Freakscene
Obscure member
I am firmly if the view that photographing makes you a better photographer. I dearly wish I had possessed the resources to spend the time shooting, not printing.
My main regret us that it is mostly redundant knowledge now. Half the materials don’t even exist anymore. And my pile of Cibachromes are nice, but they are not worth 2% of my life.
Archiver
Mentor
Have you considered documenting the photographic knowledge you believe is redundant? It would be of interest to many, even if the materials no longer exist, from a historical perspective. You may have unique perspectives and techniques that others don't.
Speaking of Cibachrome, I once saw some lovely Cibachromes at the National Gallery of Victoria in the contemporary section. Although I don't recall the artist, they were of beach scenes, and I distinctly remember them being Cibachrome because I looked up the process after seeing them.
Archiver
Mentor
I'm burying my face in my hands at the loss of so many images, but I'm a data hoarder.
I have about 20 years of digital images. My 2021 folder alone contains 72,465 files, 2022 has 111,156 files, most of which are processed jpegs. This sounds ludicrous even to me, but I can take multiple image of a scene just to get the right angle or moment, and I often shoot things at home or when out shopping to document what I'm doing. The process of constant shooting helps me refine my eye, or that's what I tell myself, at least.
In a three day sporting event, I can shoot 8000-11,000 images which then need to be culled down to the usual 10-13% keepers. These days I try to keep a single event down to under a thousand images, but it can easily blow out to 2400 if I'm not parsimonious. I shot about 300 images at an afternoon session and delivered 44 processed jpegs for a client.
Archiver
Mentor
Having handled the Zf, I'm more than tempted to get one for use with M glass and some native primes, purely for photographic purposes Even though it has awesome video capabilities, this is the first non-Leica that I can imagine shooting in place of my M9.
sojournerphoto
Mentor
The ZF looks great, although I don't think it will pull me away from my already owned S1r yet - even though I expect it does better with M lenses.
I tend to agree about shooting but I also think that we need to look at what we shoot after the fact. Digital can let us do this much more quickly than film, but also can lead to being overwhelmed with images. How do you manage that? (I know that I've just upgraded my laptop as the old one was so slow I couldn't even move between in a timely fashion...)
Mike
Archiver
Mentor
Repairs and immediate needs aside, I get almost all my gear secondhand. I love local dealers like Camera Lane and Camera Exchange, and even Teds is starting to sell secondhand gear. You can even get the occasional decent thing at Cash Converters if you're lucky.
Freakscene
Obscure member
It’s all documented. Everything had an SOP, criteria for assessing batches of material, adjustment calculations for variance and other inputs. Much of it is published In various places, including in some Kodak Australia technical documentation. I do see your point but finalisation and distribution of the remainder are complicated; I have a family who require care and my job is busy. It’s hardly as though I have any available time.
JohnGellings
Well-known
I get your point. You wanted to be photographing more and you saw printing taking away time from that...that is completely fair. I guess that is why I prefer digital. It really allows me to spend my time photographing and when I need to print, I know I can easily. And Cibachromes were a pain in the ... at least the way I had to do it with those tubes on a roller. I knew immediately it wasn't for me.
Freakscene
Obscure member
Yes, exactly. I wanted to be a photographer but instead I ended up a darkroom technician. Then commercial darkrooms went away.
I'd never have had time to develop the film had I shot film in Rajasthan .
I had access to a full commercial darkroom, but doing it to a high standard was a total pain. Colour crossover, reciprocity, chemistry oxidation, paper with surface imperfections. Just thinking about it makes me feel mildly ill.
x-ray
Mentor
I’m 75 and got interested in photography when I was quite young. My dad was an accomplished hobbyist and I set up nights watching him develop film and print. It was pure magic.
I made my first photos at 5 years old and got my first camera for my 7th birthday. I carried my camera to school and around making photos of my classmates and teachers. I shot so much film my dad said I either had to get a job or learn to process my own film. At 9 years old I opted to learn to process and print and I’ve never stopped enjoying the full process. To me the processing and printing is a continuation of the vision I had making those images. The process in my mind isn’t complete until the image is printed and mounted. The trick is to determine your best images and bring them to completion.
I made my first photos at 5 years old and got my first camera for my 7th birthday. I carried my camera to school and around making photos of my classmates and teachers. I shot so much film my dad said I either had to get a job or learn to process my own film. At 9 years old I opted to learn to process and print and I’ve never stopped enjoying the full process. To me the processing and printing is a continuation of the vision I had making those images. The process in my mind isn’t complete until the image is printed and mounted. The trick is to determine your best images and bring them to completion.
x-ray
Mentor
For those that think printing is time consuming and difficult I’d invite you to look back to the 40’s to the 60’s and see what a pain color printing was. That’s when I started color printing and there’s no comparison in ease, time in the darkroom and quality.
In the early 70’s coworker did dye transfer prints and I assisted him in making them. That’s a very intensive and time consuming process of making exquisite color prints from positive film. It required making separation negs on Super XX film ( not double XX), contrast masking, diffusion masks, dye matrix of which all had to be made in perfect registration using register punches and pin register boards. The prints though were amazing.
the consumer Ciba was very different from the professional. The pro was a double bleach process with a silver and a separate dye bleach. Both were very toxic and extremely corrosive. The process required diffused contrast masking most of the time. Done properly the prints were stunning.
I really never liked color printing. I just didn’t enjoy it like I love B&W. I do like digital printing my color though. I think it’s the ease of manipulation and the ease of making beautiful prints. Funny think, I like digital color printing but hate digital B&W printing even though I do it for some of my gallery work.
In the early 70’s coworker did dye transfer prints and I assisted him in making them. That’s a very intensive and time consuming process of making exquisite color prints from positive film. It required making separation negs on Super XX film ( not double XX), contrast masking, diffusion masks, dye matrix of which all had to be made in perfect registration using register punches and pin register boards. The prints though were amazing.
the consumer Ciba was very different from the professional. The pro was a double bleach process with a silver and a separate dye bleach. Both were very toxic and extremely corrosive. The process required diffused contrast masking most of the time. Done properly the prints were stunning.
I really never liked color printing. I just didn’t enjoy it like I love B&W. I do like digital printing my color though. I think it’s the ease of manipulation and the ease of making beautiful prints. Funny think, I like digital color printing but hate digital B&W printing even though I do it for some of my gallery work.
raid
Dad Photographer
Congratulations!
Will the Zf let you use the Nikon 21/4 lens or will the lens hit the sensor?
Will the Zf let you use the Nikon 21/4 lens or will the lens hit the sensor?
Freakscene
Obscure member
The double bleach Ciba/Ilfochrome process was unpleasant. Like dye transfer, the materials no longer exist. Digital colour printing finally freed colour adjustment from interlinked, complex physico-chemical processes.
I very much like digital negative contact prints on silver paper. That process frees black and white from many of the constraints of traditional printing, and lets you shoot clean files at high ISOs. It’s not much used. The quality of inkjet B&Ws vary widely.
I’m going to let this thread go; it’s about the Zf and I’m distracting the discussion.
Rob-F
Likes Leicas
That Zf looks and sounds fantastic! Congratulations on getting it--and I think I need to get me one of those . . .