Our vacation is underway, as Debbie and I set out from our Chattanooga home Sunday morning about 8:30 am EDT. We reached our first day goal of Shreveport, Louisiana, some nine hours later, and after finding a decent hotel room, settled in for the night. It was all interstate driving, something we avoid usually. To us, taking the “backroads” (meaning US and state highways) is worth the additional travel time, because seeing the ever-changing landscapes, farms, towns, or even cities of America is the real reward. However, COVID-19 has changed our usual vacation approach, and we stayed on the interstate. Even choosing a hotel is affected. We usually book our hotel rooms “on the fly” using smartphone apps, and Sunday was no exception. However, our first hotel in Shreveport was unacceptably dirty - it was clear that it had not been occupied or cleaned in quite some time. We asked for and received our money back and found a different hotel - cleaner than the first but still far from ideal. We spent the night there anyway and set out for Austin, Texas, this morning.
For today’s trip, we decided to take backroads to get to Austin. The reason for this was to avoid traveling anywhere near Dallas, which is a very hot “hotspot for COVID-19. Obviously, we are nervous about being in Texas at all right now, so anything we can do to take precautions is a good idea. The drive was quite enjoyable vent with some intermittent rain. Both the rolling plains and the flat prairies of Texas are a joy to see from the backroads. Our road, US 79, was both flat and straight with little traffic - a fun drive in our 2007 VW Rabbit.
We arrived safely at our AirBnb about 3:00 pm and have settled in nicely. We went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant that had outdoor seating and braved the mid 90° heat. There was a market adjacent to the restaurant that had an interesting sign that demanded to be captured, so I took out my Minolta XE-5 on shot two frames of Ultrafine Extreme 100.
Tomorrow will have adventures of its own, so stay tuned.
Kevin
Subscribe to Uncle Jonesy's Cameras
Posts
All Comments
Monday, July 6, 2020
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Vacation Camera Choices
Both Debbie and I are K-5 public school teachers, so a couple of months off during the summer is a cherished blessing for which we are very grateful. Now experienced empty nesters, we use this time for extended travel that usually involves visiting our daughters and also some amount of camping. We have just returned from a camping trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia that we enjoyed very much despite spending two of the three nights in a motel due to weather concerns. Tent camping and rain to not play well together.
Our next journey begins this Friday and will take us to the American southwest to visit both daughters, neither of whom actually live in that part of the country but instead are joining us for visits. Our youngest will be with us in Austin, Texas, while our oldest will join us in Taos, New Mexico. Because they actually live in Seattle and Denver, respectively, we do not get to see them very much, so we are very excited about this trip indeed. Sadly, Texas is seeing significant increases in COVID-19, so we are going to take all precautions as we go, just as we have been doing here at home in Chattanooga.
I am taking two manual focus SLR's, and they are both Minoltas (no surprise there, of course). I am taking my beloved X-700 (with the Minolta Motor Drive 1) and my Minolta XE-5. The X-700 is an old favorite, being only the second (and last) film camera I ever purchased new in the box. It feels so good in my hand, and I am so familiar with the controls that I feel at one with the camera. I replaced the seals and the mirror bumper on this one last year, so it fires silky smooth. Even though the Motor Drive 1 adds weight, I love the grip and the two auxiliary shutter buttons. And speaking of the shutter buttons, this camera features the touch-sensitive buttons that turn on the meter when touched. The meter will go off again in a few second, saving battery power. All the batteries in the camera and motor drive are fresh and can be replaced easily on the road. In my experience, the X-700's meter is highly accurate, which is a factor because of the film I will be shooting in it (more on that later).
I should also point out that I originally bought the XE-5 to "rescue it" - that is to clean it up, test it out, and sell it to someone looking for a working film camera. I have only begun to test it, having taken it on our Blue Ridge Parkway trip last week. I have not yet seen the resulting photographs, so I suppose using it on this trip out west is some level of risk. Nevertheless, I want to see what it can do. Again, I'm not worried. These cameras have been found to be reliable.
Obviously, one of the main reasons for choosing two Minolta SLR's is so that I can use whatever lenses I bring on both camera bodies. Aside from the above-mentioned 50mm f1.4 lens, I will bring two more lenses: my Minolta Celtic 28mm f2.8 and my Minolta Celtic 135mm f3.5. The 28mm f2.8 is one of my favorite lenses, even though it is a "Celtic" lens, which was Minolta's line of budget lenses. Despite its "budget" status, I have found mine to be a solid performer with good resolution and contrast. Sometimes I go out on a photowalk with this lens only and adapt my "vision" to its perspective. The 135mm f3.5, also a Celtic lens, is a lens I seldom use, because it's just too long for me. I got a good deal on it when I purchased it, but I really wished I had found an 85mm or a 100mm Minolta lens at such a good deal. Using a 135mm lens without a tripod is risky at best. Nevertheless, I am taking this lens with the intent of finding uses for it, and I will have a tripod with me as well.
Because I am taking two SLR bodies with me, my plan is to shoot black and white film in one (the XE-5) and color film in the other (the X-700). As for color film, I chose to shoot the newly re-introduced Kodak Ektachrome V100 slide film. My experience with this film since Kodak brought it back last year have been very positive, and I think it will be the perfect film on which to capture the colors of both Austin, Texas and the desert of Taos, New Mexico. Slide film requires accurate exposure, and I am confident that my X-700 will be up to the task. I won't be developing the Ektachrome, but instead I will be sending it to The Darkroom lab in San Clemente, California for development. I've had good experience with the rolls of Fuji Provia slide film I sent them recently.
As for black and white film. the XE-5 already has some Ultrafine Extreme 100 in it, and I have plenty more of that in the form of a bulk roll. However, there is a part of me that wants to shoot a lot of Kodak Tri-X 400 on this trip, and I have a lot of it as well. I also am intrigued by the idea of limiting oneself to a single black and white film for a trip or project. Tri-X 400 is a magical film to me, especially when it is developed in Kodak D-76 diluted 1:1 with distilled water. I love making darkroom prints from Tri-X negatives as well.
I will take more film than I probably will need for a very important reason: I want to force myself to shoot a lot on this trip. I tend to be "thrifty' when it comes to shooting film, and I try to make every shot count. However, when I look at all the photographs I took while on a particular trip, more often than not I will ask myself, "Is this all the photographs I took of this trip? Why didn't I shoot more?" I am determined to come away with lots of photographic souvenirs and not have regrets over not shooting more.
Vacations for Debbie and me are all about experiences and memories, and they are the perfect opportunities to apply the craft of photography. Trips like this do not happen very often; we don't get to see our daughters and their mates often either. I want to experience all the good parts of such a trip and capture as much of it on film as I can. Stay tuned for updates from the road.
Kevin
UPDATE: We've just learned that the governor of New Mexico has issued an executive order requiring all out-of-state visitors to self-quarantine for fourteen days, so we probably will not be going to New Mexico after all. Instead, we will visit our oldest daughter in Denver.
Our next journey begins this Friday and will take us to the American southwest to visit both daughters, neither of whom actually live in that part of the country but instead are joining us for visits. Our youngest will be with us in Austin, Texas, while our oldest will join us in Taos, New Mexico. Because they actually live in Seattle and Denver, respectively, we do not get to see them very much, so we are very excited about this trip indeed. Sadly, Texas is seeing significant increases in COVID-19, so we are going to take all precautions as we go, just as we have been doing here at home in Chattanooga.
Because I have "too many cameras," choosing what cameras and film to take on a trip like this can be stressful. I try to involve most, if not all of my favorite cameras over time, and my interests in shooting them shifts constantly from one to another. Sometimes I am greatly influenced by what others are shooting through a blog post I have read or a podcast episode I have listened to. I can be very impressionable. However, this time I have made my choices - choices that I think will both be enjoyable and will work well for me. Let me give you some insight into how I arrived at my decision.
 |
| My Minolta XE-5 (L) and my Minolta X-700, about to go west. |
I am taking two manual focus SLR's, and they are both Minoltas (no surprise there, of course). I am taking my beloved X-700 (with the Minolta Motor Drive 1) and my Minolta XE-5. The X-700 is an old favorite, being only the second (and last) film camera I ever purchased new in the box. It feels so good in my hand, and I am so familiar with the controls that I feel at one with the camera. I replaced the seals and the mirror bumper on this one last year, so it fires silky smooth. Even though the Motor Drive 1 adds weight, I love the grip and the two auxiliary shutter buttons. And speaking of the shutter buttons, this camera features the touch-sensitive buttons that turn on the meter when touched. The meter will go off again in a few second, saving battery power. All the batteries in the camera and motor drive are fresh and can be replaced easily on the road. In my experience, the X-700's meter is highly accurate, which is a factor because of the film I will be shooting in it (more on that later).
The XE-5 is a fairly new camera to me. I found mine in a local Facebook Marketplace ad for a very good price, considering that it came with a Minolta MC Rokkor-X f1.4 50mm lens, a lens I had always wanted. I have two Minolta f1.7 lenses already, and both of them are good. However, this f1.4 has a stellar reputation. I've had it cleaned, so it's ready to go. The XE-5 camera itself is one of several interesting results of the collaboration between Minolta and Leitz Camera of Germany, makers of the famous Leica rangefinder cameras. Much of the Minolta XE came from Leitz, especially the extremely smooth Leitz-Copal shutter. I can attest that it rivals my Nikon FE for the smoothest, vibration-less shutter. The design of the XE is very much like Minolta SRT-202 (Uncle Jonesy's, of course), so my fingers know where everything is on it. It's solid and dependable, and unlike the SRT-202 it takes the same batteries as my X-700 and are easily found. The meter on mine seems to be accurate as well. The only significant difference between the XE-5 and it's more expensive brother, the XE-7, is the lack of information in the viewfinder. You do not see your aperture selection, and you only see the suggested shutter speed (via a needle). I am not worried by this, as I tend to look at the dials anyway whether they can be seen in the viewfinder or not.
I should also point out that I originally bought the XE-5 to "rescue it" - that is to clean it up, test it out, and sell it to someone looking for a working film camera. I have only begun to test it, having taken it on our Blue Ridge Parkway trip last week. I have not yet seen the resulting photographs, so I suppose using it on this trip out west is some level of risk. Nevertheless, I want to see what it can do. Again, I'm not worried. These cameras have been found to be reliable.
Obviously, one of the main reasons for choosing two Minolta SLR's is so that I can use whatever lenses I bring on both camera bodies. Aside from the above-mentioned 50mm f1.4 lens, I will bring two more lenses: my Minolta Celtic 28mm f2.8 and my Minolta Celtic 135mm f3.5. The 28mm f2.8 is one of my favorite lenses, even though it is a "Celtic" lens, which was Minolta's line of budget lenses. Despite its "budget" status, I have found mine to be a solid performer with good resolution and contrast. Sometimes I go out on a photowalk with this lens only and adapt my "vision" to its perspective. The 135mm f3.5, also a Celtic lens, is a lens I seldom use, because it's just too long for me. I got a good deal on it when I purchased it, but I really wished I had found an 85mm or a 100mm Minolta lens at such a good deal. Using a 135mm lens without a tripod is risky at best. Nevertheless, I am taking this lens with the intent of finding uses for it, and I will have a tripod with me as well.
Because I am taking two SLR bodies with me, my plan is to shoot black and white film in one (the XE-5) and color film in the other (the X-700). As for color film, I chose to shoot the newly re-introduced Kodak Ektachrome V100 slide film. My experience with this film since Kodak brought it back last year have been very positive, and I think it will be the perfect film on which to capture the colors of both Austin, Texas and the desert of Taos, New Mexico. Slide film requires accurate exposure, and I am confident that my X-700 will be up to the task. I won't be developing the Ektachrome, but instead I will be sending it to The Darkroom lab in San Clemente, California for development. I've had good experience with the rolls of Fuji Provia slide film I sent them recently.
As for black and white film. the XE-5 already has some Ultrafine Extreme 100 in it, and I have plenty more of that in the form of a bulk roll. However, there is a part of me that wants to shoot a lot of Kodak Tri-X 400 on this trip, and I have a lot of it as well. I also am intrigued by the idea of limiting oneself to a single black and white film for a trip or project. Tri-X 400 is a magical film to me, especially when it is developed in Kodak D-76 diluted 1:1 with distilled water. I love making darkroom prints from Tri-X negatives as well.
I will take more film than I probably will need for a very important reason: I want to force myself to shoot a lot on this trip. I tend to be "thrifty' when it comes to shooting film, and I try to make every shot count. However, when I look at all the photographs I took while on a particular trip, more often than not I will ask myself, "Is this all the photographs I took of this trip? Why didn't I shoot more?" I am determined to come away with lots of photographic souvenirs and not have regrets over not shooting more.
Vacations for Debbie and me are all about experiences and memories, and they are the perfect opportunities to apply the craft of photography. Trips like this do not happen very often; we don't get to see our daughters and their mates often either. I want to experience all the good parts of such a trip and capture as much of it on film as I can. Stay tuned for updates from the road.
Kevin
UPDATE: We've just learned that the governor of New Mexico has issued an executive order requiring all out-of-state visitors to self-quarantine for fourteen days, so we probably will not be going to New Mexico after all. Instead, we will visit our oldest daughter in Denver.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
UJC Podcast #24: They're Gonna Put Me in the Movies!
 |
| Kelley holds another one of Uncle Jonesy's cameras, a Bell & Howell 8mm movie camera. |
 |
| As kids, the Shutter Brothers made fine use of this durable Bell & Howell 8mm movie camera. |
It's an interesting fact that there are more varied kinds of 8mm movie film available today than there ever was back when the format was at it's peak, and the Michael Raso of the Film Photography Project is responsible for making this happen. It is now possible to shoot both color and black and white 8mm movie film, and both have options for negative film (for scanning only) or positive film for projection as well as scanning. The Film Photography Store sells a variety of ISO options and also provides developing and scanning services. While shooting, developing, and scanning color film is an expensive options, black and white film is more affordable. Kelley plans to shoot a lot of it in the coming months. He may even create a video for the Uncle Jonesy's Cameras YouTube channel demonstrating some tips and tricks. Stay tuned . . .
 |
| A handsome Keystone 8mm movie camera with turret normal, wide angle, and telephoto lenses. |
Meanwhile, Kevin explains his decision to stop scanning his black and white negatives and instead scan finished darkroom prints that he makes in Chattanooga's community darkroom, Safelight District. He has written a series of blog posts about this and also how he creates "virtual" contact sheets that can be viewed on any mobile device. You can read those posts here and here.
We finish the show with a great listener letter from Wayne Lorimer, who is a film and digital photographer from New Zealand. While Wayne is shooting more and more film these days, he has a sizable and amazing portfolio of his digital work that just blew us away. You can see his work here. Wayne also maintains a pair of blogs on photography, and you can find those here and here.
 |
| This jpeg was made by an app called Film Lab. Kevin will convert it to PDF, annotate it with information, and add it to his pdf book of contact sheets. |
Speaking of listener letters, we'd love to hear from you! Our email address is unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. Drop us a line or even a voice comment. You also can find us on Facebook and Instagram by looking up @UJCPodcast. Leave us a post or a comment and tell us about yourself.
That's all for now. Stay well and safe out there. Wear that mask!
Happy Shooting!
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Say "No" to the Scans (But "Yes" to the Prints!) Part Two: Making Contact
In part one of Say "No" to the Scans (But "Yes" to the Prints) I explained why I had decided to stop scanning my black and white negatives and begin scanning the actual darkroom prints that I make from those negatives. For those film photographers who do not have (or want to have) access to a darkroom, this will not be a feasible direction. Furthermore, many film photographers possess advance scanning and digital editing skills that make scanning from a print unnecessary or even pointless. I, however, do not possess those skills, and I do not care to invest the time and effort to acquire them. I would much rather spend that time in the darkroom learning how to make better prints.
My previous article presented my new black and white photography workflow, and essential to that workflow is the contact print. The contact print serves as the replacement for negative scans, which I previously used to choose which negatives to print. Now, I look through my contact prints and choose the negative(s) I will work on at my next printing session. However, I do not make traditional contact prints using a sheet of photographic paper. Paper is expensive, and since I am still in the beginning stage of my printing journey, I already waste more paper than I care to. Besides, I want to be able to look through my contact sheets in a more convenient way and anytime I care to, whether I have them with me or not. In other words, it's digital technology to the rescue!
In short, I make digital contact sheets using a light table, a smartphone or tablet computer, an app that uses my device's camera to "see" the negatives as if they were positives and a pdf app to assemble my contact sheets into a single digital "book." Here is my setup:
Zecti A4 LED Light Box (8.5"x12")
Apple iPhone or iPad
I can use either, although my iPhone has a better camera and is easier to manipulate. Android phones or tablets work just as well.
Film Lab has a very low rating on the Apple App Store, and I think that is because people think that it can be used to make the equivalent of a negative scan of a single frame. It can do this, but the quality is nowhere near as good as with using a scanner. However, its real usefulness is in making a contact sheet of an entire roll of film. All I want is to be able to see what shots are on a particular roll of film and get a general idea of the worthiness of each frame. Film Lab does this very well.
Preview comes free with ever Mac. I use Preview to annotate the contact sheets, convert the jpeg files that Film Lab creates to pdf files, and assemble the pdf files into one master file. Adobe Reader works fine on Windows as well.
1. The developed roll of film is cut into strips of six frames and inserted in a Print File negative page.
2. The negative page is placed on my light table.
3. I use my smartphone or tablet and the Film Lab app to take a photo of the illuminated negatived page, and Film Lab reverses the image into a positive. I also quickly adjust exposure and contrast and save the photo to my camera roll on my device.
4. On my Mac, I find the photo in my cloud photo service (Photostream) and drag it to my desktop.
5. I open the photo file with Preview and annotate it with information such as roll ID, date, camera, film, processing, and subjects. Then I export it to my desktop as a pdf file.
6. Once I had done all of these steps to all of my negative pages, I used Preview to combine them into a single master pdf document. Here is how that is done in Preview. Here is how to do it using Adobe Reader.
7. I drag the master pdf file into the iBooks app on my Mac, which will then sync up with my iPhone and iPad. Now, I can view my entire "book" of contact sheets anytime. Obviously, you also could drag this file into any cloud service that allows you to read pdf files (Google Drive, for example.)
Now, whenever I repeat this process with a new roll of film, I will simply add the new contact sheet to the master pdf file and replace the old file in iBooks with the new file.
The seven steps may seem like a lot to some, but they are not in reality, especially if you know your way around the creating and storing of pdf files. And let's be honest: The time it takes to make a contact sheet with this workflow is much less than the time I needed to scan, edit, label, and import negatives using my scanner and photo editing software. Also, I don't use near as much disc space with a contact sheet as I would with scans of each frame on a negative. And, as I made clear, if I do want a digital file of a negative, I will scan the print. Why? Because the print is the final expression of the photograph, not the negative.
When I returned to darkroom printing last January, I had no real plan regarding what negatives should be printed. Often I would make the decision in the darkroom, which wasted time and something paper. Now, I will plan ahead by perusing my virtual contact sheet book before I leave for the darkroom. I even can make decisions as to what strategies might be needed to get a good print, based on what I see in the contact sheet. Hopefully, the end result will be more prints in less time with less wasted paper, while gaining experience and confidence in my (hopefully) growing printing skills. In the long run, I hope to become a better photographer from camera to print.
Why Contact Prints?
My previous article presented my new black and white photography workflow, and essential to that workflow is the contact print. The contact print serves as the replacement for negative scans, which I previously used to choose which negatives to print. Now, I look through my contact prints and choose the negative(s) I will work on at my next printing session. However, I do not make traditional contact prints using a sheet of photographic paper. Paper is expensive, and since I am still in the beginning stage of my printing journey, I already waste more paper than I care to. Besides, I want to be able to look through my contact sheets in a more convenient way and anytime I care to, whether I have them with me or not. In other words, it's digital technology to the rescue!
Tools Needed
In short, I make digital contact sheets using a light table, a smartphone or tablet computer, an app that uses my device's camera to "see" the negatives as if they were positives and a pdf app to assemble my contact sheets into a single digital "book." Here is my setup:
Zecti A4 LED Light Box (8.5"x12")
My Zecti light LED light table is one of the most useful photography-related tools I have ever purchased. Whether I am looking a negatives or slides, this light table allow me to easily see and evaluate my developed film. Furthermore, it's portable, easy to store, powered by any USB power source, and at $25.99, a steal.
Apple iPhone or iPad
I can use either, although my iPhone has a better camera and is easier to manipulate. Android phones or tablets work just as well.
Film Lab
Film Lab ($5.99, available for Apple and Android) is a camera app for smartphone or tablet that "sees" in reverse, that is, the lights become darks and the darks become lights. Therefore, when is sees a negative being illuminated from behind (with a light table, for example,) it turns the negatives into positives. It works with both black and white and color negatives. After you have tapped its shutter button to capture the positive image, you can use its editing tools to quickly crop the frame and adjust exposure, contrast, and color. Once edited, the resulting contact sheet can be saved as a photo on your device.
Film Lab has a very low rating on the Apple App Store, and I think that is because people think that it can be used to make the equivalent of a negative scan of a single frame. It can do this, but the quality is nowhere near as good as with using a scanner. However, its real usefulness is in making a contact sheet of an entire roll of film. All I want is to be able to see what shots are on a particular roll of film and get a general idea of the worthiness of each frame. Film Lab does this very well.
Preview for Mac OS
Contact Sheet Workflow
1. The developed roll of film is cut into strips of six frames and inserted in a Print File negative page.
2. The negative page is placed on my light table.
3. I use my smartphone or tablet and the Film Lab app to take a photo of the illuminated negatived page, and Film Lab reverses the image into a positive. I also quickly adjust exposure and contrast and save the photo to my camera roll on my device.
4. On my Mac, I find the photo in my cloud photo service (Photostream) and drag it to my desktop.
5. I open the photo file with Preview and annotate it with information such as roll ID, date, camera, film, processing, and subjects. Then I export it to my desktop as a pdf file.
6. Once I had done all of these steps to all of my negative pages, I used Preview to combine them into a single master pdf document. Here is how that is done in Preview. Here is how to do it using Adobe Reader.
7. I drag the master pdf file into the iBooks app on my Mac, which will then sync up with my iPhone and iPad. Now, I can view my entire "book" of contact sheets anytime. Obviously, you also could drag this file into any cloud service that allows you to read pdf files (Google Drive, for example.)
Less is More
The seven steps may seem like a lot to some, but they are not in reality, especially if you know your way around the creating and storing of pdf files. And let's be honest: The time it takes to make a contact sheet with this workflow is much less than the time I needed to scan, edit, label, and import negatives using my scanner and photo editing software. Also, I don't use near as much disc space with a contact sheet as I would with scans of each frame on a negative. And, as I made clear, if I do want a digital file of a negative, I will scan the print. Why? Because the print is the final expression of the photograph, not the negative.
When I returned to darkroom printing last January, I had no real plan regarding what negatives should be printed. Often I would make the decision in the darkroom, which wasted time and something paper. Now, I will plan ahead by perusing my virtual contact sheet book before I leave for the darkroom. I even can make decisions as to what strategies might be needed to get a good print, based on what I see in the contact sheet. Hopefully, the end result will be more prints in less time with less wasted paper, while gaining experience and confidence in my (hopefully) growing printing skills. In the long run, I hope to become a better photographer from camera to print.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Say "No" to the Scans (But "Yes" to the Prints!) Part One: Can the Scan
I have made a big decision regarding my film photography workflow, and I would like to share it with you. From now on, I will not be scanning my black and white negatives. Instead, I only will be scanning darkroom prints of my negatives (this article concerns my black and white photography only. I will continue to scan my color negative film as I have done since I returned to shooting film in the spring of 2017). In the next few paragraphs, I will explain how I came to this decision, why I think it will serve me better, and what my new workflow will look like going forward.
Before I begin, however, I want to recognize the irony of this decision, as it was the ability to scan negatives into positives (using my Epson Perfection V500 Photo flatbed scanner) that was a major factor in my returning to film photography, along with the ability to develop my own film at home, especially color negative film. At the time, I was so excited by the prospects of existing in a digital world and still being able to shoot film, and I was content with that blended workflow. In fact, the more skills I learned, such as dust control and getting my scanner to scan two six-frame film strips without stopping while both naming the images and saving them in a specified folder, the more the workflow satisfied me. But now that's all changed, and here's why.
Thanks to invaluable advice I have received from mentors coupled with practice and persistence, I have started making darkroom prints of which I am quite proud. And one of the things I liked most about them was . . . they look much better than most of my negative scans. Sometimes the scanner gave my negatives more grain, and sometimes the contrast was more or less what I thought should be. My darkroom prints tended to look more like I envisioned when I snapped the shutter. Admitedly, my lack of digital editing skills is responsible for this disparity, but nothing I have ever done with a photography on a computer has ever made me feel like how I feel when I see my finished darkroom print. So recently, when I was asked by the owner of my local community darkroom (Safelight District Community Darkroom in Chattanooga, Tennessee) if I would contribute two photographs for a local arts website, I mindlessly found the negative scans and looked at them with great disappointment. They did not represent the "final say" that my actual prints do. In fact, the scans, like the development of the negatives, were done at home and did not represent Safelight District either. In the end, I decided to try scanning the prints, and the results blew me away. The scans looks much better and much more like the prints. It was then that I realized that I had "outgrown" my previous workflow.
So why will scanning my prints rather than my negatives serve me better? I think the best way to answer that question is with a series of statements:
1. I have come to understand that the print is the full and final expression of my photography in every way, including and especially quality.
2. My return to film photography was not motivated by a desire to improve my digital photo editing skills.
3. I am not compelled to print or even share every frame of a roll, so there is no need to scan the whole roll.
4. I am very interested in improving my ability to read negatives and not depend on the crutch of negative scans to form a vision of the final image.
5. I am feeling less compelled to "share" my photographs online, but I love getting my prints into the hands of people, even for free (but I also love selling them, of course.)
6. While not a terribly nostalgic person, I believe that I am more greatly understanding and appreciating what it was to be a photographer before the digital age.
1. Develop the film either at home or at the darkroom.
2. Make a contact sheet of the roll.*
3. Use the contact sheet to choose what frames to print.
4. Choose which prints (if any) to scan for the purpose of sharing online.
* but not the way you might think.
 |
| Hometown Brew (darkroom print scan) |
Oh, the Irony . . .
 |
| Post Office Eagle (darkroom print scan) |
When Did I Know . . . ?
 |
| Superior Pilsen (darkroom print scan) |
 |
| Reflections on Clouds (darkroom print scan) |
A Change for the Better . . .
1. I have come to understand that the print is the full and final expression of my photography in every way, including and especially quality.
2. My return to film photography was not motivated by a desire to improve my digital photo editing skills.
3. I am not compelled to print or even share every frame of a roll, so there is no need to scan the whole roll.
4. I am very interested in improving my ability to read negatives and not depend on the crutch of negative scans to form a vision of the final image.
5. I am feeling less compelled to "share" my photographs online, but I love getting my prints into the hands of people, even for free (but I also love selling them, of course.)
6. While not a terribly nostalgic person, I believe that I am more greatly understanding and appreciating what it was to be a photographer before the digital age.
A New (Old) Workflow . . .
2. Make a contact sheet of the roll.*
3. Use the contact sheet to choose what frames to print.
4. Choose which prints (if any) to scan for the purpose of sharing online.
* but not the way you might think.
Making Contact . . .
The main component of the above workflow is the contact sheet, which is made by laying strips of negatives on top of a sheet of analog photo paper and exposing the paper to light.** However, photographic paper is expensive, so I have come up with a digital solution that allows me to make contact sheets that I can take with me on my iPad or even iPhone and not waste paper. In part two of Say "No" to the Scans (But "Yes" to the Prints!), I will break down my contact sheet workflow that, I believe, will make me much more efficient and effective in the darkroom.
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Introducing Uncle Jonesy's Camera of the Week!
You can find our videos on YouTube here. If you enjoy them, please consider clicking the "Subscribe" button, and you won't miss any of our Camera of the Week shows or any other video content we put on our channel.
Thanks for watching, and Happy Shooting!
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
UJC Podcast #23: The Shadow Knows
The socially distant (but still together) Shutter Brothers are back to talk about photography and how we are coping with staying socially distant and even self-isolating. There definitely have been some changes. Kelley usually does most of his shooting while on the road as an instrument technician, but he's been spending more time in the guitar shop and less time which his cameras. Kevin still gets out of the house with walks around downtown Chattanooga, but the trails and parks are all closed. Nevertheless, he has been doing some shooting. We asked our wonderful listeners to chime in on how they have been getting along as well, and several responded with some nice comments.
We get a little camera-centric on this show, as both Shutter Bros. have a camera to talk about. Kevin shows off his Russian made Zorki 4 rangefinder, a very handsome camera that was made from 1956 until 1973. Meanwhile, Kelley sings the praises of (you guessed it) another Minolta, this time the Minolta XE-7. The Minolta XE-7 was the successor to the very successful SRT line of cameras with features that Minolta and Leica developed together in partnership.
Finally, Kevin brings up a very mysterious subject: How to use Sunny f16 when it isn't sunny. Answer: "The Shadow Knows!" If you really want to learn how to apply Sunny f16 in a practical and reduce or eliminate your dependence on a light meter, Learning to read the shadows can be a big help. Remember, "the Shadow knows!"
You can listen to our podcast on your favorite podcast provider, or you can click here : https://unclejonesyscameras.libsyn.com/rss
We'd love to hear from you, so please send your listener comments, questions, and stories to our email address: unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. You can record voice memos with your smartphone and send them there as well. Check out our Facebook page and Instagram account, both of which are @UJCPodcast.
Need some guitar work or a new handmade acoustic guitar? Check out Kelley's guitar shop page here: https://www.kelleylaneguitars.com
Check out Kevin's Etsy Store for his handmade analog photography here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChattalogPhotography
Finally, thank you so much for listening. Happy Shooting!
 |
| Kevin's Zorki 4 |
You can listen to our podcast on your favorite podcast provider, or you can click here : https://unclejonesyscameras.libsyn.com/rss
We'd love to hear from you, so please send your listener comments, questions, and stories to our email address: unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. You can record voice memos with your smartphone and send them there as well. Check out our Facebook page and Instagram account, both of which are @UJCPodcast.
Need some guitar work or a new handmade acoustic guitar? Check out Kelley's guitar shop page here: https://www.kelleylaneguitars.com
Check out Kevin's Etsy Store for his handmade analog photography here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChattalogPhotography
Finally, thank you so much for listening. Happy Shooting!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)