[Leica] Re: I have given up

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

Marc:

We all learned a lot of gobbledygook to be able to do the chemical 
stuff.  It's just that we learned it when we were younger, when there 
weren't quite as many variables, and when the universe didn't change every 
couple of weeks.  If you have hit a burnout point with photography, maybe 
take a break for a little while.  When you feel ready, choose a favorite 
camera and lens--one that you really take pleasure in using.  Look for 
images you truly want to make, and make them.

Now, you don't *have* to do anything digital if you don't want to.  But, 
you might want to give it a try, because once you learn the basics, it has 
a lot to offer. In some cases, it's easier and offers better control than 
the wet stuff did.

In my case, I started by learning how to do equivalents of B&W wet darkroom 
stuff on the computer screen.  Then I built on that.  I also stuck with 
film for my image capture for a long time, only branching into a digital 
camera after I'd learned the digital darkroom reasonably well.  Even now, 
film is still my main medium.  In some respects you get the best of both 
worlds by scanning film, if you can spare the time.

The trick with digital, as with almost anything new these days, is to start 
by studying just what you need to get by. "Black box" or ignore  the rest 
for a while.  Then play, screw up, and go back and study some more.  The 
good news is that if you're not making your living from it, you get to 
decide when enough's enough.  You already know how light works, and what a 
shutter speed and f-stop is, so you don't need to learn Basket Weaving 101 
again.  You can slowly extend your old principles into the new world, 
seeing what is the same and what is different.  And you don't reek of hypo 
after each session.

You can adjust your images in any decent editor, and there are several that 
are easier and cheaper than Photoshop, and just about as good (I use 
Picture Window Pro).  There are a number of adjustments that are directly 
analogous to what you would do in the wet darkroom.  "Curves" are just the 
digital way of choosing your split Polycontrast filter set and print 
exposure.  Dodging and burning is a matter of dabbing a "brush," which is 
the equivalent of using the old card with a hole in it for a short length 
of time.  Instead of wiggling the card, you just dab the brush 
around.  Dust spotting is infinitely easier in the digital darkroom--again, 
you just dab a "brush" to copy the surrounding tone over the dust 
spot.  And if you mess up, you can hit a key, go back a few steps and do it 
again.

As for RIP, you only need that if you're trying to print B&W from color 
inks.  I found an easier way.  MIS makes a series of grayscale inks which 
fit specific popular printers, mostly Epsons.  You dedicate a printer to 
B&W.  You shoot film and scan the negs (or many processors will do it for 
you).  When you get your images looking right on the screen, you simply 
apply a free "curve" that you download from MIS' site.  It creates a 
temporary file with funny colors that prints up the blacks and greys 
correctly.  It's easier to do it than to write about it.

Digital cameras are a mixed blessing--they do some things better than film, 
and other things worse. In some respects, the P&S cameras are harder to get 
good pictures from than the more advanced cameras and DSLRs.  The main 
thing to remember is that digital cameras are like Kodachrome.  Contrasty, 
and with a narrow range between transparent white and jet 
black.  Overexpose and you're dead.  The good news is that the camera tells 
you immediately if you nailed it or not.

Anyway, Marc, take heart.  The guy who figured out which Jupiter lenses 
were made in Krasnagorsk and which in Zaichik Papragaichik can figure out 
where Zone V is on a scale of 0 to 255, and how to get there.  If you want 
to, you will eventually.  If you really don't want to, remember that a lot 
of us still shoot film, and print it wet or send it to a lab like Capa and 
HCB did.  That's perfectly fine, too.

Hope this helps,
--Peter