May 16 2008
Camera Position 64 : Old Tools
Those of us who work with traditional photographic tools sometimes wonder… will those things disappear in the face of the digital revolution? Will we be stuck in the middle of an island with no way to produce images? We consider those ideas in this episode.
Links for this episode:
- B&H Photo - Great source for photo supplies
- Bostick & Sullivan - materials for handcrafted photography
- Freestyle Photo - Keepers of the old-school flame
- Pinhole Resource - It doesn’t get any more simple than this
Share This
I was actually talking about this topic the other day. One thing I think is really in the favour of film as a medium that will continue is the advent of digital negative scanners. That I think is an important step as it combines analogue and digital together.
Hi, Nigel; thanks for the comment.
Well, in my case, you’re spot-on, as what I currently do is shoot film in my 4×5 camera and then scan it in order to make digital prints from the scans. It works really, really well and combines the best of both worlds for me.
Five or so years ago, I think that folks thought that digital would just completely replace film, but I think there are a lot of possibilities in hybrid applications of both.
-Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thank you so much for this wonderful website and podcast. I am passionate about photography in all its forms, and your insights are so constructive and inspiring. I love film photography and have a darkroom at home, I think the emotion of seeing an image emerge on a blank paper is a magical moment that digital photography fails to provide. I am Brazilian and work as an English teacher, but photography is my true love. I had the chance of living in Illinois ( Blandinsville, near Macomb) as an exchange student. I have some of my work at flickr.com ( my user name is mawc_ny ). Your pictures and ideas continually inspire me to become a better photographer! My brother is a professional photographer here in Porto Alegre, Brazil ( http://www.personastudio.com.br) and also a big fan. We have hours of discussions about photography and art and your name usually comes up as inspiration! Thank you!!
Marco Cavalheiro
Are these lessons available as text too?
Or some kind of subtitling/transcript.
Hearing impaired, no native English speaker, can’t follow the podcasts as I wish.
Thank you,
Renato
Hi, Renato;
Thanks for your post.
No, I’ve not ever transcribed my oral comments into text. Because of time constraints, I don’t imagine that I will, either.
So, unfortunately, I can’t provide text transcripts.
-Jeff
Marco;
Thanks so much for your post and your very kind words!
I’m glad the podcast is useful to you and your brother. I really love talking about photography and knowing that I’m reaching those far-off corners of the world is really a lot of fun.
Keep listening!
-Jeff
Jeff -
I’m interested in learning more about large format photography. Can you recommend either books and/or web sites?
Thanks,
Nick.
Hi, Nick;
The best book that I know of is Jim Stone’s A User’s Guide to the View Camera. It’s what we use to teach large format cameras in at College of DuPage.
Other good resources would be:
Using the View Camera by Steve Simmons
The Camera by Ansel Adams (an oldie but a goodie… the one I learned from as a young photographer)
The best all-around website I know for large format photography is:
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/
Hope that helps!
-Jeff
Jeff, I understand the Zen appeal of film and large format photography. After 40 years of chemical photography I’m very happy to have sold my darkroom and be fully digital. For me I can still find the Zen feelings and involvement with a DSLR. I don’t have the movements of a view camera but I do enjoy stitching together several exposures to achieve the detail normally associated with a 4×5. Seeing the image come together on the computer is just as much fun for me as having discolored fingers while I gaze into the tray of developer.
Oh, I get that, Ron… I think you’re right, too… my point is that I think there are a lot of photographers out there who haven’t had that experience of gazing into the tray of developer and that the tactile experience of doing that is very different from the experience of doing similar things on a computer screen.
Keep shooting!
-Jeff
Jeff, I’ve been listening to Camera Position for quite sometime now, but this i must admit is my first trip to the website. This whole idea really hits home with me. My personal work is almost all 4×5 and then scanned. But in the real world i’m a digital image artist, photoshop teacher, and help people convert from film to digital. I’m a digital guru, eveyone comes to me for tech updates, etc. But I love the old ways. But also i have to admit that photoshop is nice. I can do so much more in Photoshop than i could in the darkroom, and i can watch TV while i do it. I fully agree that if anyone gets the chance they should at least try a 4×5 camera. The experience is like none other. You look at photography in a whole other aspect. I may go shooting for a couple hours and only make one or two exposures. You learn to really make the shot count. You really take an intimate look at the exposure you are about to make and what our vision for that image is. I have to send my chromes out of state now a days just to have developed so everything included, it cost me about $8 a shot. But since i have this whole mindset i take that into the digital world as well. I may have a 4 gig card in my camera, but still only take 10 shots on a full day of shooting. Then working on that one image in photoshop that i labored on in the camera. And finally seeing that print come off my printer, it just is so rewarding. It’s the best of all the worlds. And film is not dead yet. In fact all the camera and supply stores shut down here (other than Ritz, etc) and yet the other day a new place opened where we can rent darkroom space. It’s still there and going strong. Man i could go on forever about this. BTW, whatever happened to the Italy trip.
Andy;
Thanks for your post.
I think that, say, 5 years ago, there were people saying that traditional photography was “over” and that we would never see serious photographers using film in the future. I think that vision has been proven wrong on so many levels and we’re seeing a great number of photographers using hybrid methods (like you describe) as well as straight film workflows.
I think the beauty of our current situation is that there are choices and we can exploit those choices creatively. If the digital revolution did nothing else, it at least put some great and useful (traditional) photo gear on the market at really great prices. I just picked up a used Hasselblad lens in near-perfect condition for less than 1/8 of what it would cost new.
Amazing.
Thanks again,
-Jeff