Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
OK Tony, mom always told me to respect my elders... 
film v. digital
- Thread starter Gary R. Smith
- Start date
Tony Warren
Well-Known Member
Always listen to your mom
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Paul Taylor
Well-Known Member
I found this website due to it being mentioned in a local firearms forum, in the photography thread there.
I shoot equal parts film / digital. However, being in Phoenix - the summer is "slow season" for my photography. At least finally it seems cooler temps are on the horizon starting this week. I have a few small trips planned for the cooler weather and some other photo projects.
I shoot equal parts film / digital. However, being in Phoenix - the summer is "slow season" for my photography. At least finally it seems cooler temps are on the horizon starting this week. I have a few small trips planned for the cooler weather and some other photo projects.
Brian Moore
Moderator
Sometimes my wife asks the same question, Gianluca. Been busy lately and out of town for several weeks due to the arrival of my 2nd granddaughter.
Ralph Turner
Well-Known Member
Congrats, Brian. All doing well, I hope
Brian Moore
Moderator
Absolutely grand, Ralph. Thanks for asking!Congrats, Brian. All doing well, I hope
Brian Moore
Moderator
This is an interesting thread, and I'm glad to see that the correspondents, regardless of whether they prefer one medium or the other, either partially or exclusively, appreciate the qualities inherent in both mediums. Although I shoot a lot of digital now, I don't have the same sense of anticipation, excitement even, that I have when I step out with a film camera. I like the suspense in not knowing what I have captured and I also like the mechanical feel of a film camera. The sounds of the shutter followed by the wind on to the next frame is quite wonderful. (A few years ago I bought a Nikon F4. Very capable camera. But it didn't have a wind lever and this subtracted from the experience for me.)
By the way I came to RPF before 35mmc existed. I think around 2012. I can't remember how I stumbled onto it. But I do remember (fondly) some of the wonderful characters who hung out here back then but (sadly) mostly no longer do. I think only @Pete Askew, @Rob MacKillop, @Ivar Dahl-Larsen and myself (and of course @Hamish Gill, though he stays mostly behind the scenes) are the only active remnants from that era. 35mmc has helped reinvigorate the place and I'm grateful for that and for all the members who have found their way here, by whatever means, in the past couple of years.
By the way I came to RPF before 35mmc existed. I think around 2012. I can't remember how I stumbled onto it. But I do remember (fondly) some of the wonderful characters who hung out here back then but (sadly) mostly no longer do. I think only @Pete Askew, @Rob MacKillop, @Ivar Dahl-Larsen and myself (and of course @Hamish Gill, though he stays mostly behind the scenes) are the only active remnants from that era. 35mmc has helped reinvigorate the place and I'm grateful for that and for all the members who have found their way here, by whatever means, in the past couple of years.
Gianluca Drago
Well-Known Member
Ah! Ok. Congratulations!
Brian Moore
Moderator
Thanks, Gianluca.
Bill Brown
Well-Known Member
Since I'm the new kid on the block I guess I should chime in on this subject and introduce myself a little. I came via 35mmc and was introduced to 35mmc by Emulsive. I had been avoiding coming to this post because I'm so put off with all the film vs. digital stuff. Who cares? Do you enjoy photography and conversing with others of like mind? Does it matter what form of tech was used to freeze a moment in time? After all I would say the image was first captured in someones mind when they saw a particular scene. The type of camera used was secondary. It's whatever you had with you at the moment.
Since I have spent the last 48 years as a photo retoucher/print finisher and since 2006 as a digital darkroom specialist I come at all this from a completely different angle. Photo manipulation has always been a part of my life so listening to some of the film newbies saying you can't do anything to your photos just seems nonsensical to me. Photo manipulation and alteration didn't start with PS and it wasn't new in 1976 when I started in the business. I was putting in skies and removing cars for architectural photographers. I was imagining( rendering with airbrush) military communication vehicles based on technical drawings provided by the client. I was restoring old photos and cutting Rubylith to drop out backgrounds. This Rubylith cutting was usually on 4x5 negs and I had to cut the Ruby freehand around whatever the object was in the photo. Usually some kind of heavy factory machinery. Cut the film not the surface of the negative. A light touch and a steady hand. I even did negative retouching on 35mm negs. A little opaque will put catchlightes in someones eyes.
I was blessed to be someone who found a way to make a living with my artistic gift for rendering realistic details. It just turned out to be in the realm of photography. I also create original works in graphite, colored pencils and watercolor gouache (opaque watercolor). Here are a couple samples of my original art.
There's no film vs. digital in my world but there is film & digital. The only boundaries are of my own making. The quickest turnoff for me is the bashing of someones ideas or way of doing something. Yes, I'm new to this forum but it ain't my first rodeo. I'm an older dog too Tony and my main client, Dallas portrait photographer John Derryberry, tells everyone how he brought me kicking and screaming into the digital age in 2006. Don't sell yourself short. Now here I am still knocking down the work 18 years later and learning something new on a regular basis.
I say age doesn't dictate whether I can learn or be taught. I've learned PS methods from kids 1/3 my age but I've also taught a few things to those same kids. Photography has been a gift to me, my family and friends. I recently gifted a lifetime friend with some prints of a close friend of his who died young almost 40 years ago. I'm sorry it took me so long to get this done but when he opened the package and saw the prints he teared up. He's a manly man who owns his own construction business. Photos can be a powerful thing.
This is getting lengthy so I'll bring this comment to an end. I'll close with a final story. In February of 2021 we had a weather event referred to as snowmageddon or iceageddon in Texas. In the midst of subzero temps, burst pipes and electrical outages a bunch of us were standing in my driveway talking. All of a sudden I noticed my neighbors 12 year old son driving his radio controlled SUV in the snow. I told the boy to stop while I ran into the house to grab my cameras. I had a moment of inspiration and we did a little photo shoot. I hope what Walker remembers from that time is not the hours/days without electricity or the pipe bursting in their kitchen and flooding the house but the crazy old neighbor guy with his film cameras. I'm attaching the before and after images I created from that time in our driveway. Don't tell me I can't manipulate a film image because it will destroy it's integrity. Besides, Walker doesn't care what it was shot with. He just knows he has something so sick for his bedroom wall that none of his friends will ever have. Use your gift of photography to make a difference even if it's just in your little world. Long live photography.
Shot with a Canon ftb-QL that I've owned since 1977 and a FD 35-105 lens.
Final print was a 20x30.
Since I have spent the last 48 years as a photo retoucher/print finisher and since 2006 as a digital darkroom specialist I come at all this from a completely different angle. Photo manipulation has always been a part of my life so listening to some of the film newbies saying you can't do anything to your photos just seems nonsensical to me. Photo manipulation and alteration didn't start with PS and it wasn't new in 1976 when I started in the business. I was putting in skies and removing cars for architectural photographers. I was imagining( rendering with airbrush) military communication vehicles based on technical drawings provided by the client. I was restoring old photos and cutting Rubylith to drop out backgrounds. This Rubylith cutting was usually on 4x5 negs and I had to cut the Ruby freehand around whatever the object was in the photo. Usually some kind of heavy factory machinery. Cut the film not the surface of the negative. A light touch and a steady hand. I even did negative retouching on 35mm negs. A little opaque will put catchlightes in someones eyes.
I was blessed to be someone who found a way to make a living with my artistic gift for rendering realistic details. It just turned out to be in the realm of photography. I also create original works in graphite, colored pencils and watercolor gouache (opaque watercolor). Here are a couple samples of my original art.
There's no film vs. digital in my world but there is film & digital. The only boundaries are of my own making. The quickest turnoff for me is the bashing of someones ideas or way of doing something. Yes, I'm new to this forum but it ain't my first rodeo. I'm an older dog too Tony and my main client, Dallas portrait photographer John Derryberry, tells everyone how he brought me kicking and screaming into the digital age in 2006. Don't sell yourself short. Now here I am still knocking down the work 18 years later and learning something new on a regular basis.
I say age doesn't dictate whether I can learn or be taught. I've learned PS methods from kids 1/3 my age but I've also taught a few things to those same kids. Photography has been a gift to me, my family and friends. I recently gifted a lifetime friend with some prints of a close friend of his who died young almost 40 years ago. I'm sorry it took me so long to get this done but when he opened the package and saw the prints he teared up. He's a manly man who owns his own construction business. Photos can be a powerful thing.
This is getting lengthy so I'll bring this comment to an end. I'll close with a final story. In February of 2021 we had a weather event referred to as snowmageddon or iceageddon in Texas. In the midst of subzero temps, burst pipes and electrical outages a bunch of us were standing in my driveway talking. All of a sudden I noticed my neighbors 12 year old son driving his radio controlled SUV in the snow. I told the boy to stop while I ran into the house to grab my cameras. I had a moment of inspiration and we did a little photo shoot. I hope what Walker remembers from that time is not the hours/days without electricity or the pipe bursting in their kitchen and flooding the house but the crazy old neighbor guy with his film cameras. I'm attaching the before and after images I created from that time in our driveway. Don't tell me I can't manipulate a film image because it will destroy it's integrity. Besides, Walker doesn't care what it was shot with. He just knows he has something so sick for his bedroom wall that none of his friends will ever have. Use your gift of photography to make a difference even if it's just in your little world. Long live photography.
Shot with a Canon ftb-QL that I've owned since 1977 and a FD 35-105 lens.
Final print was a 20x30.
Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
Thank goodness for X-Acto knives...
Obviously, I shoot both and if you added up all of the film that I shot 50 years ago with the few rolls I've shot over the last 3 or 4 years it would still pale in comparison to the number of digital shots I've taken.
The only reason that I posed this question in the first place was because the chatter here seemed to have slowed down and I was concerned that an influx of digital shooters had spoiled a private party.
I'm pretty sure that's not the case although I'd say it's more because the dozen or so folks who read/respond here are simply "real" photographers.
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Welcome, Bill. It’s good to add your experience here!
Bill Brown
Well-Known Member
Thanks Rob. I'm glad you're back in business.
Ivar Dahl-Larsen
Well-Known Member
Congratulations Brian with your second granddaughter, I have lost count of my grandchildren, due to senility I guess
Ivar Dahl-Larsen
Well-Known Member
I have a comment, don't I always? I came from the film era, analogue that is and enjoyed it immensely. Darkroom fumes gave me the quivers at times but I hung in there—no offence to the ones who still do it. But I wonder albeit I understand the gentleman out at the coast of a north-western state of the ununited states of a certain country. ( Do not take any offence to what I say, it just appears so). Digital to me has been a revolution and a good one. I do not understand why anyone remains in the dark rooms of yester years, since they all have to digitalise their captures when they want to show the results on the net. So what is the point unless they print it and hang it on walls? Now don't shoot the messenger
Brian Moore
Moderator
Thank you Ivar.Congratulations Brian with your second granddaughter, I have lost count of my grandchildren, due to senility I guess
Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
I agree Ivar. 100% Not only do I agree but I believe that the jpg's out of my Sony are every bit as good as what I'm able to process from raw.
The whole shoot/develop film is/was I suspect a passing fad for me.
The whole shoot/develop film is/was I suspect a passing fad for me.
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Well, Ivar, my film shots look different onscreen to my digital shots. I like both for different shooting. It’s not an either/or choice for me. If they looked the same, I would just use digital for the convenience and expense. But to my eye, they don’t.
Ralph Turner
Well-Known Member
Well, there are another couple of points (in addition to looking different to my eyes, too). For me there is the enjoyment of using all sorts of vintage kit. There's also the personal angle, like getting to use my Dad's old Spotmatic, my late cousin's Minolta XG-M or a dear, departed friend's Kodak Retina and getting wonderful results from them, (perhaps, in a way, a tribute to their memory). Then there's the more tangible nature of film, even just having a strip of negatives in the hand before digitising. This not knocking a purely digital workflow. Far from it. I will always be grateful for digital tech for facilitating my renewed enthusiasm for film. Anyway, there is a point to each of our own personal methods of visual expression, however it's achieved. Long may you enjoy yours, Sir
.
Gary R. Smith
Well-Known Member
The original point of my initial post was to ascertain that this site wasn't exclusively oriented towards film. It seems that digital may have caught on despite an affection for the good ol' days.
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