Dear Privileged 1st World Film Photographer : Cory Verellen

Posted on May 1, 2014 // 1 Comment

With just 5 days left in the New55 Kickstarter campaign, Cory Verellen of Landcameras.com wrote a very direct and to the point blog post encouraging people to either donate to the campaign or up their original contribution. We can not stress enough how important this project is. To be blunt, this is not just about New55. This is about sending a direct message to other companies that we are about more than petitions and we can put our money where our mouth is. Believe me, other companies are paying attention to this campaign. Ilford, Kodak and Impossible are all watching to see how this community embraces new analog products. Want that film stock you love to stick around? Donate! Want to show Fuji that they are loosing a community? Donate! Want Ilford to put more time into R&D for new B&W films? Donate! Want Impossible to keep perfecting its film and put more R&D in it’s 8×10 line? Donate! You get the point. This is not something you can just sit back and watch to see what happens. You have to act and ACT NOW!
Below is Cory’s original post. Please share this! Either from our site or through his with this link. Also, if you shoot instant film, do yourself a favor and add Landcameras.com to you vendor list. Cory is a great guy and supports his family through the instant film community.

Disclaimer: Contained in this article will be some libelous and harsh words directly addressing you. If you don’t like the finger pointed at you, I suggest you move on. Go look at pretty pictures on Tumblr, go lament the death of real film in a forum, and in other words go find a sympathetic ear somewhere else. This article contains straight talk directed at people who want to make a difference. Not meant to offend, but meant to bring a different perspective to what kind of situation film photographers find themselves in here in the first quarter of the 21st century.

The writing is on the wall folks. Film is being killed off. Strip out all the emotion from the facts and we can see the following: Corporations will behave as corporations do, they’re in it to make money. Long gone are the days when the big film companies could hide test, experimental and underperforming (monetarily) film products within their product portfolio. All the major manufacturers have their product offerings stripped down to the bone. This is the part where you probably feel some anger or resentment towards the big bad company who took your beloved xxxyyyy iso 1600 slide film away. Release that, it happened, the party is over, and it’s not 1985 anymore.

I own an online Polaroid camera store as well as a retail location in Seattle, WA. Some would argue that I should be the most outraged at Fuji’s decision to discontinue FP-3000b instant peel apart film. I’m mean seriously, I’ve pegged my livelihood to the continued availability of this film. But I don’t. It’s our fault, it’s the vibrant community of enthusiastic film photographers who is to blame. We could mince words here but let’s not be pedantic, or righteous, and just move on. We didn’t buy enough film.

The photography world fell in love with digital. It’s easy to see why and I don’t blame anyone for their decision. But as we can see many photographers are doing a walk of shame back to film. Like regrets and the hangover from a fast and furious love affair, the photography community is starting to wake up and realize that film DOES have a place in art. So, here we are it’s the next morning your head is pounding with anger that this company or that had the audacity to discontinue your favorite film. What can you do, you feel powerless, outraged. So mad it makes you want to tell someone about it… on twitter.

Enter Bob Crowley and the New 55 project. If you don’t know what this is, go read up on it here. I’m not going to waste your time or space holding your hand or playing cheerleader for this project. What I do wish to say about it is this. If this crowd funded, home-grown film project fails to get funded I will slap the next person I have to listen to bitch about Fuji discontinuing FP-3000b. Don’t tell me about your 1st world problems, I don’t care. We are being given the opportunity to send a clear and direct message to the patent holders.

As of writing this piece, the New55 project is not funded with just 5 days left. There’s over $100,000 dollars to go and it’s anyone’s guess if it will get funded in time. So you say, you don’t have a 4×5” camera? You don’t like the ‘look’ of the film? You don’t shoot instant? You’re confused as to what it’s all about. Well let me say this, I can guarantee you that there are eyes watching this. Eyes that make decisions that affect the film industry going forward. The bottom line is this: If this project fails, we the people will be sending a very clear message. “The market for film is dead”

I don’t care if you have a perfectly good excuse for ignoring this project. If you shoot film you need to donate. I don’t care if you donate at the lowest level, or drop $1,000 towards this project or wouldn’t know what to do with the perks. This is about communicating the importance of saving the legacy of film photography. If you have the privilege to afford to shoot with real film in 2014, you can afford to put a few dollars towards New55.

The smartphone accessory that makes you a better film photographer

Lumu turns your iPhone into a dead-simple light meter

By Dan Seifert 

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Photography is all about light. It’s about capturing light, manipulating light, and interpreting light. Today’s digital cameras use advanced algorithms and sensors to properly measure light and then record what you’re seeing with your eyes. But cameras weren’t always so smart and sophisticated, and with more and more people exploring film photography with vintage cameras, light meters are once again becoming required tools for those serious about photography. A light meter measures the light in an environment and helps you set your camera for the proper exposure on your image. This is doubly important in film photography, where it’s much harder to correct a poorly exposed image (too dark or too light) after the fact.

That’s where the Lumu comes in. There are two types of light meters in photography. The $149 Lumu, which plugs into your smartphone’s headphone jack, can measure incidental light, the light that falls right on your subject or what you want to be exposed properly in your photo. But a camera is only capable of measuring the light reflected back into it, another step removed from the light directly on your subject. Exposing an image using incidental light is generally considered to be a more accurate method, which is why you’ll still see professional portrait photographers and cinematographers with light meters dangling around their necks.

A circular device roughly the size of an American quarter, the Lumu is much smaller than a traditional light meter, and makes use of the smartphone you’re already carrying around. There’s a special light sensing chip under a plastic diffusion dome on the Lumu, and an app to provide an exposure recommendation based on the measured light. In effect, the Lumu is using today’s technology to make it easier to take pictures with yesterday’s methods.

The Lumu comes in black or silver, is made of aluminum, and requires no batteries of its own. Included in the square tin with the Lumu is a neck strap and leather pouch to store the device when it’s not in use. (The tin can also be repurposed as a film storage container, as it’s just tall enough to accommodate a 35mm roll of film standing up.)

There are two apps that work alongside the Lumu: a standard light-metering app and one designed specifically for pinhole photography. The light metering app offers a variety of settings and can display exposure recommendations in full stop, half stop, or third stop steps. Just as with a traditional light meter, I can set my chosen ISO and aperture, and the app will recommend the right shutter speed for my camera based on the current lighting conditions. Or I can lock my shutter speed and have the app recommend apertures. The app also provides a Dropbox-syncable notes section for jotting down the exposure settings for each frame in a roll of film, which can be referred to later on after the pictures have been developed.

the Lumu is capable of measuring the light directly falling on your subject

I tested the Lumu and its app on an iPhone 5S (there is an Android app available in the Play Store, but it only works on a limited number of phones and in my experience it was slower and less accurate than the iOS version), shooting pictures with my Fujifilm X100s, which has a very good reflective metering system. I also compared it to a Sekonic L-358, a traditional handheld light meter that originally retailed for a few hundred dollars.

Getting an exposure setting with the Lumu is quick and effortless

The Lumu proved to be quite accurate in its readings, recommending exposures that were within a third of a stop of what my camera was telling me and what the more expensive and complicated Sekonic recommended. The Lumu snaps into the iPhone’s headphone jack firmly and even works when the phone is in a case. Its metering recommendations are closest to the "spot" metering settings on a digital camera, and assist when trying to expose for a very specific area. The one area that the Lumu falls behind full size meters is in measuring flash — it just isn’t designed to work with flash photography.

I took the Lumu and my camera outside this past weekend to take pictures of my family at the park. The lighting conditions were fairly difficult: the sun kept ducking behind the clouds and then reappearing, requiring me to adjust exposure settings on my camera for nearly every shot. The Lumu’s instant readings gave me accurate recommendations, whether my daughter was playing in bright sunlight or sitting in the shade. If I was shooting with slide film, it would have been invaluable in getting the picture correct in the camera, since fixing poorly exposed slides after the fact is a herculean task. With my digital camera, the Lumu was more or less a second confirmation that the in-camera meter was accurate.

At $149, the Lumu isn’t a cheap, throwaway accessory. If you shoot with a digital camera, you probably don’t need it, as today’s cameras have excellent metering systems already built in to them. But if you’re exploring the world of analog photography, and you’re using a vintage camera with a limited reflective meter (or no meter at all), the Lumu makes smart use of the phone you’re already carrying without the higher cost and bulk of a traditional light meter.

UNDERSTANDING APERTURE AND F-STOP

A lot of people ask me about where to start in film photography, or what’s my advice for beginners. One of the things that’s most important in photography (film and digital) is understanding the basics of aperture and f-stop. So for all of you who asked me questions on the subject, here’s a little 101:

Aperture is basically the diameter of the lens opening; the aperture is expressed as a fraction of focal length - that’s where the f-stop numbers come from. For instance, f/4  means the aperture equals focal length divided by 4. When we talk about a 1.8 lens or a 3.5 lens that refers to the largest aperture of the lens; so a 1.8 lens would start at f/1.8. An opening of 1.8 is bigger than 3.5, I know that doesn’t seem to make sense, but remember it’s fractions. Ansel Adams explains it better than I ever could:

“The aperture indicates the amount of light that the lens will transmit to the film. Since the aperture is expressed as a fraction of the focal length, all lenses set at f/8 (or any other aperture) transmit the same intensity of light to the film. This amount of light is proportional to the area of the lens aperture (and therefore to the square of the diameter); [an] f/4 lens… is twice the diameter of the f/8 lens, but transmits 4 times as much light.”

If that still doesn’t make sense, it’s much easier to understand if you have a lens in front of you. As you slide the f-stop down, meaning as the number gets bigger, you’ll notice the hole gets smaller.

Let’s look at the “universal” major stops:

f/1     1.4     2     2.8     4     5.6     8     11     16     22     32


In general, photographers know these by heart. If you don’t and you shoot regularly, you should memorize them. When you look at an f-stop, the numbers on either side represent either twice or half of the amount of light. For example, take f/5.6:  f/4 is twice as much light, while f/8 is half as much. Many lenses have numbers in between to represent half and third stops.

The f-stop you choose will have an effect on your depth of field; the way to control this is by using a combination of ISO (film speed) and shutter speed to provide the correct exposure while achieving the depth of field desired. I will explain more on this when I do a post on depth of field, but for now it’s important to note that larger f-stops have a smaller depth of field. Meaning, at f/1.4 you will have to use selective focus and choose either the foreground or background whereas at f/32 you would have much more of the image in focus. This is obviously a very very simple explanation, but I hope it helps some of you trying to understand the workings of film photography.

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Words of Inspiration for Aspiring Photographers

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Words Every Aspiring Photographer Should Know

Style is a voice, not a prop or an action. If you can buy it, borrow it, download it, or steal it, it is not a style. Don’t look outward for your style; look inward.

Know your stuff. Luck is a nice thing, but a terrifying thing to rely on. It’s like money; you only have it when you don’t need it.

Never apologize for your own sense of beauty. Nobody can tell you what you should love. Do what you do brazenly and unapologetically. You cannot build your sense of aesthetics on a consensus.

Say no. Say it often. It may be difficult, but you owe it to yourself and your clients. Turn down jobs that don’t fit you, say no to overbooking yourself. You are no good to anyone when you’re stressed and anxious.

Learn to say “I’m a photographer” out loud with a straight face. If you can’t say it and believe it, you can’t expect anyone else to, either.

You cannot specialize in everything.

Know your style before you hang out your shingle. If you don’t, your clients will dictate your style to you. That makes you nothing more than a picture taker. Changing your style later will force you to start all over again, and that’s tough.

Accept critique, but don’t apply it blindly. Just because someone said it does not make it so. Critiques are opinions, nothing more. Consider the advice, consider the perspective of the advice giver, consider your style and what you want to convey in your work. Implement only what makes sense to implement. That doesn’t not make you ungrateful, it makes you independent.

Leave room for yourself to grow and evolve. It may seem like a good idea to call your business “Precious Chubby Tootsies”….but what happens when you decide you love to photograph seniors? Or boudoir?

Remember that if your work looks like everyone else’s, there’s no reason for a client to book you instead of someone else. Unless you’re cheaper. And nobody wants to be known as “the cheaper photographer”.

Gimmicks and merchandise will come and go, but honest photography is never outdated.

It’s easier to focus on buying that next piece of equipment than it is to accept that you should be able to create great work with what you’ve got. Buying stuff is a convenient and expensive distraction. Spend money on equipment ONLY when you’ve outgrown your current equipment and you’re being limited by it.

Learn that people photography is about people, not about photography. Great portraits are a side effect of a strong human connection.

Never forget why you started taking pictures in the first place. Excellent technique is a great tool, but a terrible end product. The best thing your technique can do is not call attention to itself.

Never compare your journey with someone else’s. It’s a marathon with no finish line. Someone else may start out faster than you, may seem to progress more quickly than you, but every runner has his own pace. Your journey is your journey, not a competition. You will never “arrive”. No one ever does.

Embrace frustration. It pushes you to learn and grow, broadens your horizons, and lights a fire under you when your work has gone cold. Nothing is more dangerous to an artist than complacence.

– Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai

Via The Creative Mama

What is Shutter Speed?

In the simplest of terms, shutter speed is the amount of time that light hits the film. The shutter is the little curtain that opens and closes when you push the release button (when you make an exposure).

Exposure is effected by both the time and the intensity that light hits the film. In general, the correct exposure for all film is about the same amount of total light energy absorbed. Since we know that film sensitivity to light varies with ISO (formerly ASA), and that we can control the amount of light that reaches the film with shutter speed and aperture, we can use this formula to express total exposure:

Exposure = Intensity x Time (E = It)

In complicated photography/optics terms, intensity has other factors but is partially controlled by aperture settings. In laymen’s terms, this formula basically means that if you increase the aperture, you need to decrease the shutter speed (or film speed)… or that if you increase shutter speed you need to reduce aperture… or any mix n’ match of the three. Hence the exposure triangle of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO:


Each element effects the others and must be adjusted accordingly… but more on that in “Exposure.” For now, let’s get back to shutter speed:

On most cameras, shutter speeds increase by a ratio of 1:2 (w/ several rounded values), for example:

1/2  1/4  1/8  1/15 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 1/500 1/1000 1/2000 1/4000

1/60 is one sixtieth of a second. 1/1000 is one one thousandth of a second.

Most shutters also have a B and or T function; “B” stands for “bulb” and leaves the shutter open as long as you press it. “T” stands for “Time” and you press the shutter once to open, and again to close. “T” obviously makes more sense if you needed to do an exposure that was minutes or more. (If like myself, your camera doesn’t have a “T” function, you can always lock a cable release for extended exposures)

1/60 is the lowest you can go without a tripod before you will have camera shake; and even at 1/60 you need to be standing still.

For flash sync: the majority of cameras made before the 90’s sync with an external flash at 1/250; newer cameras can also have a flash synch at 1/200. (If you’re not sure what shutter speed your camera syncs at, be sure to look it up because using the wrong sync speed will mean half of your photograph is exposed, and the other half is black.)

Types of shutters:

Leaf Shutter- a leaf shutter has overlapping blades that are controlled by a rotating ring. It looks not unlike a star:


A leaf shutter is located at the base of the lens, near the diaphragm. For those of you who are familiar with focal plane shutters, opening up the back of a camera with a leaf shutter will look like a focal plane shutter that is stuck on open.

(Note: view cameras are almost exclusively leaf shutters (unless there’s a super fancy new view camera I haven’t heard about, which is totally possible) and feature a manual setting to open the shutter for viewing)


Focal Plane Shutter - a focal plane shutter is mounted near the film plane and features a horizontal curtain. Actually, older focal plane shutters feature one curtain, most new focal plane shutters now have two curtains:


To help understand the main difference between leaf and focal plane shutters, I am going to quote Ansel Adams, who again explains it much better than I ever could:

“An important difference between focal plane shutters and leaf shutters, is that the latter always expose the entire film area at the same time, while the focal plane shutter, when set at faster speeds, exposes a continuously overlapping series of strips.”  {Ansel Adams, The Camera, p. 85}

Both have their drawbacks, and for the focal plane shutter this mainly has to do with fast moving subjects and image compression. Basically, when you’re subject is moving really, really fast (for example, a car) it will probably be in a different place at the end of the exposure than it was at the beginning, which results in the image being either stretched or compressed. Depending on whether your focal plane shutter is horizontal or vertical, this stretching or compressing with take place either (you guessed it) horizontally or vertically. Because a leaf shutter exposes the entire film area at once this distortion will not occur, however - yes there is a however because leaf shutters are not without flaw - also because a leaf shutter exposes the entire film area at once (versus the small slits of the focal plane) very high shutter speeds are not possible. There are not very many leaf shutters manufactured today.
Please be sure to head over to The Photon Fantastic for A Beginner’s Guide to Lenses

The magic of film photography

The magic of film photography

by kristien 

I’ve always had a thing for photography. OK no, I’m lying. Like most people I always took crappy holiday pictures and didn’t really think there was more you could do but point and click. Until I met my first boyfriend who had just discovered his talent for photography. Consequently, I tagged along on his journey in the world of photography until I couldn’t keep up with his steep learning curve. I decided photography was fun but not for me as I didn’t seem to get it like he and his peers did.
It wasn’t until last year, when I dusted off my dads old analog camera and took some shots with the help of my current boyfriend (who’s also a photographer. Yes, I do seem to have a pattern *cough*.) and saw the results that I realized that I am capable of understanding photography.

If you want to learn photography and despite all the books and workshops you follow, you just can’t seem to get the hang of it, I recommend giving film photography a try. It will change your perspective on photography and will make you stop and reflect more before attempting your shot.

Some tips I wanted to share from my first analog attempts:

1. Read the manual of your camera

Don’t be that idiot who thinks he’s too cool for manuals. You don’t want to waste a film roll simply because you don’t know how to properly insert it in your camera (or even worse, not getting it safely out and ruining your pictures). Also you’d want to know what kind of indicators your camera uses for focus, shutter speed etc.
My dad lost the manual of his camera but luckily there are some good souls out there who have uploaded manuals of vintage camera’s. I found the manual for my Mamiya here.
If you’re planning on buying a second hand SLR, ask the current owner how to use it.

2. Check if there’s a film in it

Now I know this sounds super obvious, but I was that idiot that assumed that there was a roll in the camera simply because the counter added a number whenever I pulled the trigger. Yeah…imagine my surprise when I tried to rewind the non-existent film roll after 36 imaginary shots (my inner five year old got unleashed. Hissy fits and all.).
So here’s a tip, try to rewind the film roll, you’ll easily feel the resistance of a roll getting rewind when there actually is one in there. You’ll have to rewind the whole thing and possibly develop a half empty roll (assuming you want to see what’s on there) but trust me, that really beats spending hours making pictures that don’t exist. (But on the bright side, I did learn to handle my camera settings during those hours which made my next attempts a bit easier.)

3. Pay attention to what film roll you use

Unlike with digital camera’s, you can’t just change the ISO of a film roll. You can push it a bit, yes, but you can’t push it very far. So depending on when and where you’re going to shoot, you’ll have to take in account what film roll you’re going to use. A monochrome ISO 3200 film in full blazing daylight? Nope nope nope.

4. Bring extra film rolls with you

We’re so used to taking a minimum of 100 images on digital film that a mere 36 pictures will probably not be enough for anyone.

5. Just have fun

Don’t over think, just take pictures and don’t worry about what the end result will look like. Even if you’re pictures don’t turn out like you want them to, you’ll learn a lot from it. And also remember, the charm of film photography lies in tiny (or less tiny) imperfections.

Wonderful Analog Photos of Bali, Indonesia

Wonderful Analog Photos of Bali, Indonesia

by Khánh Hmoong 

Bali, the famed Island of the Gods, is an island and the smallest province of Indonesia, and includes a few smaller neighbouring islands. Bali with its varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides all providing a picturesque backdrop to its colourful, deeply spiritual and unique culture, stakes a serious claim to be paradise on earth. Below is a selection of 12 wonderful analog photos of Bali, Indonesia.

Bali by Wayan Tresna

untitled by mi..chael

Rock Bar, Bali by candid-eye

Bali - Kintimani Mist - film by Bruce Kerridge

DanShui River, BaLi by ！！

Bali Indonesia by Jordan Petryk

untitled by ॐ नमः शिवाय

Bali Travelogue-23 Rock Bar, Ayana Resort by ern st.

15 - Bali by ptjw

untitled by Astrid Prasetianti

Fishing Day by Herry Photos - Catching Up...

Dawn in Bali_1920028 by tobi911

London photography. The Years of La Dolce Vita

London photography. The Years of La Dolce Vita. The Birth of Celebrity Culture in Focus at the Estorick Collection, London, 30 April to 29 June 2014.

Marcello Geppetti (1933-1998) Brigitte Bardot in Spoleto, June 1961 MGMC & Solares Fondazione delle Arti

This summer the Estorick Collection presents The Years of La Dolce Vita, an exhibition which explores one of the most fertile periods in contemporary Italian cinema and the simultaneous explosion of celebrity culture. The eighty photographs, on view from 30 April to 29 June 2014, capture the dolce vita (literally ‘sweet life’) enjoyed by Italian movie stars and Hollywood ‘royalty’ working in Rome during the 1960s.Estorick La Dolce Vita – BardotThe 1950s and ’60s were a golden era in Italian film when directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Federico Fellini produced some of their most famous movies, including the latter’s iconic La Dolce Vita (1960). Hollywood stars John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Lauren Bacall and Liz Taylor, to name but a few, frequented the capital as American filmmakers were lured to Rome by the comparative inexpensiveness of its Cinecittà studios, and it was here that such epic productions as Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963) were shot. In the evenings, however, the focus of Rome’s movie culture – as well as the lenses of its paparazzi – shifted to the bars and restaurants lining the city’s exclusive Via Veneto and the popular haunts of glamorous celebrities such as Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas and Audrey Hepburn, transforming Rome’s streets into ‘an open-air film set’.
The exhibition juxtaposes images of this real-life dolce vita taken by Marcello Geppetti, one of its most skilful chroniclers, with behind-the-scenes shots from the set of the eponymous film by its cameraman, Arturo Zavattini. Together, these photographs vividly evoke an era of extraordinary glamour, creativity and decadence, yet also challenge us to consider our response to the media’s obsession with celebrity, the invasive nature of the images, and the ‘guilty pleasure’ we take in them.
Revealing the public, professional and private lives of some of the movie industry’s most celebrated actors and actresses, The Years of La Dolce Vita not only provides a candid and evocative snapshot of an era noted for its extraordinary vitality, but also presents a selection of images which, for better or worse, helped to change the face of photojournalism forever.
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 39a Canonbury Square, London N1 2AN. http://www.estorickcollection.com/

Depth of Field for Beginners

Ahh depth of field… aka DOF. This term strikes fear into the hearts of young aspiring photographers everywhere, both film and digital. They know it deals with optics and math - two things that most creative people are not really into. My first instinct is to say that depth of field is not that complicated… but then again I had to take an optics class in college which made me want to stab my eyes out with metal darkroom tongs… and then pour stop bath in them. I believe this class had a very deceptive name, along the lines of “Principles of Photography” or something like that. It was, in fact, all math. Ewww.

But as usual I digress, so let us get back to the task at hand - which is understanding the glorious principles of depth of field and how they apply to your film photography. Let me just say right now that I am about to do a basic overview “for dummies” style, so please do not write to me claiming that I did not explain such and such complicated principle. You can grab a copy of Ansel Adams’ “The Camera” for that. Here we go:

In über-simple laymen’s terms, depth of field refers to the part of your photograph that is in focus. If all or most of your photograph is in focus, you have a deep depth of field (also called deep focus.) If only a part of your photograph is in focus, you have a shallow depth of field (also called shallow focus and selective focus.) And that’s what depth of field is. Seriously.

The tricky part is figuring out how your aperture relates to your depth of field, and your beloved (or hated) exposure triangle. What is an exposure triangle, you say? You best be reading my Exposure 101, I answer. Several factors affect depth of field, including your distance to your subject, the focal length of your lens, your selected aperture (f-stop) and the format you are shooting. This means that a photo taken with a 50mm lens at f/1.8 from the same distance will not have the same depth of field when taken with a 35mm camera and 4x5 field camera.

A general rule to guide you: the smaller the f/stop number (so the larger the opening), the shallower the depth of field. F/1.2 has a shallower depth of field than f/1.8, which has a shallower depth of field than f/2.8 and so on. F/5.6 and F/8 tend to give medium focus, depending on your distance from the subject (and the format you shoot, of course.) If this confuses you, have a look at What is aperture/f-stop?.
Side-by-side examples:

{Selective Focus: F/2.8 - This is pretty shallow, but not to the point where it creates a complete bokeh effect and the background is indistinguishable. Both of these were shot at F/2.8 with a 50mm lens in 35mm.}

{Deep Focus: F/16. -These two, on the other hand, have deep focus - meaning that the foreground and background are in focus. Both were shot at F/16, but the left image is medium format and the right is 35mm.}

{Shallow and medium side-by-side: The background in the left shot is completely blurry with zero detail. It was shot at f/1.8, approximately 12 feet from the subject with an 80mm portrait lens on 35mm film. The right shot has a blurry background, but you can still tell what it is. It was shot at f/8, approximately three feet from the subject with a 50mm lens on medium format film.}

F/32 is most commonly the highest number on lenses that don’t cost a bajillion dollars, but you can definitely come across field cameras with an f/64. In fact, in the early 1930s, a bunch of photographers (including Ansel Adams) got together to form Group F/64. Their principal belief was that photographs should be  perfectly exposed, profoundly sharp and completely in focus (in contrast to the Pictorialist era, for the History of Photo buffs.) An aperture of f/64 was the best way to achieve this, as far as they were concerned.

Some of you may be saying, “Hey, but f/32 really doesn’t let a lot of light in….” No, it doesn’t. This is where mastering your exposure knowledge truly helps you create the photograph you want. If you absolutely have to shoot 100 ISO and need a very deep DOF, you’ll have to lower your shutter speed. If you want to use a specific shutter speed at f/32, you’ll have to pick a film with a high enough ISO.  For those who shoot digital, this doesn’t prove as much of a constraint, considering you can change the ISO. For my beloved kittens who shoot film, your ISO is your ISO and you can’t change it. Even if you decide to push or pull to fit the situation, you still have to shoot at that ISO for the entire roll. For more on that, please check out  What is ISO? in the Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography.
All of this information can seem confusing, but your lens actually tells you the depth of field if you really look at it:

See how it’s on F/2.8? And there’s a little white diamond on the middle ring? And more numbers on the third ring? Voila your DOF indicators. We can understand that the manufacturer says that this lens at F/2.8 has a DOF range of 1.5 to 2 meters, or 5 to 7 feet. Meaning that anything in between that range will be in focus. The manufacterer is most often, but not always, right. (Side Note: Mastery of using these numbers to focus without looking is known as “Zone Focusing” in fancy photographer talk.)
Many SLR film cameras have a depth of field preview button; it’s usually located on the front near the button to release the lens or the self-timer. When you hold the depth of field preview button and look through the viewfinder, you’ll notice it is significantly darker but accurately displays your complete depth of field. For a great explanation of this button, check out Ken Rockwell’s The Depth of Field Preview Button.
Let’s sum up the major points:

• Depth of field refers to the areas of the photograph in focus.

• Small f-stop numbers produce shallow depth of field, or selective focus. This is when the background is blurry. Great for portraits.

• Medium f-stop numbers produce a medium depth of field, still with selective focus, but with significantly more definition in the out-of-focus areas. Good for portraits and specific landscapes. 

• Large f-stop numbers produce a deep depth of field, meaning the foreground and background are in focus. Ideal for landscapes.

If you want to get more in depth on depth of field (sorry, couldn’t resist), I highly recommend Understanding Depth of Field in Photography from Cambridge in Color. They’ve got loads of fancy diagrams to confuse you ;)

Article from: "I Still Shoot Film" Blog

Photography Reading List

A lot of people ask me, “Where’s a good place to start” with film photography, which is a really broad question. Personally, my first experience was in the class I took when I was 10 years old, so I started off having a teacher explaining things to me… and continued that for many many years… I would recommend taking a class first and foremost, but I get that a lot of people can’t afford darkroom expenses, in which case I recommend reading. Lots of reading. In fact, I’ll give you a portion of what was my required reading list in the BFA Photography program at the School of Visual Arts:

• Black and White Photography by Henry Horenstein
• Color Photography: A Working Manual by Henry Horenstein
• Beyond Basic Photography: A Technical Manual by Henry Horenstein
• The Camera by Ansel Adams
• The Negative by Ansel Adams
• The Print by Ansel Adams
• A World History of Photography by Naomi Rosenblum
• The History of Photography by Beaumont Newhall
• Coming into Focus: A Step by Step Guide to Alternative Photographic Printing Processes by John Barnier

Article From: "I Still Shoot Film" blog. 

Alabama photographer focus of new museum exhibit

Erie Times-News

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Throughout most of the past two decades, Alabama photographer Jerry Siegel has focused his lens on a subject he is passionate about — his contemporaries in the art world. Siegel, a Selma native, has set out to capture in still film photography some of the South's most well-known artists — not in formal portraits, but in intimate settings, their studios and homes.

He has found that a studio, where an artist's creative energy is most intense, is often the place where they feel most comfortable and relaxed. Most themselves.

Through June 1 at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibition "Creator/Created: Portraits and Artists from the Permanent Collection," gathers Siegel's portraits of artists who have works in MMFA's permanent collection, pairing them alongside the featured artists' well known works.

Artists representing a variety of media — photography, painting, sculpture, clay, fabric, mixed media — are represented here. Among them are William Christenberry, Thornton Dial Sr., Lamar Dodd, Crawford Gillis, Dale Kennington, Charlie Lucas, Charles Shannon, Mose Tolliver, Melissa Tubbs and Yvonne Wells.

"The project actually started with me being a portrait photographer, loving to shoot pictures of anybody," Siegel said at a recent reception at the museum celebrating the exhibition, with many of the subjects present. Siegel's close friend Crawford Gillis, whose portrait and work are included, was the first. Later, Siegel had commissions to photograph Georgia artist Lamar Dodd and Bill Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art.

"This group of four or five portraits suggested that I had a great series of late-career Southern artists," Siegel said. "At that point, I was just shooting pictures of friends and artists that I wanted to meet. It kind of snowballed from there."

Siegel's book, "Facing South: Portraits of Southern Artists" (University of Alabama Press, 2012), includes 100 of his portraits of renowned Southern artists.

A substantial number of his portraits are of artists whose work is in MMFA's permanent collection. One of them is noted pen-and-ink artist Melissa B. Tubbs of Montgomery. Before their photo encounter, Tubbs and Siegel had never met.

"I got a phone call last fall and this man introduced himself as Jerry Siegel, and I knew his name — I knew who he was," Tubbs said at the reception, standing alongside her portrait and her works. "And then he said he wanted to come take my picture. He said that the museum asked him to. My first thought, and I said it out loud to him, was 'I don't like to have my picture taken. But if the museum wants it done, OK.'"

"And he came and spent a couple of hours at my studio and home. It turned out to be great fun, because he has the most wonderful camera, that makes no noise. I wasn't waiting for that click. I could feel myself relaxing. And I can guarantee you that this was one of the ones he took with that camera. And I like this photo. I think he did a great job."

Siegel said he has become aware of the benefits of this semi-stealth mode of working.

"I have one camera that does make a little noise, but I have another one that I can put on silent mode, and I've had a lot of artists mention, 'Oh, did you just shoot a picture?'" he said. "I never thought it made that much difference, but there is kind of nice when you don't hear the click. They're not aware that you're actually shooting a picture."

Is that the trick that brings out the artist's real demeanor and personality in the photos?

"I think it's just a matter of having a conversation with the artist. It's just a matter of making them comfortable," Siegel said. "I've always felt that if they find that comfortable place, they go from being a little bit stiff and thinking about being posed to — all of the sudden they kind of lean into it, and you get that kind of real, sort of relaxed person which is really, truly indicative of who they are."

One early work in the exhibition is a 1996 portrait of Selma artist Charlie Lucas, widely known as "the tin man" because of his art's use of found objects, many of them metal, such as hubcaps and other pieces of hardware, which he crafts into sculptures. On exhibit with Siegel's portrait of Lucas is his "self-portrait" sculpture, a gathering of rusted pieces rising into a looming human-like figure.

When Siegel approached Lucas about taking photographs, "I thought he was a little crazy," Lucas admitted.

"But when I really looked deeper into the way he wanted to photograph me, it was like, just coming up to a person and filling out a moment of his life and making it into a photograph," he said. "To see him move around, was like, 'OK, what do you want from me? Let's get it over with.' But I could see that he was a master at what he was doing, and I admire him for it."

Lucas was a longtime friend of Siegel's uncle — also named Jerry Siegel — who loved collecting art.

Like a lot of the artists Siegel has captured on film, Lucas was both pleased and surprised at the result.

"I think Jerry is ahead of his own time," he said. "I think he has that magic eye — looking at the art, looking at the people, and then combining them both together, and he makes the masterpiece right then. Most artists — I don't consider myself an artist, I consider myself as somebody that makes things — so Jerry makes up these beautiful pictures of us artists, and I think that's icing on the cake."

The fulfillment is mutual, Siegel said. "I've said to people that even if I never did any of the museum shows or had the book out, just the fact that I had 160 different artists, give or take, let me in their houses, in their studios, to share with me how they work and what they do has been incredible," he said. "It's just been a great experience."

How To Shoot Film For Dummies: 5 Steps

(or how to wing it with a camera you don’t know how to use)

If you’ve never shot film before, or if you’re working with a camera you don’t really know how to use, there are shortcuts to help you get to the gratification of shooting without so many calculations. Obviously, these are shortcuts and do not replace actual learning, but they can definitely helpful for trying out a film camera that you have never used before.

1. Shoot black and white: black and white film is way more forgiving, you have a full 5 stops of “error margin” that will still capture information. With color negative film you have 3, and with slide film you have 1 1/2 (this is in part why slide film is considered “professional” since it requires an exact exposure). If you don’t know what you’re doing or you don’t know your camera yet, you are much more likely to end up with printable images if you shoot black and white.

2. Shoot in broad daylight outside: maybe not high noon, but shoot during the day when there’s plenty of light. Low light situations are tricky, so avoid shadows and interiors at first or you’ll probably end up with a super underexposed roll, and that sucks. This is a major one for me when I test out vintage cameras, because you can also see if there are any leaks in the seals or foam and get a clear sense of the definition at a higher f-stop.

3. Use the Sunny 16 Rule: If you don’t know how to use your meter, or it doesn’t work, or you don’t have one, this trick is a life-saver.

"On a sunny day set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to the [reciprocal of the] ISO film speed."

Let me translate (dummy style just in case): f/16 is an aperture number on the lens, shutter speed is on top, and ISO is the number printed on the film. For example, Ilford Delta 400 has an ISO of 400. [I’ve posted articles explaining aperture and ISO for those who are interested]

An example of the Sunny 16 Rule would be: For film with an ISO of 100, aperture at 16 and shutter speed at 1/100 or 1/125 (depending on your camera)

ISO 400 would be f/16 at 1/500 (unless your camera miraculously has 1/400)
Here’s a handy daylight exposure guide guide from the inside of some Fuji Provia (ISO 100):


4. Bracket: This is a technique taught in ALL photography classes, and it’s actually pretty useful if you really want to be sure to get “the shot.” Basically, shoot one stop at the “correct” exposure, then shoot one stop up and one stop down. For example, if you were following the Sunny 16 Rule (and you really, really, really wanted to be sure to have a great photo) you could bracket like so:

ISO 400 - 1 shot @ f/16, 1/500; 1 shot @ f/22, 1/500, 1 shot @ f/11, 1/500

(you could also bracket by changing the shutter speed instead of the aperture)

5. Avoid Portraits (just at first): I know, I know this sounds horrible, but really if you’re learning how to use film (or a new camera) the biggest challenge is exposure. And portraits usually require perfect exposure and great lighting. If you’re not great with exposure and lighting, you may be disappointed with your first portraits.

Guide to Buying a Film Camera

If you hadn’t heard yet, I’m a bit of a film photography obsessive. I get a lot of emails and flickrmail from people asking me about my cameras, how I use them, which ones to buy, so I thought I would put up a little feature here on why I personally love film cameras and how you can too.
So you’ve decided you want to get into film photography for whatever reason. Maybe you took a photography class back in high school or at university and want to get back into it, maybe you’ve only ever used a digital camera and you’re intrigued by this weird thing called film (what do you mean I don’t plug it into the computer?) or maybe you just love the look of what film can produce.

To me film tells a story, it creates something that could be, may have been or quite possibly wasn’t there, it weaves magic that I still don’t think digital can do. Don’t get me wrong, I love digital (especially the time aspects) and I have used it to shoot my 52 weeks project mostly. However, film can spin that web, can create the magic of story telling, which to me, is what good photography is all about.

So what do you buy? 35mm? Medium format? Polaroid? Toy camera? So much choice.
I would recommend starting out with a 35mm if you just want a straight up film camera that is going to do the job. 35mm cameras are the kind that normal every day film goes into. All old school automatic cameras that our mums and dads used to use were 35mm point and shoots. I own quite a few different 35mm cameras.
35mm:
Pentax K1000
I don’t own one myself but lots of people in the photoblogging world and in my list of flickr contacts do use the Pentax K1000. You can pick one up on ebay for around $100. Perhaps I should buy myself one for my birthday in the coming weeks seeing as they were made in 1976 and so was I. The Pentax K1000 is a very typical camera used by film students at photography school.
Nikon FM
My workhorse 35mm camera is the Nikon FM3A. It sits in the Nikon FM family which are some of the greatest manual cameras ever made. They are strong, sturdy and built to last. The Nikon FM2 is a very popular camera and produces some gorgeous results. The special thing about the FM3A is that it is fully manual but nowhere near as old as the other FM cameras and it has an auto setting for when I’m feeling less than artistic.


The FM3A is a lot pricier than the FM or FM2 cameras, but I hear the FM2 is just as good.
Canon AE1
My grandfather owns a Canon AE1 and I really need to get my hands on it to have a play. It’s one of those cameras that I’ve always wanted to own and in fact, I was tossing up between it and the Nikon FM3A before I got her. The Nikon won out on newness which meant I wouldn’t be inheriting someone else’s problems. My aunt has shot some really fabulous Black and White portraits with the Canon AE1. I really should go and steal it from her. I know Pia Jane Bijkerk uses one of these babies!
Yashica Electro and FX
The Yashica Electro 35 G series cameras are also popular. Abby from Abby Try Again shoots with one if that’s anything to go by. I don’t know much about them other than over the years lots of people have told me to buy one. I never really had the chance, until I stumbled across a used camera store in Seattle a few years back. They didn’t have any Electros but I did find a Yashica FX3 which I’d also had my eye on. I use this camera for many of the 35mm photographs you see on this blog.
Olympus OM2
The Olympus OM2 has a cult following, as do many of the cameras listed here. This is one camera I have always been intrigued by, along with the Olympus Pen cameras. The king, Tommy Oshima has one, so you know they must be good.
Just remember that a lot of these cameras are fully manual. You can pick up auto point and shoot cameras that were made later but they don’t offer as much oomph. Any of these cameras would be a good choice to start your way in film photography. None should be too pricey, apart from maybe the Nikon FM3A, all costing you between $100-$200. Try ebay for a bargain or the safer KEH or B&H photo. I have bought from both online stores and have been very pleased with the results. If I ever get around to buying myself a Hasselblad, I will most likely purchase from KEH.

I hope you have enjoyed my little 35mm film camera feature.Posted in Photography and tagged Buying Cameras, cameras, Film Cameras, Film Photography by Amanda.

Tweedlove: The film and photo competitions need you

Calling all budding snappers and filmmakers, the TweedLove film and photo competitions need YOU.

The annual competitions are back, with entrants being invited to submit their best bike related images and films in return for guaranteed fame and fortune. (By which we mean some great prizes and the winning images and videos gracing the pages of Singletrackworld).
First up is the photo comp and this year there are four categories are on offer to help guide your pictures;

• Coming Home
• Skinny
• Bike Kit and
• Enduro.

These broad themes can be interpreted any way you like, and you can submit up to five pictures in total.  A panel of judges from the biking and photography world will then cast their expert eye over the images to shortlist their favourites.
The winning photos will be announced at the TweedLove Film Night on May 29^th at the Eastgate Theatre in Peebles.  A special exhibition of all the shortlisted entries will continue to run at the Eastgate until June 25^th.
And speaking of the film night, this TweedLove classic will not only feature a selection of the best new cycling movies, but also a showcase of the winning videos from the film competition. As long as your film is bike based, you can be as creative as you like; kids, comedy and even James Bond himself have made appearances in entries from previous years. The prizes are pretty amazing, and you have until noon on May 23^rd to get your entry in, so there’s no excuse not to dust off the camcorder.
And of course, even if you’re not entering either the film or photo comps you can still get a ticket for the film night, which promises to be an amazing night of cycling fuelled entertainment. Tickets are only £8 and available from www.tweedlove.com
Now for the techy stuff; Photo comp rules
Basic rules:

• • Maximum of five photos by any one entrant
• • Open to amateurs only ie. you can’t enter if you make your living from photography
• • Photos must be A4, 300 dpi, jpg or tif, as ready to print
• • Deadline for entry – Tuesday 13 May.
• • All finalists will be included in the exhibition at the Eastgate Theatre.
• • Winners announced at the TweedLove film night on Thursday 29 May at the Eastgate.
• Send your images to info@tweedlove.com
• The image name should include the title of the image followed by your name, with underscore between words – e.g. follow_me_ben_smith.jpg

Film competition rules;

•       Open to amateurs only – please don’t enter if you make a living from film-making.

Sunday in Sevastopol: A journey through Ukraine

Sunday in Sevastopol: A journey through Ukraine

Soviet-era naval murals in Sevastopol

In spring 2006, I spent two weeks travelling around Ukraine. It was some 18 months after the events of the Orange Revolution, an upswell of popular discontent that turned the capital Kiev’s main Independence Square into a camp bedecked in orange flags. It was an attempt to prevent the victory of Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian politician deemed to have won the recent general election though bullying and stolen votes.

It succeeded. Ukraine, a decade-and-a-half after separating from a crumbling USSR, was a country that seemed to be making the first tentative steps towards its place in a modern Europe, the shadow of its vast Russian neighbour always at its side.

The events of the last few weeks have plunged the country – Europe’s largest, apart from Russia – into a crisis like those of the Cold War’s darkest days. The names popping up in the straps of the TV news channels and the sidebars of the newspaper articles are exotic reminders of historical pasts; Crimea and Balaklava, Feodosia and Sevastopol. They are names that echo with imperial ambition and Soviet sacrifice.

Ukraine’s too big a place to cover in just two weeks – the trip started in Kiev, Ukraine’s sprawling capital, and down to Crimea, then across to Odessa, the home of the famous Odessa Steps from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, and westwards to Lviv, once Polish, now the heartland of modern Ukrainian nationalism. The east, the industrial region of coal mines and bustling cities like Donetsk and Kharkiv, would have to wait for another trip.

Ukraine was a joy to photograph. Kiev offered the unsubtle spectacle of Rodina Mat, the giant Soviet-era monstrosity looming over the Museum of the Great Patriotic War; Kiev’s residents had dubbed her “Tin Tits”. In front of the museum a pair of Soviet-era tanks had been repainted in gaudy colours. Kids clambered over the hulls and the crossed cannons raised to the heavens.

Crossed tanks in Kiev

Grumbling Soviet buses shared the streets with Ladas and Volgas, and the old Gaz trucks that look like something designed for a sandpit. The golden-domed St Michael’s Monastery, cupolas gleaming in weak sunlight. Andryivsky Uziz (St Andrew’s Descent), a winding cobbled lane full of galleries and bars and one of the best museums I’ve ever been to, the old family home of author Mikhail Bulgakov. It was staffed by volunteers who bordered on the reverent, took 10 minutes to visit, but was genuinely touching –the most eccentric-yet-endearing museum I’ve been to. Independence Square, which had been the centre of the 2004 protests and the scene of such surreal violence in the last few weeks, played host to gang of drinking, laughing teens.

Like Russia, Ukraine had inherited a massive railway system. The distances may not have rivalled Siberia, but large chunks of the two weeks were spent watching Ukraine sweep past the window on long-distance trains, getting out every few hours to stretch the legs and buy home-cooked food from the babushkas crowding the platforms. It was 15 hours from Kiev to Simferopol.

May in Crimea was warm but overcast, the air humid and rainclouds never far away. The resorts which would soon be rammed with Russian tourists were counting down until the start of the tourist season. Cloudy Crimea seemed to be listlessly waiting for summer to begin.  Sevastopol was a former no-go zone; this former Soviet closed city was the home of the Black Sea Fleet, an arsenal of warships and airbases crammed with bombers and interceptors. When the USSR collapsed Russia and Ukraine squabbled over who got to keep what; the result, in 2006 was that Sevastopol’s fleet of warships now belonged to two separate navies.

May Day celebrations in Sevastopol

It was while I was in Sevastopol that news came through of a musician I had met several times dying suddenly; Grant McLennan of acclaimed Australian indie band The Go-Betweens. I read of his death in an internet café and left a message an online book of condolence, shaky with a hangover from a Saturday night in a Sevastopol club. I can remember that the harbour’s massed ranks of ships suddenly looked more menacing, and a line appeared in my head: “A Sunday in Sevastopol/before the sea turns red.”

Independent Ukraine, USSR echoes

A few years later, that haunting, hungover line had somehow been turned into a song, ‘Sunday in Sevastopol’, by The Verlaines, a New Zealand band led by my old friend Graeme Downes (it’s on their 2007 album ‘Potboiler’).  Graeme’s brooding melody, buoyed by brass and strings, has been described as “suitably Crimean”; and hearing the song has always brought me back to that May morning on a Black Sea quayside. The last week seems to have given it an extra dimension. My hope is that Sevastopol – and the rest of Ukraine – enjoy another sleepy spring.

This post was originally published on Stephen Dowling's film photography blog, Zorki Photo.  If you’ve not heard The Verlaines before, check them out. Their early 1980s output gathered on the early compilation ‘Juvenilia’ is amazing; the 2003 best-of ‘You’re Just Too Obscure For Me’ collected later material. Push comes to shove, my favourite album is 1993’s ‘Way Out Where’, where they briefly sounded like an Antipodean answer to Buffalo Tom.)

A sailor at rest on a spring day in Odessa

Track-side snakc, Ukraine style

Revolutionary sculpture in Odessa

Old motors and Soviet trolleybuses, still a common sight on Kiev streets

_______________

*Stephen Dowling is a London-based photojournalist specialising in music, reportage, portraiture and travel. You can find more of his work on his blog or follow him on Facebook, Flickr and Lomography.