Get yourself your own darkroom set up and dev it yourself? Should be cheap to pick up used these days and developing isn't that hard in black and white for most people's specs
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Get yourself your own darkroom set up and dev it yourself? Should be cheap to pick up used these days and developing isn't that hard in black and white for most people's specs
Image Lab in town rents lab space by the hour or for flat fees. He's totally set up for larger formats and alternative processes, good guy to boot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aenigma
Sneaking into the labs on campus is also totally doable during the semester, all of my good friends in the department are graduating this semester but I can put you in contact for the Fall if you're interested.
Yeah, I know some people down there, too (prior degree was in photography at MSU). My schedule the past few years has been totally slammed with classes for a few months, then living in a teeny tiny trailer in Yellowstone the rest of the year, which has made some things difficult. I either want to be able to develop and print large format analogue at home, or just shoot digital...so basically all or nothing.
Or maybe I'm just spoiled from having access to everything, and that hasn't quite worn off yet.
I went to art school for photography in the nineties. Loved working in the dark room, the smell of developer, dodging and burning, all the technical sides of the art. I'd spend hours in the lab. Photoshop 2.0 came out and was mind blowing, and I quickly realized that that was the future. Tried to get into it, got pretty good with the program, but just didn't love it the way I loved the darkroom. Dropped out to become a ski bum. I'm much better at that ;).
I still have a really nice, and (used to be) expensive Nikon. Saw the same model at a pawn shop for $50. Ugh. Bought that camera with money I saved up over a whole summer.
I am probably a little younger than you all, but I spent a lot of time in high school and my first year of college in the darkroom. I can definitely still smell the developer if I think back far enough. I absolutely love digital compared to film though. I'm sure that's my personality and shooting-style coming through. I like to click the shutter a lot, so digital is great. Also being able to take photos and share them out instantly is pretty great.
All that being said, I'd love to have an 8x10 setup and shoot really large format. The resolution you get on those is so amazing. I could never afford to do that digitally, so it would have to be film.
I think film's time has come and gone, though. I don't think it will continue on for more than another 10 years at all. The processes and materials are too specialized to make any sense from a business standpoint at the scale it would settle in to. Polaroid film, maybe, but not large format film or papers.
This is very true. I have a camera loaded with film and I'll take it with me quite a bit, but rarely use it. With film there's always the thought in your head "is this scene really worth my effort of getting the camera out and using the exposure on it?" With digital you just keep clicking and delete the ones that don't turn out. On the other hand shooting with film does make you think about what you're doing more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Supermoon
That's the beauty and curse of digital. Good photography is all about volume. In the old days, that was challenging to do unless you were loaded w cash. Now, I can just snap away without a care while experimenting. Film will always be around in some form just like mosaics and oil painting are still around. Evolution of art just makes new techniques cheaper and faster for the mass use but the high end will always exist in some form. Kind of like construction materials
One nice thing about learning on film is I got practice working slowly, knowing my exposure, tweaking composition, etc. That makes digital even easier. I imagine it takes more work to not just chimp away for years if you start shooting on digital. I find myself falling into that trap sometimes. Just shoot something then adjust after. I find my best photos are more carefully planned before I click the shutter, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
i have a friend who's a career photographer, with the career blastoff in the 80's and 90's. i haven't talked to him about this in a little while. about 5-6 years ago, he was still doing well selling his stock images, having some client-specific jobs, doing high quality imaging of art such as paintings, transitioning more into art-orientation, and starting to teach more (often focuses on disadvantages populations). back then, for clients, he could produce the same finished product with digital or with film, and, i believe, his rates were not different between the two. client perception was very different, especially with the expectations of what they could get from the use of digital, and the competition was greater because there were many more photographers in the industry. for 35mm-type cameras, he owns both (and many). for medium and larger format, he owns film cameras. if he has a client requiring digital medium format, he'll rent. he prefers film.
nah, Ilford's got the b&w market sewn up and can chug along at their numbers for a bit (they are already small ~$30m/year in sales). they past the bk pain and sewed up assets for a song to support production. it's the polaroid/color stuff that's more likely to have problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by Supermoon
DR5 is a great way to get B&W slides like the old Scala film. I haven't used their service for some years, but those slides on a lightbox are really cool! At $15 a roll to develop, it definitely makes you focus on getting it right in one shot. I have been planning to get back into film but using a Ricoh GRiii is just too easy atm. This site https://www.photrio.com/forum/home formerly Apug is a fun one to geek-out on.
I definitely hear ya on that. I have no problem shooting a ton of digital images without giving it much thought, but that's kind of the problem. When I'm done, I have a ton of digital images that look like I didn't put any thought into them.Quote:
Originally Posted by The AD
When I shoot my 4x5, I am happy with a third to half of the photos I take and will print them. With a digital camera, that is closer to 1/200.
That being said, I went out today and got a new little digital camera, because something I will actually take with me is a far more effective tool than the fancy pants stuff I leave in a case at home. At least for now.
He's not the only one. @b7lab is a master at it and even has a mobile studio. I was lucky to meet him miles out in deep playa doing insane shit with his rig. Another buddy of mine who is a pro photog just dabbled into the heavy chem game this last week: @bankercinefotoQuote:
Originally Posted by dunfree
Both on instagram.
My dad sent me this pic a few weeks ago after he dusted off his old Nikon N2020.
Attachment 234098
Pretty cool, would like to try it out some day.