I was asked how I learned photography back in the day. I really didn't. It's a recent thing.

Great memories... late sixties on military bases in Europe they had darkrooms you could rent for black and white development, enlarging and printing. It cost fifty cents an hour and they provided all the chemicals and equipment. You just brought your own film and paper. I bagged groceries for tips the summer after my junior year in high school to earn $160 to buy a Minolta SRT-101 with a 52 mm f 1.4 lens. I chose the Minolta over the equivalent Nikon because it had a wonderful depth of field preview button under the lens that was perfectly placed for the third finger on your right hand while you adjusted the f-stop setting ring with your left.

You learned how to compose in the camera and then how to fix a lot of things under the enlarger.

It’s a lot easier today to do infinitely more, but nothing has ever topped the pure fun and feeling of creativity that came with spending a day in the darkroom.

 

I started with serious photography sometime in 2008. I learned the technique very quickly how to use a DSLR, but the first shots were horrible in my eyes. Wrong framing, wrong placement of objects. I liked one picture from 100 shots.

How I learned to improve my skill of composing a picture? I visited galleries of famous photographers. I read no books how to get a better photographer, except the manuals of my cams. Improving the composition is a never ending process.

I started with landscape photography, but I’m bored of it today. I love architecture and street photography. This kind of photography gives me more freedom of creativity, including mastering the pictures in the digital darkroom.

The perfect allround-cam doesn’t exist for me. I use my Nikon D5 for action and sports photography. The cam is also great for low light photography, when I can’t use a tripod. The D850 is the best high resolution camera up to 48 MP (yes, I have shot with a Sony). I also like to photograph with the fixed 35mm lens of my Fuji X100F.



P.S. I do not collect cameras. I change the cams every 4-5 years. Maybe a mirrorless cam in the near future.

P.S.S. My gallery from travels in Europe and North America: Claus Cheng

 

Steve, tell us what do you think about analog film vs. digital.....

I say digital changed the way how to photograph the picture and filming movies today.... this is an extreme example how to shoot a portrait,

Try this in the analog darkroom.

https://petapixel.com/2017/09/30/shoot-annie-leibovitz-style-group-portrait-affordable-gear/

P.S. Annie L. is one of my favorite portrait photographers.

 

When I was in high school in the early 70s, I had a job at a photography studio after school, emptying trash and cleaning the floor. The owner was a bit of a tyrant, and one day three employees got fed up and quit. He offered me the darkroom job, and taught me how to develop pictures and film. I loved it and dropped out of high school after my junior year to work full time. He told me if I'd get my hair cut I could apprentice with his son doing wedding photography on the weekends. His son was not a tyrant, and is the one who taught me the way around a camera. I soon figured out that I hated doing wedding photography as much as I loved darkroom work. Eventually the old man annoyed me enough that I quit. These days I pretty much point and shoot.

 

I was lucky enough to have a dad who was a camera buff and could afford to buy cool cameras. We would take a bag of cameras and go on walkabout around L.A. He always made me use his Leica Rangefinder and even my crappy, attention deficient teenage pics looked pretty good. He definitely set me on a path, though I could never afford cameras as nice as what he had. I put my battered little Canon AT-1 through it's paces though.

I like the convenience of digital but I miss the soul of film.

 

The Canon EOS 1N’s are a massive value. Especially to the dslr user. Keep all of your EF mount lenses, and start shooting on film today with the same camera used by top tier professionals in the 90’s.
Including the unique DOP mode that allows you to select two points to create the proper Depth Of Field.

 

Who develops the (color) film and how much does it cost?

 

Yeah, that is a monster!

55mm? I am happy with my Otus. Full metal body... no plastic like many new Nikkor lenses today, and the bokeh is creamy, like analogue. I only use this lens for special occasions.

 

The old Leicas are legendary cams.... but that is the past, like all vintage gear.

The new Leica cameras are overpriced for their value, beaten by every Nikon or Sony. If someone want the best picture possible (highest dynamic range).... nothing beats the high resolution cams by Fuji, Hasselblad or Phase One.

 

I started late too. Back in the early 2000s I was doing graphic design as a side job and had to shoot the occasional photo for a background or texture, which led me to getting a Canon Rebel DSLR. I recently stumbled across the first shoot I ever did with a wannabe model, and it was clear that neither of us had any idea what we were doing. Bad light, bad posing, no sensibility. I started reading, looking at paintings, paying attention to photos in magazines. I noticed people like Dan Winters and Steven Klein and how they created very specific moods with lighting.

My dad had a couple of 500 watt lights he had used when he was younger, so I absconded with those and started experimenting. I took his manual 35mm Minolta too. I have a couple of pro-DSLRs now, but looking through the viewfinder of an actual manual 35mm film camera is, to me, a different, more exciting experience. I bounced back and forth between digital and film while I was learning, and eventually starting getting paid for my work. Portraits, weddings, fashion, etc. In 2011 the work environment at my day job was becoming dangerous to my health, and I decided to just take the leap and go full time. I taught myself more and more about using flash heads, modifying light, painting with light, all the while studying what great photographers and artists have done.

I bought a Hasselblad from the estate of a local artist whom I got to know a little before he died, and a 4x5 view camera, on which I mostly shoot old expired Polaroid pack film. I learned how to work in the darkroom, which I much prefer to the computer, but digital still rules the day because of the commercial advertising work. I was shooting some interiors for a client recently and the homeowner gave me a Nikon FE with three lenses and a flash, just GAVE them to me, because they'd belonged to his mother who never used them and it was just taking up space in his closet. A great little camera.

I always say I'm still learning, but now it's more about refining my vision than about technique. While looking at the work of others pushed me to do better, it also taught me that great artists have a perspective that's personal to their experience, which isn't something that can be taught.

These are a couple of favorites of mine from shoots in the past year or two.

 

Bought a used Pentax Spotmatic in ‘73, went to a class at a Community College summer of ‘74. I eventually bought a used Bressler Enlarger, and later, Vivitar Series 1 telephoto and wide angle lenses.

I did mainly b&w, pushing for low light (concerts) and situations calling for grain.

Still have it all but did no more developing, printing when we moved to a home with a septic tank.

Miss those all nighters in the dark room.

 

I learnt at art college in the mid 70s. We were issued with Pentax or Praktica single lens reflex cameras and unleashed on the city to find black and white inspiration. Back at college we would all head for the dark room to develop and print our visions. Great fun!

 

I love the digital darkroom... the possibilities of post-processing is endless.

I like the use of LUT’s.... www.lutify.me

 

Thanks! That was from a project where I followed a local ballet company from rehearsals to final performance for their production of the Nutcracker. I had originally intended them for a magazine article, but I had so much material it would be more appropriate for a book. I'm trying to decide how to proceed with that now.

Those two above were digital, with a Canon 5D mkIII. The black and white was with my 24-70 at 70mm f16, using a homemade beauty dish for lighting. Here's a pic of the setup.



The ballet shot was also with the 24-70, 2.8 shot at 6400 iso. Really low light offstage, but worth the challenge.

 

As Steve requested, two more:

This is expired Polaroid 669 shot with a 4x5 camera. I had a strobe set up but for this shot I ended up using the overhead flourescents in my studio as the only light. The color shift of the old film plus the color temp of the flourescents rendered this cold palette that really worked for the image. I think I'm at f8 or f11 here, for a half second exposure.



Another ballet shot, 24-70 again, 2.8, ISO 6400.

 

I had the F2AS.