At risk of sounding like a bit of a copy-cat, I am making my own post about the beauty and practicality of film.
After my brother Tony and his hoard of Hasselblad’s, Leica’s, and Mamiyas, Ken Rockwell has been an influence on me to ponder where and how I am to take my professional path.
It reminds me of Elton John’s 1975 song from the classic album, Captain Fantastic, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” – how I almost bought into the digital charade of high ISO/low noise, Photoshop cookie-cutter approach to photography and the services we offer the client in 2009.
First, a brief blurb from Ken Rockwell from his, “Why We Love Film” post:
“Film Costs Much Less
When digital cameras came out, we all giggled when we realized, after shooting 389 shots of nothing, that that would have just cost us $400 in film. As we racked up thousands of shots on our digital cameras, we rationalized the thousands of dollars we blew on our now worthless Nikon D100s and D1x’ by telling ourselves that we had already paid for it in the film we didn’t shoot.
Or did we?”
For me, truer words could not have been spoken. I started to become a slave to Photoshop and ACDC Pro 2. My job would appear to be that of a computer jockey rather than a photographer.
Because I didn’t have thousands of dollars to dump right away into new digital cameras and lenses, I have had the luxury of time to to slowly and surely form opinions on the state of the camera industry, what it is I am trying to accomplish with my photography, and hopefully, seperate the BS from the truth when it comes to what is actually needed to make great pictures.
Even the most talented pro gets secretly hung up on the camera he or she needs to perform at his or her best. But ant honest appraisal yeilds this observation:
1. Digital or Film can produce stunning photographs – in portraits and landscapes (all you 4×5 guys know Canon or Nikon still can’t touch you!)
2. Canon or Nikon cameras let pro’s cash a nice check week in and week out. They have been doing it for decades. Pick your weapons and have at it. No one here has a monopoly on performance in the body or lens. Except, maybe Leica or Zeiss but that’s better left discussed at a bar.
3. Digital is not “pure”. Neither is silver halide. Neither was burning, dodging, manipulating chemicals and developing time to change a negative. Photoshop is fine in the right hands – an abomination, like poor dark room skills – in the wrong ones. Nothing is natural about photography – Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz all make (made) images from their photography.
There’s no doubt that film can catch more information than digital.
Here’s a quote from Jack Dykinga, world renowned landscape photographer:
“There’s absolutely no better way for me to do landscape than large-format film, which in my case is 4×5 and Fuji-chrome Velvia film,” Dykinga told Outdoor Photographer magazine. “In terms of raw capture of information, if you want to look at it from a computer geek’s point of view, I’m capturing roughly 1,500 megabytes of information in a single sheet of film. That translates to about 500 megapixels.”
Actually, I found that quote at a great post about film.
Other film resources…
APUG
Ken Rockwell
(this post will be on going for the next few weeks – I’ll add more + links as I have time – thanks – Rob O.)
Tags: 120 roll film, 35 mm, 4x5 sheet film, 5x7 sheet film, annie leibovitz, ansel adams, Black & White, c-41, captain fantastic, color, color negative, color reversal, delta 1600, dynamic range, e6, ektar, elton john, extachrome, film photography, fuji, hp5, ilford, ken rockwell, kodachrome, kodak, Large Format Sheet Film, neo pan, portra, pro 400h, reala, richard avedon, slide film, someone saved my life tonight, Tony Oresteen, tri-x, velvia
