Lectures you remember

[cliveh]

Many years ago when I was studying photography at college we once had a visiting lecturer who spoke about relative tones in printing. In a blacked out lecture theatre he stood at a podium onto which was projected a white projector light and he held out a table tennis bat painted white and asked us what colour we see. We said white. He then proceeded to hold out 6 or 7 more bats, asking the same question which showed a progressively brighter white, which eventually made the first bat look grey. The message that I’m sure you expert printers out there already appreciate, is that of relative values. I subsequently found it useful to have 2 sheets of printing paper pinned to the wall just outside my student darkroom. One of which was completely fogged and completely developed and one taken straight out the box and fixed. Thus giving a reference point in ambient light of a complete black and white with the printing paper we were using.

Can others recall a particular lecture or lesson learned in the past they never forgot?

 

[snapguy]

No Leica

I remember attending a couple of Leica seminars called Leica Flying Short Courses. Leitz people would fly around the country and give seminars to professional photographers. They told us that one could not use a 35mm still camera with a motor drive because static electricity would build up and ruin your film. They used to stand on a M-series Leica body to show how rugged it was and told us you just couldn't use a cheapie camera where the back slid off so you could actually load the camera with new film in the same decade as when you started. They also said the perfect b&w negative was one that you had to utilize #4 single grade paper to get enough contrast. I thought to myself "balderdash."