[pure-silver] Re: NPR Article Link
- From: <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:45:08 -0700
I fully acknowledge that my memory is faulty and the $100 per click could easily and most likely is off. What the lady was using I do not remember, and how she came up with that number. It could have included the cost of paper and processing as well as just the negative and I am sure there are films that are more expensive that FP 4. All of which make the $100 a click number plausible if not low. It is also just as plausible that its too high, but it really doesn't matter. Like you pointed out it is high enough that mistakes are not an option, unless you have more money than you know what to do with. Warren Buffet might not care, but most of the rest of us will.
I also do not disagree that the larger the negative the less you enlarge and there are big advantages to that. An 8x10 from 35mm can be a great print. Put next to an 8x10 contact print from an 8x10 negative and the difference is easy to see. Yet how many places can one effectively use an 8x10 camera? Studio for sure as long as its with people that will cooperate. Try using an 8x10 camera on a toddler.
I took this as a sales gimmick, and I really have no major problem with that. Its the idea that making an image bigger makes it better. Sometimes it does make a bigger impact, but it does not necessarily make it a better image. Taking this to the extreme of a 6 foot neg and contact printing to me sounds much like those that draw attention to the process rather than the actual image. Gee look at all the tricks I did in Photoshop or look at all the steps I did in the darkroom.
I did a workshop just last week with Scott Kelby (yeah the Photoshop guy but I think it applies to the darkroom as well) and he had something very powerful to say. "What you do in Photoshop is a secret between you and the software." By tell the subject of the portrait all the tricks you did in photoshop to make them look better, you make them feel like it isn't them anymore. He followed it up with if you tell them you didn't photoshop it at all, they won't believe you. The best answer he concluded was "Only just a bit."
I think the same thing applies to the darkroom. Many of us do so many things to get just the look we want and we are proud of the techniques. Our natural tendency is to point out all the tricks we do to get something to look just like we want it when its not the tricks that matter. Is that image a powerful image and would you still have the same reaction to it if you didn't have a clue as to how it was created? Just my thoughts and opinion
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: NPR Article Link
From: "D.J. Kennedy" <
dj_kennedy@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, March 04, 2012 9:39 am
To: "
pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <
pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
$100 a click? I might have to call BS on that one :P
A simple google search for 20x24inch (b&w) film found me some Ilford FP4+ at only about $36 a sheet (box of 25 for $912USD). Still, at $36 a click you dont want too many mistakes! I hate ruining 4x5 sheets of film lol!
Seems to me that Ilford does ultra large runs once a year, maybe twice so when you can get it, you would need to buy a lot thats for sure. Personally, I couldnt afford sheet film of that size.
Interesting but my question is why? Though I fully understand that bigger negative equal more resolution, a negative of that size means you get only one or two chances at most. You subject can blink at the wrong time, move when you don't expect it, scratch an itch or just be of the personality that it takes a while to be comfortable in front of the camera. I would hate to know how much it cost every time they clicked the shutter. I read somewhere that a 20x24 inch negative was over $100 a click. IF that is accurate how much more could a 6 foot negative be?? Still an interesting read
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