[Leica] Analog Processing

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

I believe digital photography has been a boom to photography like nothing
ever has before. More of a positive impact of photography than roll film did
over sheet film. Dry plate over wet plate.

We used to pick up our snapshots from the drugstore; then those one hour
places.
Now we are hands on involved with the process from start to finish.
Instead of one kid in a million having a darkroom (me) about every other kid
on the block is turning out letter sized prints and or printing to pixel or
monitor and uploading to every kind of gallery and website.

The most recent thing I've just noticed is how well people are represented
now in photography. As in their face. Them.
Used to be you'd look in the phonebook under portrait photographers and get
a really lousy stiff tasteless shot from them in a week or two from idiot.
Then you'd see how celebrities were represented in magazines.
Some smart people might discover the other section of the yellow pages;
The commercial photographer section;
And get represented a bit better. Closer to what they'd see in a magazine or
even on a very sophisticated person perhaps in the performing or graphic
arts would have on their wall. Something with a little flair maybe. Or not.

Now people are photographing themselves; and doing a much better job of it.
Look at the faces in Facebook or Myspace; Brilliant!
People have really gotten into photography now!
They've taken control of it;
And their own image.
People are having a ball with it.

Kids don't go to recess any more.
They set in rooms filled with Macs running Photoshop.
Photography is hands on now.

I think Platinum printing is on the upswing.
As is Calotype.
As is silver salt and silver Jello prints

The darkroom department in B&H is huge and does not seem to be shrinking if
anything the opposite. Same with Calumet, Adorma and

It is only obvious that after playing with Photoshop and Epson's and DSLR's
an enthusiast might yearn for other avenues.
Flim.
Darkrooms.
Lightroom.
Contact printing arrangements which work well at high noon on a day like
today on the roof of your apartment or in Central Park.
Or with banks of fluorescents which can also light up a dingy dark winter
apartment.



mark@rabinergroup.com
Mark William Rabiner



> From: Philip Forrest <photo.forrest@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 16:46:03 -0400
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Analog Processing
> 
> Many people still use film but the industry is seeing that most film
> use (almost 80%) is from disposable cameras. So, saying that much
> photography is still analog, is a bit of a misnomer unless you want to
> use Kodak Max 800 for your photographs. As far as darkroom work goes,
> it has been relegated to fine art. It's not a dying art, it's just an
> old one. 
> So there are two facets of the analog discussion. Film and darkroom
> printing. 
> Film is still being used for a good amount of peoples' normal
> photographs, but digital is still taking over by a large percentage
> jump every holiday season and every summer.
> The darkroom is a thing of the past that some people are keeping as a
> viable form of creating their art. It is not used commercially on a
> large scale at all, only for custom prints that discerning customers
> order, again this is the art world talking.
> Just because it's discussed here on the LUG does not mean that it is
> the norm. We are definitely not representative of most of the photo
> making world; if we were, famine, disease and war wouldn't be things
> that the world would be taking photos of. Most poor people don't own
> cameras, let alone Leicas. Some of us do...
> 
> PhilFo
> 
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