The FIne Art of Optical Printing

As i was talking to the Gentleman from my local Ciba Chrome lab he mentioned a very valid point.
Hardly any does optical printing anymore... and consequently those skills are disappearing.
I mean you take your film into your local 1 hour shop, it gets developed, scanned and printed. while the results are consistent there is no control or though... all values are evened out for an optimum result . Certainly this works for the mass consumer but sometimes i don't want the image razor sharp, or fully colour corrected etc etc. I really do believe that despite the advent of Digital mass produced consumerism , Black and white will survive not just as an artistic medium but as a way of exercising full control over an image to be able to demonstrate a form of self expression that just is not available with using a computer. A computer generated image is optimal and can be reproduced time and again...quality is only dependent on the the final print process and printers used etc. but by and large this is predictable. A Handmade print is unique as the operator is not perfect and even with following every step to the letter there will be minute variances. Can they be considered faults? well one can argue, but it's these little imperfections that make a print unique and one of a kind, so in light of that no, i would not call them 'imperfections' but rather 'fingerprints', as it were, or simply unique markers.

Well... now i've gon an' done it

I found an LPL enlarger on ebay(luv me e-bay).. put a bid in and won. picked up yesterday .
Wow.. it's a monster. 4 foot post to carry the enlarger... that makes for a pretty big enlargement or fairly close detail.
came with a Cibachrome control unit. However i 'm only using it for B&W so it will be more than adequate for my needs. now i've just got to set up me Darkroom.....

Why Would You Make it Black and White?

This is a question that was posed to me recently, in a critique of my work. The photo in question (seen in this blog post) is one I have for sale on a stock photography site, which allows photos to be rated by other photographers. My initial reaction to the question was "Umm, because it was shot on black and white film, that's why".

The fact that the question was even asked at all got me thinking about the changes that have occured in photography over the years. I started to question whether I should be surprised that someone might not realise that a photo was taken using black and white film, given that using film at all seems to be unusual in itself. A quick browse of 10 random photos on the stock photography site was enlightening, not one of them had been taken using film.

It's been about 15 or 16 years since I first got really interested in photography, and it's interesting to think of those things which were normal back when I started, and which are now nothing more than the realm of professional photographers, or crazy hobbyist shutterbugs...

For example:
• Fifteen years ago, I'd never even heard of a digital camera, yet someone buying a camera today would not be able to buy a film camera new (assuming a consumer range camera).
• Fifteen years ago, it took a week to get a black and white film developed in my home town, these days, you can take your memory stick into your camera shop of choice, and get your prints straight away.
• Fifteen years ago, to be able to manipulate the photos you took meant you had to have access to a dark room. These days even the most basic, freely available graphics programs will let you play around with your photos to some extent.

Maybe it's not so surprising that people don't know about black and white film any more...

pic of the week 18/2/06

Well here is this weeks contribution .Iwas down at the Port today and i found an old barnacle encrusted timber support. This is one of the macro shots of a worm encrusting a Barnacle encrusting a Timber.
I will be going and revisiting the site as i think Black and White will work well.
Techy Details:
Pentax ist, AV Mode, F 16 under natural Light Diffused by heavy cloud cover.

Astral Travel....and other esoterics

One of the things that has occurred with the recent arrival and subsequent departure of Comet McNaught is that a friend of mine has stirred my interest in astrophotography. That in itself presents a challenge as the the light and movement of the earth are to be considered. The technical aspects can be quite daunting , ie specialised mounts,and film and patitience and good weather .. the list goes on.
however i managed to get attachd image with my Pentax *ist. 30 sec exposure at F4, at iso 400. And then tweaked a little in Photoshop to up the levels and ad reduce some of the noise.
Well.. i happen to find a second hand equatorial mount , attached to a 900 mm telescop(that was a bonus) and a motor drive will soon be attached so, long nights await yours truly.