Going back to real photography

[Black Dog]

And from me too! Get plenty of good books to inspire you and you're away

 

[Grif]

i cant get the HD images i could with my digital i had
but i think thats more me than camera

i 500 shots and then delete the rubbish ones

with film you take more time to pick your shot and think more about what your shooting for me

Didn't we talk the same way back when about the problems with 35mm and folks just becomming "gunners" with motor drives to get one out of 36 good pic's vs the "real" photographers using sheet or 120? I guess it comes around again.

And HDR,,, Humm,,, wasn't there some old guy that could play a piano pretty well that came up with HDR for film? (I just kill me some days ;-)

 

[removed account4]

Didn't we talk the same way back when about the problems with 35mm and folks just becomming "gunners" with motor drives to get one out of 36 good pic's vs the "real" photographers using sheet or 120? I guess it comes around again.

And HDR,,, Humm,,, wasn't there some old guy that could play a piano pretty well that came up with HDR for film? (I just kill me some days ;-)

someone has to be the ugly-cousin ..
if it isn't one thing it's another

 

[tubetime]

Large Format and the Canon 5D

Here's a little animation I put together about my approach to photography.

Dead Link Removed

 

[Sirius Glass]

FOTFLMAO!!

Steve

 

[M.A.Longmore]

Here's a little animation I put together about my approach to photography.

Dead Link Removed

.
Magnificent !

 

[MrRgoyer]

Welcome back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Film is amazing and I'm glad I'm part ofthe dark side.

 

[Black Dog]

You cannot resist the power of the darkslide

 

[MinoltaUser10]

The Joys of Film

I look on in amazement at digital photographers at weddings. They take a shot during the dancing, then stop to examine the digital image they just made - "was it good or should I delete it?" During those five-or-so seconds of examination he's missed one or two important one-chance-only shots. Because he's too busy doing in real-time what should be his post-production winnowing.

I've shot weddings for friends - either as the only or as a secondary photographer. Using film, I did not have the opportunity - nor the distraction - of trying to figure out if the last shot should be deleted. Instead, I would be concentrating on getting the right shots, watching the action and being ready to grab the shot. I used my experience in setting the f-stop, speed, depth-of-field - and bracketing as well - to be prepared. And then to keep shooting as the action dictated. I left my "is it good or is it not good" soliloquy for when I got the prints back from the lab and discarded those that were not up to standard. But as I had kept shooting I almost always had a "good" version of any "bad" shot.

 

[Black Dog]

I've noticed what you describe so many times as well!

 

[mark54]

Real photography is with a P/S, as with my mother's Brownie, still have some of the pictures going back to the 1950's, retired lady with a great Hawaiian sunset, with a 35mm P/S, a grandmother of her granddaughter in a field of flowers with a 110. These last two I seen while working in a one hour photo shop years ago.
Yes I do have digital cameras, backs turned off, using the real viewfinder, and several 35mm SLRs and P/S, my Minolta Hi-Matic can out do the digitals, and for normal photos can not tell from the SLRs photos, the SLR's are better when going for the art side of photography, negs are in a box, can find them when I want. Just getting back to darkroom myself. Learn the craft, and learn to enjoy other peoples photos as well.
Learn good photo habits, they will serve you for life. Mark

 

[Aristophanes]

Reading this fascinating thread, these 2 quotes leaped out at me because the reflect the analog dilemma most clairvoayantly:

I would suggest that there is also a top-down aspect to digital & computer and a bottom-up aspect to film & darkroom work, that makes for a huge distinction.

I tried once the darkroom stuff and found it boring. What I love about photography and specially analog is that you just need a film roll and an ancient camera to produce stunning pictures. Cameras that most people will throw away.

I have very limited darkroom experience but agree that the experience is critical. I remember the days (1990's...I'm not that old) when I had a decent relationship with a good photo store who processed my film and listened to my print requests. They had a plethora of checkboxes on their envelopes for the no-nothing point-and-shooter to the pro, and I too advantage. I shot Rollei 35 and Nikon F with decent glass as a young "prosumer". Swallowed up in digital later, I now realize that all my photos taken since look essentially the same compared to my earlier analog shots which are abundant with character. Turning pages, my older photo albums crackle with difference and energy depending on which film I happened to have in the camera, which camera, grain, etc. It's a wonderful journey.

That's been lost with digital. I love the absolute clarity digital gives me, but I feel like I am driving through the same suburb when looking at my shots. There's no quirkiness; no randomness; and digital being so unforgiving with mistakes, no quirky salvations. I like to hold prints as much as online sharing. In fact, the real joy of analog is in the print for me, but that is a process I never did.

I do not have the time for a scanner and am loathe to spend more time in front of a computer screen. And with no darkroom experience, space for, or time to learn I feel that jumping back into film is a real test. Last summer I took my Minolta X-500 and gear out with Ektar 100 and was very impressed with the results, manual focus and all! Did the same with my Olympus 35 RC and was again impressed. I then bought an incredible bargain Mamiya 645e and am looking to leverage my composition and exposure skills with the MF format, preferably in B&W, but am stymied by how to get to the print stage effectively and affordably without it becoming a part-time job

Anyway, terrific, inspiring thread.

 

[jimkuykendall]

It gives me a great deal of satifaction reading all these posts about the real photography. I've done it off and on for many years with the film, digital and even instant prints from Mom's old Polaroid! I continue to return to the original format, film. Someone selling photogear once asked, "Why are you doing this in digital"? My answer was simple, it has become it's own type of therapy. Even the industrial photography I did for so long is a recollection of simple healing that has its own reward. Thanks for the memories, to turn an oft used phrase best said by the late Bob Hope.

 

[williamkazak]

This is a great thread to read. I have a B&W develop and print background as well as a life in photography with a photo degree. I put my DSLR's down for December and I have yet to take them back up. I have been getting my B&W darkroom stuff together again. I just shot three rolls of 35mm T-Max, yet to develop. Not so sure what part of all this I am willing to play right now. I think that I will develop the film myself, then put it into plastic pages and scan (as a proofsheet). Then, it is all up in the air from there. I hate the idea of spending $100 on ink for my printer. Also, it is a shame that my enlarger with my Apo Rodagon is just sitting there, unused for so long now. Any needed print correction is going to be easier on my computer after I scan the negative I want to print.

 

[cliveh]

Chemical photography is the nearest you will get to pure magic.

 

[Steve Smith]

They take a shot during the dancing, then stop to examine the digital image they just made - "was it good or should I delete it?" During those five-or-so seconds of examination he's missed one or two important one-chance-only shots.

I have seen sports photographers doing that too.


Steve.

 

[williamkazak]

I would like to add that I finally developed my first four rolls of T-MAX 400 in over eleven years. Yea! Most of it came back to me. (slight misload of one metal spool-5 pics-nothing important lost). I finally remember using only water on a stop bath in the past but this time I could not remember how to mix up my stop bath! No wonder. I never did for film. Then, I did something else I never did before. I poured the 32 oz of used fixer back into the half gallon container. I always used to just throw it away as a one shot. No big deal as I will re-use it next time. When I was done, I had to say, "this is photography"!
What throws me off now is remembering some film enthusiasts saying to scan the negs while in the Printfile sleeves to get an idea of what pictures to really persue. My scanner wants them in strips, with only two rows for the real scans. It won't accurately scan the Printfile sheet because I only get a negative appearance when I do that and not a positive photo to look at. Bummer, because I thought hybrid. Back in the film game now.

 

[williamkazak]

I learned that I can "invert" the proof sheet in Photoshop to see it as a positive.

 

[realart21]

Any memorable rare moments in life can never be forget for whole life. Real photography is on basis of street events, family events etc.

 

[Roger Cole]

Liberated from the computer. Most of us sit in from of these damn things all day long - imagine spending your spare time sat in front of a work tool.

WORD!

I'm a network engineer. I surf the Internet at home (mostly forums of my hobby interests) extensive, keep in touch via email, then go to work and sit in front of a computer for work email and a terminal program configuring devices to keep Internet traffic flowing. It's nice to get off the damned thing and get my hands wet and feel like I'm actually crafting something.

Plus I started in photography when that's the way it was done, never got over the excitement of watching a print come up in the developer tray, and I enjoy it.

That last is key. Because I enjoy doing it this way.

 

[TheMissingLink]

Roger,

me too, Networker, Cluster,*nix-administration and architect.

Nothing in my free time can bring me in front of a terminal. If I imagine all the hours over hours I would have to spend in front of a screen to re-invent everything with Pooshop to reach only 25% of the skills I already have ...perhaps only to notice I have to wait a few more years for the technique still to be developed ...


Horst

 

[Julashleigh]

Back to the Darkroom

As an old Irish Newspaper Press photographer said shortly before he died, 'There is nothing like the smell of the darkroom with it's Stop-bath and Whisky!' Amen

 

[Black Dog]

+1 to that!

 

[williamkazak]

I just had to re-read most of this entire thread. I finally sold my two Nikon D300 bodies and I am down to one Nikon F100 film body now with a pair of prime lenses. I always liked a 35, 50 and 85 prime lens combination over the years. I am awaiting the newest Nikon 35mm F1.8G for FX to complete my newest lens kit. I have been agonizing about not having a digital body right now but after reading this thread again, it hardly makes sense to agonize while I can shoot film like I always used to. As a matter of fact, I recently shot a friend's wife's birthday party with two rolls of Portra 36 exposures and some of the same party with a friend's digital Fuji S5 body. The Fuji, which is supposed to be so great for color wasn't in this case. I don't want that camera now. I am convincing myself that film is real photography for me. Digital was mostly "snapshots" in comparison. Maybe digital is too easy. I like the manipulation that can be done on a model in post processing with digital but film, especially B&W, is real photography and it always has been. for me.

 

[williamkazak]

The latest is that I just developed another four rolls of T-Max film using T-Max developer. I find that ISO 400 is useful to have around as I can push it whenever necessary. I will be making proofsheets using my Canon scanner and inverting in Photoshop to see them as positives. I purchased a used Nikon D7000 body (DX) locally thru Craigslist and I settled on buying a new Nikon 35mm F1.8G (DX) lens.