B&W photography on film, who else enjoys it?

did you know you can use developed but unexposed slide film to filter infrared ? Im waiting to get some out of date slide film back from the lab to try.

No actually I’m out of order. I shouldn’t have said what I did. Simon; I’m sorry.

I am wrong, in suggesting that Simon in any way lacks talent, simply because of my limited view of his work. That’s very rude and arrogant of me to question and dismiss his opinions merely because of my own ideas about photography. It is a wonderful and fascinatingly diverse art-form, and I am wrong in trying to discredit his opinions simply because the differ to my own. In that regard, I am in fact a hypocrite.

I am however passionate about photography, and can really relate to the excitement that B+W developing and printing can create in those who find it interesting. I must, by the same token, accept and understand that others may not share this same excitement. All forms of photographic practice and process are surely equally valid and important.

I apologise for causing unnecessary conflict here, and for upsetting anyone. My comments about the STW Photography Award are well out of line, and I had no right to make them. I concede that they are extremely disrespectful to STW, those who voted, and especially to those who have won it. Indeed, in this context, they have proved themselves to have contributed something I haven’t.

I shan’t make any further comment on here, and apologise also to Hairychested for ruining his thread.

X

maybe somebody should post a pic of a sunset or perhaps a badly exposed muddy looking B&W landscape to get things back on track?
or maybe something really arty like a bit of a bike in colour but the background B&W, i really love those.

Fred, stop it, be yourself.
Simon, stop it, be yourself.
Somebody, please post a B&W photo here, mine aren’t on the PC.

Not a sunset or landscape, I couldn’t even get the ruddy bike in the picture. But it’s a picture, and it’s B&W but it’s digital…

😉

Here you go guys. Do your worst… 😈

Complete cheat in the context because it a wholly digital image, taken on a Ricoh GX100 and processed in Photoshop CS3 with SilverEfex Pro.

However, let’s pretend it was taken on 50ASA B&W film with a red filter. Comments/criticism welcome.

[/url]
277/365[/url] by stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr

The gate & vegetation in the bottom right piss me off but I can’t get a better crop without removing important detail.

My scanner is a bit crap, makes things really grainy and contrasty.

I’ve got better pics with this camera/lens than the 7D and Tamron lens I use for work 😆 Think this 50mm lens is way better than the Tamron.

well, you’re stood on the wrong side of the sign for starters 🙂

The view on the “right” side is just trees Steve.

I could flip it horizontally but I prefer it the “wrong” way round.

Mr Barnes, what on Earth are you trying to achieve? Ruin my post or get upset?

does one have to have a goal when posting ? I don’t think anyone is upset or anything ruined. I thought it interesting that people should elevate nostalgia to an aim in itself, and to that extent it seems to me they’re stepping aside from pragmatic photography into a mystical backwater. The fact that this evokes personal invective suggests they have no cogent counterargument 🙁

Although elfin emailed me personally, I think his “apology” is so over the top it may not be entirely sincere – but I don’t think any apology is necessary – if you can’t take criticism, you shouldn’t hand it out.

I think Fred was a bit upset…

I actually agree with you Barnes but you are being, as always, a right tool on these photography threads.

but you are being, as always, a right tool on these photography threads.

so the retrograde lovein should have been left undisturbed ? Well, I almost agree, but finally I think they strayed too far into and had to be taken to task 🙂

Good to see people on here are still into mono.
I did a few years night school doing photography,then my HNC in the subject & I prefer mono to colour,it’s all subjective though.
What I got to love was printing,I had no experience of printing until I went to college and it was a revelation for me to see what a proper hand print looks like.I got right into fibre based printing & lith printing.
Reading through the posts it seems a few other people are into the printing side of photography,thing is I never really got into colour printing even though I had to do it as part of the course.
Sadly these days I just shoot in digital & convert in PS,I still think in mono.
I also shoot slide film,love the look of velvia on a lightbox..
Where are you all getting your prints done?

Well, I almost agree, but finally I think they strayed too far into and had to be taken to task

Yeah ok, but a one-post dig is ok.. the incessent needling is a bit much.. gets on people’s tits.

I walked through Dublin this afternoon. Ugly, pretentious little town trying a bit too hard to be a city. Nothing eyecatching save some stunning legs, bottoms and upstairs, nowt really. Until I noticed a few old townhouses that were dirty and neglected. Perfection! Eureka! B&W photo material. Only… WTF was my Olympus?!
My main gripe with digital photography is this: without any proper lessons or training all the digi photos I’ve taken were sharp from nil to eternity. They always look like postcards, picturesque, pretty, nice, boring. No soul.
I suppose it’s like bikes – whatever you like.

.. the incessent needling is a bit much.. gets on people’s tits.

oh, so I’m supposed to accept personal slights without comment ?

My main gripe with digital photography is this: without any proper lessons or training all the digi photos I’ve taken were sharp from nil to eternity. They always look like postcards, picturesque, pretty, nice, boring. No soul.

that has nothing to do with their digitalness, and what you get out depends on what you put in. Both digital and chemical photography have no inherent soul, they’re just physical processes, meaning is added by the photographer.

Hairy:

Thanks, it weirdly doesn’t appeal to me. I reckon digital photography is the future as it’s so convenient and quick but I prefer writing letters to emails when it comes to important stuff.

. I reckon digital photography is the future as it’s so convenient and quick but I prefer writing letters to emails when it comes to important stuff.

the Luddite message revisited. Shouldn’t you be carving your messages/images into a rock for real impact ?

answers on a postcard/carrier pigeon please…

Hairy’s latest picture:

molgrips, how the hell did you manage to get hold of my latest? There is a leak in the cave somewhere 😀

I was chasing my dog around central France and it fell into a hole, so I followed it.

Darn canine!

My Nan had a B&W pic of herself with her stockings down!

If we cannot get on here, I am going to post it, you have been warned!

😉

Loads of such at the Museum of Pornography in Amsterdam (it was a school trip, honest!).

I accidentally took a nearly B and W photo 🙁

My main gripe with digital photography is this: without any proper lessons or training all the digi photos I’ve taken were sharp from nil to eternity.

Not sure I follow? Isn’t that is more down to the lens and aperture, rather than the medium?

On a full-frame DSLR you will get just as shallow a depth of field as you would on a film SLR.
And DoF on an APS-C it isn’t that[/I] much different.

Hairychested’s complain seems to be that digital photography makes it too easy to take acceptable (but apparently “soulless”) photos without any training. In my book it’s good thing if people can take sharp, well exposed pictures without delving into photography, and if one wants more it also provides an easy means of experimentation to improve one’s results and possibly exercise creativity if one has the ability 🙂

And riding down a hill with 10″ of travel at both ends is better than on a hardtail or a short-travel bike, right? Off to McDonalds, why bother with cooking proper meals when you can stuff yourself fully more easily?

And riding down a hill with 10″ of travel at both ends is better than on a hardtail or a short-travel bike, right?

ah, right, an extremely revealing analogy, as my choice of bike is exactly the latter, because I’m willing to accept more difficult (and fun) downhilling for the easier climbing my hardtail affords, but the difference is that riding is done for itself, whereas I see photography as a means to the end of making pictures!

My main gripe with digital photography is this: without any proper lessons or training all the digi photos I’ve taken were sharp from nil to eternity. They always look like postcards, picturesque, pretty, nice, boring. No soul.

How does the use of a digital camera make it easier to take ‘good’ photographs. Or are these a different beast to pictures with ‘soul’?

Surely it only makes it easier, cheaper and faster to practice.

Have a look at Ansel Adams, founder of Group f64 (the name being the clue). Whose works were essentially created in the darkroom, the Photoshop of the last century, not the camera.

Or is soul only imbued when a film is pushed to it’s breaking point to focus attention on the grain?

Whose works were essentially created in the darkroom, the Photoshop of the last century, not the camera.

quite, which is why the “I aim to do everything in the camera” schtick is so fatuous. Apart from anything else, no camera I’ve ever come across has a format of the same shape as 4×5, 8×10 paper etc, so cropping is inherent to film use, as well as dodging/burning and paper grade selection or even mask overlays for contrast control…

Picked this little gem up on ebay for a tenner, works very well and is great to use – the mag is also a good read for all things B&W.

<img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2537/4128382070_c2931c2fa2.jpg&#8221; width=”500″ height=”334″ alt=”” />

And riding down a hill with 10″ of travel at both ends is better than on a hardtail or a short-travel bike, right?

Reasonable analogy. Both are brilliant, but die-hard nostalgics are likely to rubbish one for the other for no real reason other than romanticism and/or the rejection of things new.

Off to McDonalds, why bother with cooking proper meals when you can stuff yourself fully more easily?

Bad analogy. McDonalds is manifestly inferior to proper cooking for loads of clearly measurable reasons. That’s not the case with digital vs film.

And riding down a hill with 10″ of travel at both ends is better than on a hardtail or a short-travel bike, right? Off to McDonalds, why bother with cooking proper meals when you can stuff yourself fully more easily?

I don’t get this at all. Are you saying that a great photograph is worth less if it was easy to take?
Are you actually objecting to digital, it sounds more like its modern photography aids that you dislike (auto-exposure, auto-focus, light meter)?

If I switch these features off will my photos have more soul?

no camera I’ve ever come across has a format of the same shape as 4×5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_format

personally I have digital as well as film cameras

I tend to take both with me places

I see them as having different purposes, digital for snaps, film for hobby

I develop my own films and prints, or get the digital pics printed

I don’t use photoshop (I spend too much time in fromt of a PC as it is), I don’t dodge and burn (lack of practice)

I enjoy using both badly, I don’t see the issue. The only people who get uptight about either format are taking themselves too seriously 😉

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_format

yes, of course, I forgot about ancient history :o)

I’ve joined this kinda late so haven’t read all posts but as photography is my job i’ll throw in my thoughts.

As a commercial photographer for the last 15 years I learnt on film and have progressed to digital. There was a time that clients wouldn’t entertain the prospect of their work being produced digitally. However as the tech developed over the years the quality cannot be disputed. Using something like a Phase one digital back on a 4×5 camera you can rival what you would achieve on 4×5 film.

I’m not saying it is equal, there is a resolution and quality about film that raw digital doesn’t have but thats where Photoshop comes in. Commercially speaking digital wins hands down. Fast turn around for the client, quick approval process etc.

The problem lies in the photographer. Shooting digital can make you lazy in some respects. But it will never make a bad photographer look good. Shooting digitally demands the same level of skill as film. If you don’t understand photography and lighting, photoshop can only go so far in covering your mistakes.

On a personal note I still shoot film as well as digital when I am doing my own little projects. It depends on what I want to achieve. And there is something really special about using large format in the field.

I do get a bit fed up with people who snub digital photography and the digital process (Photoshop). I find it ignorant. I am all for getting everything right in camera but the wet darkroom is still an important part of photography. The digital darkroom is just as important and it is a skill that has to be learnt like any other.

I think the most important part of photography is that, what ever form you choose it is there to be enjoyed.