Roy Hammans and Brian Human were founding members of the Cambridge Darkroom. David Runnacles worked with the Darkroom and studied documentary photography at Newport. All have worked with photography for many years professionally and personally and have been through the transition from analogue to digital.
This talk starts from the position that analogue and digital photography are just different ways of achieving the same end, great pictures. It will look at some of those differences, touch on the practicalities of working with film and consider what it all means for the final product, fine prints, print publication and web publication. A main part of the talk will focus on why people choose to use film, including keeping craft traditions alive, the discipline is imposes, uncertainty and serendipity, photography as ritual and magic and silver negatives and prints as distinctive objects.
This is one not to miss.
Photography has always been one of my favorite pastimes. I was captivated the moment I stepped into the darkroom for my 9th grade photography class and felt the weight of a well-built camera.
Street photography. It’s one of the most versatile and interesting genres of the medium. It’s also an getting into it than ever before. Yet, despite its widespread adoption and high level of discipline and creativity needed to accomplish it, it is a genre largely ignored by the ne art world.
One of the world's best poem written by Young Poets. This is a poem on Dark Room. This poem is written by Vaishnoraj Shivan from 7th standard (IGCSE), studying in Pinnacle High International School, Malad (W), Mumbai, India.
Photography has always been one of my favorite pastimes. I was captivated the moment I stepped into the darkroom for my 9th grade photography class and felt the weight of a well-built camera.
Street photography. It’s one of the most versatile and interesting genres of the medium. It’s also an getting into it than ever before. Yet, despite its widespread adoption and high level of discipline and creativity needed to accomplish it, it is a genre largely ignored by the ne art world.
One of the world's best poem written by Young Poets. This is a poem on Dark Room. This poem is written by Vaishnoraj Shivan from 7th standard (IGCSE), studying in Pinnacle High International School, Malad (W), Mumbai, India.
Computed tomography (CT scan) is a medical imaging procedure that uses computer-processed X-rays to produce tomographic images or 'slices' of specific areas of the body. These cross-sectional images are used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in various medical disciplines.
In the past, when all we had was film photography, we had to be very selective of the kind of pictures we wanted to take. I’m sure there wouldn't be half as many ‘selfies’ ‘photo bombs’ or ‘duck pouts’ as there are today. Images have a strong emotional factor, and emotions have a powerful pull on us as human beings.
These slides were first presented the Thurday 31st of Jul 2014 at Cambridge Darkroom's meetup (http://www.meetup.com/CambridgeDarkroom/events/173760452/)
Why is it that the image on your camera's viewfinder is nothing like the one you see in Photoshop? How come this stupid printer doesn't get the colours right either?
Jonathan has crafted for you some colourful slides to give you both theory and practical steps to maintain accurate colour throughout the digital workflow - from camera to print.
Although PS will be used as an example, the principles and steps are applicable to other workflow environments.
Author Jonathan Beattie
Cambridge Darkroom - The Orphan Works Directive: What you need to know.CambridgeDarkroom
Dr. Eleonora Rosati, came to Cambridge Darkroom and talked through the Orphan Works Directive as the recent Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act will allow anyone to exploit your photograph without your knowledge, permission and payment to you.
This is a must watch if you blog or put content online!
Cambridge Darkroom - Stars in our eyes by shooting stars in the sky at nightCambridgeDarkroom
These are the slides accompanying the 28th of March 2013 Cambridge Darkroom meetup: http://www.meetup.com/CambridgeDarkroom/events/106902682/
James Billings, a photographer with a penchant for all things starry, guided us through three different types of Astro Photography:
- Wide field with just a camera
- Planetary images with a webcam
- Deep-sky images with a DSLR
With plenty of examples included.
The importance of developing your photographic style by FlibbleCambridgeDarkroom
The slide deck of the talk given in Aug 2011 by Mr Flibble at the Cambridge Darkroom meetup.
The video is also on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp9I7yovmJc
Explore the multifaceted world of Muntadher Saleh, an Iraqi polymath renowned for his expertise in visual art, writing, design, and pharmacy. This SlideShare delves into his innovative contributions across various disciplines, showcasing his unique ability to blend traditional themes with modern aesthetics. Learn about his impactful artworks, thought-provoking literary pieces, and his vision as a Neo-Pop artist dedicated to raising awareness about Iraq's cultural heritage. Discover why Muntadher Saleh is celebrated as "The Last Polymath" and how his multidisciplinary talents continue to inspire and influence.
This tutorial offers a step-by-step guide on how to effectively use Pinterest. It covers the basics such as account creation and navigation, as well as advanced techniques including creating eye-catching pins and optimizing your profile. The tutorial also explores collaboration and networking on the platform. With visual illustrations and clear instructions, this tutorial will equip you with the skills to navigate Pinterest confidently and achieve your goals.
Hadj Ounis's most notable work is his sculpture titled "Metamorphosis." This piece showcases Ounis's mastery of form and texture, as he seamlessly combines metal and wood to create a dynamic and visually striking composition. The juxtaposition of the two materials creates a sense of tension and harmony, inviting viewers to contemplate the relationship between nature and industry.
Fashionista Chic Couture Maze & Coloring Adventures is a coloring and activity book filled with many maze games and coloring activities designed to delight and engage young fashion enthusiasts. Each page offers a unique blend of fashion-themed mazes and stylish illustrations to color, inspiring creativity and problem-solving skills in children.
2. Slides from a talk given at The Fountain Inn,
Cambridge on June 28, 2012
by
Brian Human
http://brianhuman.co.uk/wp/
Dave Runnacles
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lonesomefoghorn/
Roy Hammans
http://weepingash.co.uk/
http://real-photographs.co.uk/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraxinus/
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. William Henry Fox Talbot
How charming it would be if it were possible to
cause these natural images to imprint
themselves durable and remain fixed upon the
paper!
And why should it not be possible? I asked
myself.
31. DIGITAL FILM
The camera does everything The camera does nothing
All down to you Often involves others
Instant gratification Delayed gratification
No risks Many risks
But, as many pointed out during the talk,
it does have
MAGIC!
37. Digital original
Converted to b/w in Lightroom
Tones inverted in Photoshop,
printed onto large format
transparency via inkjet
Contact printed onto
photographic paper
and lith processed
in the darkroom
41. No photographer is as good as the simplest
camera.
Edward Steichen
Photography has not changed since its origin
except in its technical aspects,
which for me are not important.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Every time I find a film or paper that I like,
they discontinue it.
Paul Strand
42.
43. Photography can be a mirror and reflect life as
it is, but I also think it is possible to walk, like
Alice, through a looking glass and find another
kind of world with the camera.
Tony Ray-Jones
44. Links to useful resources
FADU – the Film & Darkroom Users Group
– a UK-based group with an international membership.
APUG – the Analogue Photography Users Group
– the original international group for all film users
F295 – Analogue, Digital & Hybrid processes
Manual Focus Forum – for lovers of old lenses
THIAPS – Traditional Film Photography
Large Format Photography Forum – specialises in analogue photography
using larger cameras
Silverprint – foremost UK supplier of all things film – and ink jet materials too.
Ag Photographic – traditional materials
On-Linepaper – specialists in fine ink-jet papers
Editor's Notes
Ritual and instant gratification – the camera obscura. The image presents itself immediately, but must be traced by hand to record it permanently. Start of a long and continuing process of evolution to record the natural world.
One the earliest surviving ‘fixed’ photographs. Nicéphore Niépce’s ‘Heliograph’, 1826 He dissolved bitumen in lavender oil, a solvent often used in varnishes, and coated a sheet of pewter with this light-sensitive mixture. He then placed the sheet inside a camera obscura to record the picture, and eight hours later the bitumen had hardened with exposure to light and also turned a light grey colour. He then removed it and washed it with lavender oil to remove the unexposed bitumen. The resulting unique image is a ‘positive’, with the lighter areas representing the sunlit portions and the shadows being rendered by the pewter plate itself.
Daguereotype – Louis Daguerre, 1838 Silver-coated copper plate sensitised with iodine and bromine, therefore first use of silver halides. Exposure 15-30 minutes, plate developed in mercury vapour, ‘fixed’ using sodium thiosulphate and sometimes gold toned. This image is the earliest surviving record of a human figure. The man having his shoes shined was stationary long enough to be recorded during the long exposure. All other activity in this busy street scene was moving and not recorded.
The equipment needed to prepare, expose and develop a daguerreotype.
Hand-coloured daguereotype. The process only created a single image unless more than one exposure was made on additional plates. These images could be hand-coloured using paints to give the illusion of a colour record.
Fox Talbot’s motivational thoughts concerning the creation of a permanent record of the camera obscura image. The ‘Calotype, or ‘Talbotype’, could render many copies from a single recorded ‘negative’ image.
Fox Talbot’s ‘mousetrap’ camera. Essentially a miniature camera obscura with a removable back to hold the sensitised paper.
The earliest surviving paper negative created in the mousetrap camera by Fox Talbot, with his own notes. A latticed window in Lacock Abbey in 1835 by Talbot is a print from the oldest photographic negative in existence. By waxing the paper after development (by sunlight) it was rendered more translucent, enabling a contact positive print to be made from the negative. Any number of prints could be made from the one negative.
As a brief aside, my version of the very same window – an early digital image (1990s) that was actually the first I sent to a colleague in the US electronically.
Roger Fenton’s solution to instant gratification, the equipment needed to use the cumbersome wet collodion process during the Crimean War. This process, created in 1851, enabled the light sensitive emulsion to be coated on glass plates, greatly increasing the detail and resolution of the final image.
Roger Fenton, 1855, The Crimea. “The Valley of the Shadow of Death”. Possibly the first photograph published in a national newspaper (via engraving).
The first example of photo-manipulation? The same photograph with the road cleared of cannonballs, but which photograph was made first?
Kodak advertisement, 1892 Almost instant gratification – no effort involved but you had to wait for your 100 prints to be returned by Kodak after processing.
The first true ‘instant gratification’ camera. The unique Polaroid process, invented by Edwin Land, was first made available to the public in 1948.
Polaroid in the 21 st century: the Z2300 digital, prints in-camera and shoots HD video – August 2012 release
Disposable hybrid film/digital to full-featured digital SLR; the choice is yours! The Kodak disposable camera helps keep film production alive. It produces film negatives but also gives you scanned versions of the images after processing.
Analogue is full of choices and challenging decisions. The whole process is about making choices, few of which may be changed after the decision has been made.
One film will not necessarily cope well with both dark, indoor scenes (without use of flash) and the bright, sunlit beach – though it’s fun trying. Simple family snapshot cameras were asked to do both and did their best. Digital has no such limitations in the majority of cases.
A considerably underexposed image on digital can be rescued – not the case with film. An error in camera setting resulted in the flash not firing for the exposure top left. As the image was made in RAW format on digital, Adobe Lightroom was able to extract information sufficient to render the image perfectly usable.
The film process is fraught with risks during both the mechanical (exposure) and chemical (processing) phases. A great deal of Robert Capa’s D–Day landing film was lost in processing or melted in the drying cabinet. But a great picture survives from what was rescued.
Part of the magic of deferred gratification – the discoveries that can be made on the contact sheet. Even with digital, use of a contact sheet is recommended, both as a hard copy reference of a particular shoot and as a means of studying images away from the computer. Tony Ray-Jones, Glyndebourne 1967
The final image selected from the contact sheet for enlargement. Part of the enduring magic of film is the discovery of such gems long after the moment of exposure. The delayed gratification and the delight in finding images that ‘worked’ is somewhat lost with digital. Tony Ray-Jones, Glyndebourne 1967
More from Tony Ray-Jones. No EXIF information or GPS recording – but contact sheets can tell us a lot about the images – and the working method of the photographer. The location of this series was established from identifying the background imagery. The one bracketed was the single classic image from this trip. The red circle indicates a reflection of the photographer in the scene.
All the elements in place. Tony Ray-Jones – Tripper boat, Beachy Head. 1967
Dealing with visual and technical challenges leads to very different requirements to get the desired results on film – Ansel Adams, made using a large format 10x8 sheet film camera.
Robert Mapplethorpe Possibly film is more appropriate to this slower, measured and atmospheric work, although there is no reason why digital could not produce an almost identical image.
By Robert Frank, from the book The Americans, published in 1958. The gritty realism of Frank’s seminal work owes a lot to film and its use in extreme conditions.
Henri Cartier-Bresson If HC-B had used digital would he have got this photo? Several reasons why he may not – shutter lag, viewfinder/composition dependent, camera settings Key point is to use the approach most suited to the subject.
In summary
Which to use? Photo by Dave Runnacles where colour, timing and composition are all.
Photograph by Brian Human using a 35mm pinhole camera and colour negative film.
Hybrid pictures – digital and analogue not mutually exclusive – this pinhole picture by Brian Human, made on colour film, was then scanned and the digital image converted to black & white using Adobe Lightroom. Time here is not of the essence, contemplation, composition and pre-visualisation come into play.
The two can happily co-exist. But you will need a darkroom if you want to work with film and print the old-fashioned way.
Digital/Silver comparison. The print top left is an ink-jet image from colour original made with a digital camera. The original file is shown bottom left. The print top right is the same scene, photographed at the same time on a 120 roll film camera on black & white film, processed and printed on silver photo paper. The two enlargements bottom right are made by photographing the actual prints. The film image has greater resolution and sharpness, but the prints are almost indistinguishable when viewed in their entirety.
Digital original, converted to black and white, printed as a digital large format negative and contact printed as a silver lith print. Full details of this process may be found on my website: www.weepingash.co.uk under Technique>Hybrid Techniques
Another example of digital to lith print via inkjet internegative.
The reasons were discussed in more detail during the talk.
The end products: :Great picture :The print as an object of value – silver or ink jet. :Changing technologies mean that vintage prints have added value – papers are discontinued so negatives can’t be reprinted the same. (This is an article about Diane Arbus’s work and Neil Selkirk, the only person allowed to print from her negatives.)
Three quotes pertaining to the topic and leading to discussions.
Final background slide – by Dave Runnacles
The Evolution of Photography by Eric William Carroll Film or Digital? - No one better than the other – horses for courses, depends on personal preferences and circumstances …