturing Falkirks industrial past. This video shows a part of my process.'

[video]https://youtu.be/XMlg6-wXCgw[/video]

MattKing · May 11, 2015

Seems well suited for DPUG.

Zathras · May 11, 2015

I quit watching when the scanner showed up.

480sparky · May 11, 2015

FOCUS!

FOCUS!

shutterlight · May 11, 2015

Zathras said:
I quit watching when the scanner showed up.

As someone who both uses a lot of film and has made thousands of scans, I don't understand that at all.

kobaltus · May 11, 2015

I love smartlight and I hate Ansel Adams. His last exposure meter was digital pentax spot meter. Best suited for DPUG.

philipus · May 11, 2015

'A Medium Format Shooters Photographic Process'

I liked it, thanks for posting it, Dean.

Btw, what shutter release cable does he use?

Not sure why he removed the dark slide when (un-)loading the film though. Also when loading the film, it's not necessary (though the manual says one should do it) to turn the key to lift the metal edge at the side of the pressure plate, at least on my magazines; I can slide the film under the edge without trouble.

Br
Philip

film_man · May 11, 2015

Zathras said:
I quit watching when the scanner showed up.

So you made it through the first 81% of that video then.

hollowman · May 11, 2015

I enjoyed that very much, thanks for sharing.

pbromaghin · May 11, 2015

Good video. Thanks for posting.

F5B&W · May 13, 2015

I appreciated the video. I'm contemplating a similar process for a project I have in mind. Good job!

pbromaghin · May 13, 2015

You don't have to go to dpug to do scantalk. Just do it in the right forum here on apug: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

frank · May 13, 2015

Too much photoflo!

This is good for anyone who does not already do this for themselves, to watch, up until the scanner part.

DREW WILEY · May 13, 2015

What does a scanner have to do with photography? Isn't that something the Highway Patrol uses to give you a speeding ticket?

David Brown · May 13, 2015

frank said:
Too much photoflo!

Not only did the "rinse aid" appear too concentrated, but he then ran water after the rinse aid, which defeats the purpose ...

Unless he was diluting the rinse aid, but why didn't he just dilute it correctly the first time ...

Never mind.

frank · May 13, 2015

Look at all the suds/bubbles.

Rick A · May 13, 2015

DREW WILEY said:
What does a scanner have to do with photography? Isn't that something the Highway Patrol uses to give you a speeding ticket?

A scanner is what I hear in my house that notifies me of an emergency, I am a CERT member and at times I have to be a first responder.

CropDusterMan · May 13, 2015

Zathras said:
I quit watching when the scanner showed up.

LOL. I quit watching it then too.

CropDusterMan · May 13, 2015

kobaltus said:
...I hate Ansel Adams.

As Christopher Walken said during the Sicilian Scene..... "Come Again"?

shutterlight · May 14, 2015

DREW WILEY said:
What does a scanner have to do with photography? Isn't that something the Highway Patrol uses to give you a speeding ticket?

It's completely fine if scanning isn't for you. I get that, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too. To dump on all of us who do use scanners is stupid, among other things. Film is essential to my work, and so is scanning it. I use mostly color film, and that means scanning it if I'm going to do anything with it today. What else can I do? Find someone somewhere to make me c-prints? Not use color film, despite being essential to my work? Find someone somewhere to make me dye-transfer prints, despite not having the money for something like that?

The answer is obvious-- scanning and inkjet prints. Don't be ignorant, particularly in a proud way. It doesn't serve anyone's interests.

Ken Nadvornick · May 14, 2015

shutterlight said:
Don't be ignorant, particularly in a proud way. It doesn't serve anyone's interests.

It's not ignorance. It's respect for the site charter and technological focus of these discussion groups. And that respect serves the interests of the dues-paying subscribers whose main reason for supporting this site is it analog-only focus. As a subscriber yourself, I'm sure you can understand this.

If you paid good money to support a site catering to discussions of fine wine, you might be just as irritated when all of the beer-lovers showed up and told you to get over it because downing a six-pack of Bud really is a faster, cheaper, and more convenient way to get blasted.

Ken

shutterlight · May 14, 2015

Except that scanning necessarily involves film, which I'm pretty sure this site is based on and around. In today's photo world, scanning is an accepted and sometimes necessary component of using color film, unless you prefer to make pictures and then not do anything with them. That's fine, of course, but it's not for me.

Your analogy makes no sense-- scanning is a step in a process, not an alternative method (or form of alcohol, to borrow from what you said). In order to use color film for real work today, you simply must scan. There's no way around it. Yes, I suppose you can c-print, but it's becoming many orders of magnitude harder to do that, and it's not going to become any less so in the coming years.

Perhaps you believe only black and white film is "real" film, and that only darkroom prints are acceptable. If you think that, please do say so. At least I'll know where you stand.

There's also transparency film-- do you likewise consign that to a "doesn't count" bin? How does one realistically work with transparency film today, other than via scanning?

frank · May 14, 2015

Lots of people print colour neg and slide film in a darkroom using an enlarger and wet chemistry. It's not unheard of. Using a scanner is a hybrid analogue/digital process to obtain prints. At APUG we concern ourselves with the non-digital process.

That's all.

Ken Nadvornick · May 14, 2015

Please read the APUG charter. It's located in the upper left-hand corner of the home page. It cannot be stated any more clearly.

"APUG.ORG is an international community of like minded individuals devoted to traditional (non-digital) photographic processes. We are an active photographic community; our forums contain a highly detailed archive of traditional and historic photographic processes."

The well-understood and acknowledged exception for scanning relates only to posting fully analog-generated work to the galleries. And my analogy, being as it was about process and not content as you tried to recast it, makes perfect sense.

Oh, and scanning does not necessarily always involve film. I often scan small three-dimensional objects as a form of "digital macro photography". The results are often quite superior to using a native digital camera. Click here to see an example of a tiny pair of earrings.

My scanning is performed on an Epson V750-P unit. A relatively high-end, and expensive, consumer-level piece of hardware. I chose this model primarily because it can handle my 8x10 negatives. I also scan transparencies and b&w negatives using it.

But what I don't do is to bring those hybrid scanning topics to APUG, because they are off-topic here. And to do so would be disrespectful to both the site owner and his choice of site focus, as well as to the membership (and especially the dues-paying subscribership) as a whole.

Everybody knows and understands the usefulness of primary scanning for secondary reproduction. But they also know that the polite and respectful course of action is to not discuss that here, because that's not the primary focus of this site.

So they don't...

Ken

pbromaghin · May 14, 2015

"scanning is an accepted and sometimes necessary component of using color film" - And the internet is full of places, other than this one, to discuss it.

I print using the hybrid process but don't ask about it here. Apug is a blessed digital-free photographic oasis. It is the place where I have learned how to shoot and process film. Soon it will be the place where I learn how to print in a darkroom. Then I will be free to practice photography without being chained to a computer.

'A Medium Format Shooters Photographic Process'

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'A Medium Format Shooters Photographic Process'