Finding time in a hectic schedule to stick with film

Black and White Film, when processed at home, takes more time and energy than digital.  While someone who takes a digital photograph may spend more time tweaking their image to perfection the basic workflow from camera to viewable image is faster.  With our hectic lives and need for instant gratification many of us may find ourselves using a point and click, camera phone or possibly a dSLR for the majority of our photography and only using film for special projects.  Lately I’ve been guilty of this, I can barely find time to do my laundry let alone the 20 minutes or so it takes to process a roll of film.  And scanning, forget about it!  But I find time to toil on the internet and do other menial tasks that throughout the day somehow.  I’m not much of a TV watcher so I know that my time isn’t spent doing that.  So here are some ideas for finding the time to get something done that may be a little tedious.

 

Find something new to shoot, a new film or purchase a new camera (swap with a buddy or go to a thrift store if you’re on a tight budget).  When I have a new camera I always find time to shoot at least a roll of film to run the camera through it’s passes.  If I travel to a new location I’ll normally increase my average roll output by a large margin.

Dedicate an evening to processing film.  If you can set aside a couple of hours to process film once a week you’ll be doing good.

Pay someone else to do it for you.  Hey, it’s an option, not one that would work for me, but if you just don’t have the time…  Personally I’d rather just shoot digital since I’m giving up the control that keeps me shooting film in the first place.

If you have a tip for those strapped for time please share it!

Despite my best efforts content on the blog has been lacking, sorry!

SO it’s been a while since I or any of the team have posted, very sorry about that. Truth is photography has taken a back seat to other priorities in life. I’m sure you can all relate, sometimes there’s just not enough time to get everything done in a week and before you know it months have passed by. Some predicted it, it’s common in blogs. You start them up, they go great and then they fizzle out. I’m still committed to the blog and will continue to write articles but I can’t make any promises about the frequency of them at this time.

With the holidays rapidly approaching are you asking for anything film related for the holidays?

Black and White Photo of the Week

365 on film 2011 06 22 – #151, a photo by DavyRocket on Flickr.

We may have to go monthly! We’ve been slacking on the FOTW feature here. Sorry!

Winter is coming

While it’s still the early stage of fall where I live for our friends in the North winter is already well on it’s way.  Hope you were able to get some nice fall colors with your slide film when it was at it’s peak!  For me when winter arrives it’s time to focus on black and white photography.  I shoot black and white year round but I find that the funnest and most challenging time to shoot landscape photography is in the winter.  Something about the starkness of trees that have lost most of their leaves, snow on the ground and ice on the ponds and lakes makes for really interesting photography.  Plus it gives me an excuse to get out of the house on otherwise cold and dreary days.

Winter photography has it’s own set of unique challenges.  White snow against dark trees makes for a high contrast scene.  You want to keep you snow white but you don’t want to loose the detail of the texture in most cases, and you also may want to keep some detail in the trees if you can help it.  If you meter snow and over expose by 2 stops you will get white snow but often times the overexposure will make for very high contrast.  When printing this loss of detail can be catastrophic to your image if not handled correctly, which takes a lot of work.  Scanning gives you more control as long as the information was captured on the negative, but it may not be as visually appealing as the scene looked to the human eye when captured.

So what are the tricks of the trade for those fantastic winter photos taken by the masters?  Well one method which seems to be effective is larger format film in slower ISO’s than most of us work with.  Medium format negatives are a big improvement over 35MM in landscape because of the larger surface area.  With more surface area to work with tonal graduations are more gradual.  Slower film captures more detail so break out that tri-pod.   Careful consideration to your metering is also paramount.  If you use the in camera or handheld meter’s recommendation without regard to your scene more than likely you will not get the image your after unless you happen to get lucky.  Like most of you I can’t afford a fancy spot meter.  I do own an inexpensive 300mm zoom lens camera that fits my very affordable EOS 35mm camera with state of the art (in the film era anyway) metering.  Instant spot meter.  It doesn’t weigh much and it’s a nice kit for taking pictures of detailed smaller objects that normally get lost in a landscape as well.

Lastly a bit about your kit in winter.  If you have a camera or other gear that relies on batteries bring spare batteries when you’re in near freezing or below temperatures.  Keep them in a pants pocket or somewhere they will stay warm.  Batteries do not always work well in the cold.  It’s a good idea to bring gloves and water.  Even though it’s cold your body can still dehydrate while out hiking.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of viewing Wolfgang Moersch’s photostream on on Flickr you might have seen some of his winter work done with his Blad and Holga.  Wolfgang Moersch is a master printer and has been at this for a while which is evident by the images he produces.   If you’ve never seen his work go check it out, it’s simply amazing.

happy halloween!

scan0001, a photo by rebeca_filgueira on Flickr.

Step by step (06.2009)

Step by step (06.2009), a photo by zgodzinski on Flickr.

BWFPOTW

You’re my boy, Blue…

…, a photo by Pawel Maciejewski on Flickr.

BWFPOTW

What’s your favorite Ilford Poll

It appears in my other film survey I neglected our friends that shoot or prefer Ilford.  So Ilford users, here’s your chance to tell us what your favorite film is.

Getting started in street photography. Article and photos by Derek Sikes

South of Market, SF

Street Photography is a subject that comes up a lot on the internet and opinions vary.  There really is no authority on the subject or even a clear definition of what street is or is not.  The overwhelming response is that we know it when we see it which is very subjective.  I don’t claim to be a great or even average street photographer, but it’s something I enjoy when I get the opportunity.

The wiki definition of street photography sites the most classic examples of street were done between 1890 and 1975.  During this time black and white film was the most prevalent medium presumably for it’s faster speed and overall economy.  The rise is directly attributed to the portable 35mm camera but there is no rule saying that your camera must be 35mm or a Leica, even if that is what the majority of the famous classic street photographers used.  Vivian Maier while not well known in her own time, was a great street photographer who used a 6×6 Rollei TLR for the majority of her work.

You can practice street photography in color and lots of people do it well, but in my opinion the best street photography has always been in black and white.  Maybe it’s because it strips away all distractions and focuses your attention on the subject, or maybe it’s because I’ve been programmed to recognize it that way.  A classic film for street is Kodak Tri-X.  The emulsion has changed since the “classic” era but no one can argue that Tri-X processed in D-76 is not a classic combination.  It’s a great place to start anyway.  As for the camera, again, the classic combination would be a Leica M-3 or M-2 witha  lens between 28 and 50mm.  There are no rules saying you can’t shoot a Nikon SLR or an Olmpus XA but the reliability and size of the Leica combination have always been a hit with the hardcore street photographers.  Keep your shutter speed fast and your f stop at f8 or higher as a general rule.  This is why fast film comes in handy.  There are times when you’ll need or want to deviate from the fast shutter speed and max DOF but as a starting point fast shutter will reduce camera shake and increased F stops increase the chances of being in focus as well as keeping the environment in focus.  You can deviate from that of course, since there are no rules, but I think the majority of what we recognize as street photography falls under those guidelines.

Protesting guy

The Ninja Assassin with the invisible Leica is mostly a myth.  It’s important to be discreet and in most cases people in the street aren’t going to pay attention to you unless you’re drawing attention to yourself.  There will be times when people notice you and look directly at you.  Having a camera pointed in your direction is not a natural thing.  The majority of people in this world are not walking around looking for a confrontation, they have places to go, people to see so more than likely if they notice they will either smile and go one about their day or they may give you a dirty or confused look.  Don’t be a photography dork and yell that you have the legal right to take their photo, even if you do.  Just smile and go on about your day.  The secret to shooting in the streets is to be courteous and leave your hang ups at home.

The train stop near EMB

Chances are you’re not going to go out on your first street shoot and get a Pulitzer unless you’re really lucky.  I’m talking winning the lottery lucky.  Start out by taking photos for yourself that have meaning.  If the right moment presents itself you may just be the next Pulitzer, but the biggest challenge is to consistently get 1 or 2 keepers in a roll.  A great photo is a combination of timing, lighting, subject and luck.  Those moments don’t present themselves on a timed interval, you have to be there with a camera, recognize what’s going on and get the shot.  It’s one of the most challenging photography disciplines you’ll ever shoot and you may never get a great photo in an entire lifetime.  This isn’t to discourage you or to sound jaded, it’s just a reality of the genre.  The positive is that you don’t need to get a foot in the door or get your big break to have an opportunity to shoot you only need to get your foot out of the door.  In this respect the playing field is very level.  You don’t need expensive equipment or a trust fund to travel the world.  The only thing you need to do is get out and shoot, look for those moments, those places that have magical lighting and interesting elements etc. and start doing it.

Copyright Laws:   http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl107.html

http://copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

I have provided a link to copyright laws in the US.  I am not a lawyer or an expert in copyright laws so if you need legal advice I suggest consulting a lawyer who specializes in the matter.

Also in response to the comments this article has received I have done some editing to correct a few things.

In regards to using a photo from Flickr on this or any other blog you can refer to their FAQ.  Below is an excerpt from the Flickr FAQ.  All photos viewed on this blog that are hosted from Flickr were done so in accordance with Flickr’s guidelines.

The photos hosted in this particular article were taken by the author and uploaded from my personal computer archives.  I retain the negatives and all rights are reserved.

I’ve found my photos on someone else’s website, what do I do?

There are a few ways that your photo might be displayed outside of Flickr, but still hosted here. Some of the ways include:

• Blogs
• Tag search applications
• Web-based games (often fun memory based programs)
• Screen savers (displaying most recent uploads, or photos from Explore, etc.)
• Desktop photo display widgets (like Apple’s Dashboard or Yahoo! Widgets)

Through the Flickr API, it is possible to construct such websites and applications that query Flickr’s publicly available photos via tags or user ID and build dynamic content that displays photos in interesting ways. If they are properly using the Flickr API and abiding by the requirements, the photo as seen on the page will link back to the photo page as it is found in your photostream and adhere to the API’s Terms of Use. The actual image itself is not hosted on that site, but the display will probably look different than what you are used to.

Some people are not comfortable with this, and we understand that. To that end, we allow our members to opt-out of API applications that search for text, tags, or your username and email address; your images may still show up in other types of API requests, however, so long as they are public and safe on Flickr. Your photos will still be searchable on Flickr.com and you will still be able to use third party sites for your own stream if you give them permission via the authorization process. Separate from the API search opt-out, we offer the opportunity for members to hide the ‘Blog This’ button above your images. This will prevent people from using Flickr’s integrated blogging feature found above a photo, though it is not a guarantee that your photo will not be blogged manually.

Note: There are a few instances where your image may be hosted on Flickr, but someone has just linked to the static image element and not through to your photostream itself. This is against the Flickr Community Guidelines. If you have questions about that, feel free to drop us a note via Get Help.