Film in the newspaper?

I've had my rolleiflex shots in the weeklies around here (upstate NY), as well as slides from my 35mm cameras. I don't think I've had any in the daily that were shot recently though.

Film is a perfectly valid choice for aesthetic reasons, and thank god there's still room for that in the industry.

Obviously times have changed in terms of deadlines but if you can make a case for creating a good image to illustrate a story...why not.

I'm the chief photographer at a daily paper. I've shot film just once (for the paper) since 2004. It was a series of portraits of local artists at work. I used my Hassie and tri-x.

Well since my 'cover' was blown (thanks banana <bg>) I figured I should jump in. As noted previously by good buddy and fellow grunt , brother Colin, the photos were indeed shot with film ( Hasselblad 503cx, 50 Cf, Tri X in Rodinal for the curious). I understand the concern that some expressed about whether or not the photos were dropped onto a rebate template as I have seen that happen ( not at the Globe as far as I know) and that's a no go for me.

We're given tremendous freedom at the Globe to pursue what we feel will work for any given assignment. Naturally my D3's bear the brunt of the load but I've been blessed with editors who are not averse to and in fact understand what film photography can bring to the table. Obviously it's not something I'm going to pull out all the time but there are some assignments that call for it. Sandhu was not something I planned for. I brought the camera along just in case and to be honest, I had another idea in mind but when I found the 50 in my bag instead of the 80, things changed. (I almost always have a film camera with me when I'm working and it's usually an MP)

Certain sections are more open to film work as can be expected. Main news section, not so much unless we're working on a big project ( Oil Sands that Colin brought up and which Ed Burtynsky shot main art for (yeah, would loved to have been in a helo over The Fort in sub zero temps ha ha). The arts/ style/ life sections ( the business section ran my pinholes) are extremely receptive to it and our photo editors ( all of whom know their way around a camera to say the least ) don't need to do much pushing if I give them something good, but it's up to me to make sure I give them work that won't get them laughed out of meetings. The boss would love to see more film work whether it's the toy camera, mf or lf, doesn't matter as long as we give our readers work that is visually compelling.

There are photographers at the other papers who still shoot film (usually Lecia rf) but unfortunately, they're not using them for assignments. Their hierarchy might be less open to that, dunno.


Fred

canuhead said:

We're given tremendous freedom at the Globe to pursue what we feel will work for any given assignment. Naturally my D3's bear the brunt of the load but I've been blessed with editors who are not averse to and in fact understand what film photography can bring to the table.

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I would love to work for your paper! I'm not a "working pro" at the moment but it sounds like a great environment.

cmacd123 said:

Many of the "old standby" products were from that era. 90 second developers, alcohol baths to dry negatives. The Photographer would soup the film, enlarge the still wet negs. make a print and give it a quick pass through fix and wash, run it on a dryer with the most contaminated canvas belt in the world. The print would go to be printed, and then probably thrown away as it would already be faded.

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For some reason I always though the plate preparation process for photographic prints was destructive to the print.

These days it's easier, soup the film, squeegee it and scan it.

wogster said:

For some reason I always though the plate preparation process for photographic prints was destructive to the print.

These days it's easier, soup the film, squeegee it and scan it.

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The only plate prep I ever saw was an a school tour ot the long defunct Ottawa Journal back when I was in grade school. They had what might be called a scanner. The print was on one table and a Zinc Plate was on another. Both tables went back and forth, and a stylus dug into the zinc in proportion ot the density of the print, while also vibrating to create halftone dots. Each pass the picture and the plate moved slightly sideways. I think they could scale with this gizmo also.
The finished plate was then sent to the sterotype department where it was placed with the type and the page was pressed into a soft paper mat, which was then bent and used to cast the printing plates. Lead all over the place. The original type was cast to order with Linotype machines.

Mounting the photo on the engraving machine may have made it unuseable.