Why shoot analogue colour photos?

[gary mulder]

Depends on taste and interest. Some would say it is very replaceable. What makes a picture is the picture, not the post-processing. A great analogue print of a poor/meaningless photograph remains a meaningless photograph.



Beautiful images, but if this fac-simile of pencil drawing/charcoal drawing is what you like here, why bother with the photography at all? Why waste time going out there chasing ... stuff, people, situations, light, textures, animals, compositions etc when you could just randomly snap images of pears on the table and then really 'make' these images in the darkroom? You could even buy negatives of pears off ebay or achieve this effect using any suitable negative taken by someone else. Job done.

In fact, taking this even further, if this visual (pictorial?) effect up here is what you seek, why not drop the photography, the expensive equipment, the hauling of stuff around altogether and aim to achieve this effect on a drawing board with pencils, charcoal, walnut ink and a stack of good quality drawing paper?

Is film photography, for some people, little more than a simulacrum of (or shortcut to) painting or drawing, achieved through the act of darkroom printing?

My motto in life is that you have to go to the toilet at regular times to relieve yourself. It doesn't have much to it, but it does relieve you.

 

[koraks]

@albireo if that was the point you were trying to make, I think it's a rather peculiar point to begin with and in my view not a very effective way to make it.

Do you see now the extreme stupidity and zealotry in this sort of social media discourse?

What zealotry I see doesn't come in the form of criticism or skepticism about film photography, really. The opposite - very much so. None is really warranted as far as I'm concerned. Everyone's entitled to their own way of relieving themselves.

 

[analogwisdom]

And how is using a digital camera so different than using a film one?

digital camera = no windy windy clicky clicky, duh.

 

[albireo]

@albireo if that was the point you were trying to make, I think it's a rather peculiar point to begin with and in my view not a very effective way to make it.

It's very effective. People sometimes understand only via a taste of their own medicine.

People constantly going around writing things like "film was meant to be printed in a darkroom" or "wet printing is more meaningful that scanning" are not making (quoting your post in #448) "normative judgements" for you, or are they? That's fine in that case, right? I'm not seeing you commenting or reacting much when that happens.

Talk about double standards.

 

[koraks]

I'm not sure what you set out to do here, but I doubt we need it or I like to be part of it.

 

[Pieter12]

digital camera = no windy windy clicky clicky, duh.

So you shoot film for the sound effects?

 

[analogwisdom]

So you shoot film for the sound effects?

partially, yes.

the smells are nice too. I enjoy a certain kind of tactility in the things I do. it's also why I collect and listen to vinyl records.

I don't pooh-pooh or yuck anyone's yum for enjoying digital things, whether it's photography or music. I am not interested in it, but I'm happy if someone else is doing something they personally enjoy.

 

[brbo]

So you shoot film for the sound effects?

Definitely beats shooting digital because you like charging batteries...

 

[Pieter12]

partially, yes.

the smells are nice too. I enjoy a certain kind of tactility in the things I do. it's also why I collect and listen to vinyl records.

I don't pooh-pooh or yuck anyone's yum for enjoying digital things, whether it's photography or music. I am not interested in it, but I'm happy if someone else is doing something they personally enjoy.

If any of my cameras have an odor (besides leather maybe), I suspect something is amiss.

Definitely beats shooting digital because you like charging batteries...

Film cameras use rechargeable batteries too.

 

[brbo]

Film cameras use rechargeable batteries too.

Not the trendy ones we use for boasting rights.

 

[DREW WILEY]

We all use digital cameras, because it requires a digit to press a shutter release. That about as far as the terminology gets in my case. I don't know what a-log this, an-other log that has to do with it. I thought those were for campfires and log cabins. I always just called it photography. Why should film usage give that up just because there's a new punk kid on the block?

 

[Pieter12]

Not the trendy ones we use for boasting rights.

Of course.

 

[Agulliver]

I was shooting some Ultramax in a small street in Panormo, Crete this evening as the sun went down and the evening diners came out. One waiter from one of the restaurants on the street approached me to say, "There's a photographer down the street there. But I think your camera is better. Real camera. Film".

Now, that was not why I was shooting on film. And the camera I was using is hardly high end (Praktica BX20S with Sigma 28-200 lens). But I guess, to the waiter (who cannot have been a day over 30) it was a bit special.

I was shooting on film because I already shot the same street at a similar time a couple of days ago on a digital camera. And I will be interested how the two sets of photos look compared to each other.

 

[ChrisGalway]

I was shooting some Ultramax in a small street in Panormo, Crete this evening as the sun went down and the evening diners came out. One waiter from one of the restaurants on the street approached me to say, "There's a photographer down the street there. But I think your camera is better. Real camera. Film".

Now, that was not why I was shooting on film. And the camera I was using is hardly high end (Praktica BX20S with Sigma 28-200 lens). But I guess, to the waiter (who cannot have been a day over 30) it was a bit special.

I was shooting on film because I already shot the same street at a similar time a couple of days ago on a digital camera. And I will be interested how the two sets of photos look compared to each other.

That looks a great place and still a pleasant temperature!

 

[Pioneer]

Color in an Argus with a Cintar triplet is special as I have not yet found a digital Argus C3.

 

[AnselMortensen]

I shoot color film so I have negatives I can throw away!
< sarcasm off>

 

[DREW WILEY]

If a negative has negative value, might as well toss it, and just keep the good ones. But if you've got chromes (slides), they're all positive.

 

[BMbikerider]

I have replied once already to this thread and my thoughts are why print colour from film. Well simply I like doing it. However my colour printing has come to a very sudden and I hope temporary loss with my Nova Processor finally giving up the struggle. The heater tubes had burnt out and spares are no longer available.

It is a bit like having to give up driving because your car has broken down, but hopefully there are still some good used 12x16 3 bath tanks that may be offered for sale. I have turned one down already because the seller was asking stupid money for it but I can wait. Don't even suggest drum processing!!!

 

[gbroadbridge]

However my colour printing has come to a very sudden and I hope temporary loss with my Nova Processor finally giving up the struggle

Maybe time for something new. 4 colour carbon transfers are interesting

 

[DREW WILEY]

There should be plenty of natural mineral pigments in your outback deserts. Crushed fire opal would allow you to expand into a new kind of psychedelic carbon printing.