Before.
After.
This is what today's technology is offering me/us. Well, this is only a small piece of what we can get away with using today's technology. A shot that I would have tossed aside in the past while making a comment to myself about it not being good enough, is now something I decided to put on my website! This is also the argument for shooting in RAW.
I come from the land of splashing around in chemicals, hours upon hours spent in rooms of darkness dodging and burning until my shoulders ached, pouring hot water on sections of prints while processing in trays that were agitated by hand. I come from a land that by today's standards is incredibly old school. For years my wardrobe consisted of clothes that I wore with the intent to ruin. Chemical stains on t-shirts and old jeans and cheap shoes. And now, well now I'm supposed to sit in front of a computer and click buttons and slide around color adjusters and contrast increasers, then brush off my clean hands and call it a day. It feels weird, and yet liberating. And honestly, my shoulders and back still hurt after a few hours of this more modern day way of creating my images. And I don't really get to walk away with a handful of prints. I do, however, have a sense of accomplishment from figuring out yet another way to perfect my craft.
And I would call that an almost even swap.
I come from the land of splashing around in chemicals, hours upon hours spent in rooms of darkness dodging and burning until my shoulders ached, pouring hot water on sections of prints while processing in trays that were agitated by hand. I come from a land that by today's standards is incredibly old school. For years my wardrobe consisted of clothes that I wore with the intent to ruin. Chemical stains on t-shirts and old jeans and cheap shoes. And now, well now I'm supposed to sit in front of a computer and click buttons and slide around color adjusters and contrast increasers, then brush off my clean hands and call it a day. It feels weird, and yet liberating. And honestly, my shoulders and back still hurt after a few hours of this more modern day way of creating my images. And I don't really get to walk away with a handful of prints. I do, however, have a sense of accomplishment from figuring out yet another way to perfect my craft.
And I would call that an almost even swap.
Above photo is Brian Patrick of the band THE LOMAX. They are a Portland, Maine based group with a fun sound and I highly recommend seeing them if you get the chance. Be on the lookout for more posts to include Brian and the other band members....
6 comments:
Yeah, I find the new tech amazing... for color photography. I still miss the darkroom for my B&W work though. Do you have a darkroom now?
I will be giving a talk to a local museum pretty soon. They had originally got in touch with me because they wanted to hire me to shoot some video. After seeing what they wanted me to do, I couldn't bring myself to charge for it. It was simple enough, and the cameras are so good these days, they can really do it themselves. So I'll be talking about how to embrace the new technology and not be a afraid of it. It's cool how democratized image making is these days....
Agreed! I have yet to make the same quality b&w print that film and darkrooms can create.
I do not have my own darkroom, but have access at a local place with rentals. I will probably post something soon about them...
Good luck at your museum talk!
Interesting post and observations. Somewhere in my head, I can still smell the dark rooms at IC. I remember spending hours in the darkroom just to come away with a few prints I could feel good about. Now, I spend quite of bit of time in front of the computer, post-processing -- hard to say, but the time might be fairly equal. We should chat more in depth about this, as I think this would make a very illuminating conversation!
Illuminating conversation - haha. But yes, it's kind of a crazy swap isn't it? I was a printer for many years so I had developed a system, and now I'm riding a big (and fun) learning curve through digital. I already want to re-do the photo in this post!
It can be endless. But you have been a bit of a digital guru for awhile now, do you think it makes you long for a chance to get back into the darkroom? Step back to your roots :)
IC's darkrooms have a distinct smell. I know all darkrooms can smell close to the same, but there is something different about the halls of IC as you walk towards the darkroom. When I was there in March I couldn't believe what that smell did to me! I think all of our class members faces flashed before my eyes :)
This is awesome. I'm not a photographer but I use photoshop for my blog photos and now for product shots which I need to learn alot about...but it's addictive playing with all the things you can do. I am in awe that photos, as you said, that would once have been tossed aside can be brightened, saved. It's amazing.
You said you already wanted to do more to the photo you posted, I guess my question is how do you know when you are done, when that photo is as good as its going to get? Is there a point when you say, yes this is perfect? Was it like that in the darkroom and can it be like that now with new technology?
And Isaac I dig that you couldn't charge for what they wanted you to shoot and I admire the way you turned that moment into something constructive to help others.
Tash - I'm trying to think of the best way to answer your comment, because I think the answer is different for so many people. In the darkroom days, when I was printing almost all black & white work, it was a lot of back and forth from dark to light rooms and looking at the new print, then comparing to the old. And sometimes I would compare many versions of the same print, and then realize what direction I needed to head. in those days one of the big things was trying to get detail in both the black and white areas of the image, etc.
BUT printing color has never been my strength (I blame it on all the color-blind people in my life :)). But, I'm learning to enjoy it more now. The problem is one monitor looks one way, and another looks totally different. I can be happy with an image until I see it on someone else's monitor! And everyone has different ways of seeing and enjoying color, so the 'when to stop' ends up being a really personal thing for the creator. But I still work on an image in my software, then look at it side by side with the original and decide which way to go from there.
at the very least aim to make your whites white!
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