[pure-silver] Re: Film vs Digital- was: Amusing Kodak commercial
- From: "Dana H. Myers" <dana.myers@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 09:57:28 -0800
Harry Lock wrote:
> Hi All
>
> No, this is not the bland , meaningless comparison that the title of my
> post implies. I use both mediums and have a darkroom - although it
> is the only one in a 50-mile radius. As Rob says ' it is where you want
> to go as a photographer'.
>
> But what really gets my goat is when digital camera users, blinded by,
> and in awe of the new technology, speak as if they have just invented
> photography.
>
> Up until now they have been happy with shoddy prints from the local
> mini-lab, but now bundled with their camera is some software that allows
> basic darkroom manipulation. They grin as if they have just discovered
> fire. Brightness and contrast controls get them in a twitter, dodging
> and burning gets them drooling and the black and white conversion button
> qualifies them as an artist.
I guess we've all forgotten the excitement we felt when we
started in the darkroom and realized we had a great deal of
control over our photographic results?
My 12-year old daughter, who normally practices photography with
a digital camera, recently asked me if she could develop a roll
of black and white film. So I loaded-up a 35mm camera with a roll
of Plus-X; a couple of weeks later, she brought me an exposed roll
of Plux-X. I explained the steps in developing film, prepared the
equipment, but she did the work herself, from soup to nuts, starting
in a daylight changing bag and ending with a strip of film hanging
to dry.
She was grinning as if she'd just discovered fire. She'd taken
snapshots of her friends and herself, of things around the neighborhood,
stuff like that. Nothing earth-shattering, but she'd really had fun.
Perhaps I, too, should derisively laugh at her naive excitment?
I'm sure that would encourage her budding interest in film - NOT.
> As you can see - it gets be going. This is probably why my wife says I
> am a candidate for the BBC-TV program "Grumpy old men."
>
> Seriously though, I do believe that people with chemical stained
> finger-nails who wear clothes that smell vaguely of fixer and walk with
> that familiar developing tray stoop, do make better digital
> photographers. This is because we know what is possible when we press
> the shutter button.
>
> Someone asked me recently why I bother toning prints, because he has a
> sepia setting on his computer that will make his print look the same. I
> asked him why the thought people still bothered to learn to play the
> violin because they can get a synthesized keyboard that sounds just
> the same.
So, rather than giving a beginner an honest answer and sharing the
benefit of your experience, you responded in an arrogant way. Do you
really wonder why he ignored you?
Every photographer who is happily practicing digital photographer is a
potential user of film; but if we drive them away, we have no one but
ourselves to blame.
Dana
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