Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/08/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Dan: When I shot film and the paper had a wet darkroom (we went digital when we could not longer get the chemistry we used, such as acufine, Agfa processor developer and fix, etc.) we shot ektapress and fujipress films. We kept every negative and made contact sheets of each roll of film. So, indeed everything was saved. But that's a false impression of real life, because after about four years or so, the accumulated negs and contacts were placed in boxes and thrown into a storeroom--essentially the black hole of news photography. If we were to search for old negs or contact sheets, it was more a matter of luck to find what we were after. As another writer has pointed out, I don't consider the editing process I described to be much different than when I shoot personal stuff. All my personal work is shot with a pair of Leica M4's, and ektachrome slide film. When my film returns from Yellow Father, I sort through the slides and toss the crap and keep the possibilities. I prefer shooting slides because of the ease of editing and storing. Not much different than editing in camera in effect. As to shooting 2K assignments per year: I work with another full-time shooter at the paper, and the 2K assignments is what we shoot between us. Some days (especially in the summer when schools are out) we may have only a couple or three assignments each per day. But during the school year, we stay very busy shooting not only spot news and features, but sports at four high schools, a community college, two universities, plus the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Coyotes. That makes for a bunch of images to try to store. And yes, it would be nice to archive everything. And the problem is not so much the expense, space, and time - because we cut CD's like everyone else - but the fact that finding anything two, three, or four years later would still be difficult. By limiting the number of files per assignment, it makes it more likely that we will find the old image we're looking for. Thanks for the interest. Steven ---------- >From: Dan C <bladman99@yahoo.ca> >To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org> >Subject: Re: [Leica] Question for photojournalists concerning digital photos >Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2005, 11:50 AM > > Hi Steven King (love your books ;-) ) > > How does this current workflow of yours compare with what it was when you > shot film? Did you throw out negatives or slides which weren't explicity > needed for an asignment? > > -dan c. > > At 10:08 AM 03-08-05 -0700, Steven King wrote: >>Dan: I work for a daily newspaper in Arizona, and I've just spent the past >>two hours shooting pix of storm damage from last night. I went to about >>five different venues and shot about 300 pix on my D1 MkII. After I got to >>the office, I edited in camera to about 30 pix, and those will get >>downloaded to my G4 for processing in PS and placement in today's edition. >>If I kept every shot ever taken on my digital, I could never work my way >>through all the shots of a particular assignment to locate the select ones. >>Just the practice at my paper. Besides, when you shoot 2,000 assignments a >>year, the cost of archiving every trip of the shutter would be just too >>great. >> >>Happy snaps. >> >>Steven >> >>---------- >>>From: Dan C <bladman99@yahoo.ca> >>>To: lug@leica-users.org >>>Subject: [Leica] Question for photojournalists concerning digital photos >>>Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2005, 6:53 AM >>> >> >>> An article by Freeman Patterson in Photo Life magazine raised a question >>> about how photojournalists using digital cameras treated their images. >>> He >>> suggested that the norm was for them to essentially delete their older >>> unused images, as opposed to film photographers who tend to keep their >>> negatives. He illustrated this with the example of an old photo of >>> Monica >>> Lewinsky meeting Bill Clinton in public that some photographer discovered >>> amongst his old negatives, and which has appeared numerous times in the >>> press. Patterson claims, "None of the digital photographers had any such >>> visual records. All their old images had been deleted." >>> >>> Is this a valid argument (or even a true one in the above example)? I am >>> not a photojournalist, but I have kept the vast majority of the digital >>> images I've taken in the past 4 years, since I first started using >>> digital >>> cameras, probably numbering between 15,000 and 20,000 images. The only >>> images I delete are the ones where I am fooling around with or testing >>> the >>> camera. >>> >>> But what about working photojournalists? Do they routinely delete >>> photos >>> (images) that aren't needed for a current assignment? >>> >>> -dan c. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Leica Users Group. >>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information