Question For You Photographers

[indianafrank]

Thanks for all of the ideas. Not sure which way I'll go at this time.
I was a freelance photog for many years. I did magazine work for the hospitality industry, farm journals, rural and country life. I shot everything on Fugi and chrome. I had approximately 20,000 slides. A flood destroyed most of them, all but about 500. All of that quality work and memories of shoots are gone. So I'd like to preserve what's left. I may make prints of a few at some time, I may show them from time to time via emails, etc.
When everything went digital I did not want to change over. I had thousands of dollars of 35mm, and large format equipment, and I did not want to spend thousands more on new equipment, nor was I interested in re-learning a industry that was my bread and butter for so many years.
I have a Canon digital camera. I bought it two years ago with the idea I was going to get back into photography...but my God it's hard to learn. It takes the fun away from shooting. I'm not a technical kind of guy. So the digital talk is way above my comprehension.
But I would like to view those slides again. I still have the old slide projector. But I'm not interested in setting up each time I want to see the pics, or show them.
Thanks again all!

 

[warren]

My thought is not to try and learn the camera. Find the settings you need to take photos as you did in the past and stick with 'em. Shutter speed and aperture is all you need. Put in manual, go forth and shoot. You can play with all the other stuff when so inclined.

 

[woodsroad]

Warren has it down, that's my mode of operation as well.
When the paper I was working for switched over around 2000, there were a couple of tire kickers there who knew everything about the new cameras. They helped set up the rest of our cameras and off we went. In time, I learned a few new tricks, but I really have no need for a lot of the "features" in my cameras. I shoot manual/shutter priority about 50/50, same as with film. On the Photoshop end, I find that a lot of my darkroom sensibilities come into play. Most processing is done in Camera Raw and I try not to step on the files too much. Just enough tweaking to bring me up to what I saw in the viewfinder.
Don't try to learn it all. You don't need it.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Agreed, both Warren and woods. You might find an intro course to Photoshop at a community college or some such. It made my into into digital a lot easier and more fun. But manual settings, spot focus and metering are about all you need. As you know, you can get instant feedback a second after shutter closes. Easy to tweak aperture or speed then. And if you shoot RAW, you'll have more latitude to fine tune in post processing.
Sorry about your loss. I lost all my film in a fire twenty years ago, and, well, time wounds all heels.... Or something!
Edit: You don't even "need" spot focus and metering! Also, I set my ISO to 200 and leave it there, unless I am doing something like shooting stars or fireworks.

 

[bentbob]

Bet you could pick up a Bowens Illumitran or Copytran (I don't know if there is a US equivalent) for not a lot of money nowadays - that would make life easy if you copy them using an SLR.

 

[indianafrank]

warren -

My thought is not to try and learn the camera. Find the settings you need to take photos as you did in the past and stick with 'em. Shutter speed and aperture is all you need. Put in manual, go forth and shoot. You can play with all the other stuff when so inclined.

Ya, I think part of my problem was trying to learn every aspect of all the technical stuff as I shot. I even purchase a few books on digital photog that confused me more. I'll just go easy with shutter speed and aperture and see what happens.
woodsroad -

Don't try to learn it all. You don't need it.

As I mentioned in my comment to warren, I think I was trying to learn everything asap.
jpmcwjr -

Agreed, both Warren and woods. You might find an intro course to Photoshop at a community college or some such. It made my into into digital a lot easier and more fun. But manual settings, spot focus and metering are about all you need.

The photo shop course is an idea I haven't thought about. Thanks!

 

[pappymac]

After fighting the switch to digital for about 10 years, I finally started moving to a digital SLR about 10 years ago. Being an old photographer who could get the F-stop and shutter speed within a 1/4 of a stop by looking at the back of my hand, It was challenging to trust the equipment at time. Gradually I learned to trust either the Aperture Auto setting or the Shutter speed Auto setting on my Canon SLR depending on what I was shooting.
Still miss the quiet time spent in a dark room processing and printing my own film and photos. I'm fairly accomplished with Photoshop but it was easier in the dark room.

 

[sablebrush52]

Very smart observations from experienced photographers here. I don't know half of the things built into my Canon, but I've learned the things that I've needed to know when shooting. The toolbox may be different, but the logic remains largely the same.
Considering that many of the cameras I used were built in the 1920's and '30's (the Bell and Howell I used in the Disney matte department was serial number 4) a lot of this newfangled whiz bang is cool, but not essential.
When I first picked up Photoshop it was a relatively simple and limited program. Now there's a lot built into it, much of which you will not likely need to know. As a Photoshop instructor who has taught many hundreds of people over the past decade I can attest that an introductory class can be very helpful.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Siri- or Allegra- or someone: "Point my camera to something interesting. Select the proper zoom. Select correct framing. Set aperture to appropriate DoF. Set shutter speed."
That's for early types of voice-commanded smart cameras. Next it'll be simply, "Make a fantastic capture". Probably drone mounted to cover all angles of light and view.

 

[warren]

I like to think the next big step in photography will be the ability to capture what the eye sees as interpreted by the brain. It won't even be hardwired to the brain.

 

[toobfreak]

Which brings us right back to beautiful emulsion photography for just plain simple, creative fun, nostalgia and relaxation. You really had to know what you were doing, the cameras were built like brick shit-houses, and all you really needed was a focus ring, the speed dial and aperture.
The beauty of digital is that it covers for mistakes.
The beauty of film is that it reveals every little mistake!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Well, yes and no. Digital is a lot more forgiving in some areas, such as exposure and white balance, but a poorly composed, badly lit, or shakily held camera gives crap results every time regardless of capture medium.

 

[pappymac]

Film photography is now considered Fine Art.

 

[warren]

Good darkroom skills could fix most mistakes. Good photographs are more a product of the shooter's eye than the gear. I know that's true as I can still bungle a shot with regularity. Software puts manipulation in the hands of any photographer now days so that's a plus. But, neither the gear nor the post processing can fix a "bad" eye.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Quite right. An old saying applies to photog gear: "It's a poor workman who blames his tools."

 

[shutterbugg]

The important parameters for slide scanning are resolution and bit depth (dynamic range). Slides to begin with have a compressed tonal range compared to negatives, so you don't want to compress it further. Dedicacted slide/film scanners always had greater dynamic range than flatbeds with slide holders, however comparing an old, discontinued slide scanner with the latest high-end Epson flatbed I doubt there is much difference, and the newer one may even be better. Ditto using a current model high-end digital SLR vs a 10-15 yr old film scanner.
Another issue with older scanners is many of them used Firewire connectors, and those have gone missing from modern computers for a long time now. Some of those could also use USB but it was much slower than the already slow scan speed. And an old scanner may not be plug-and-play or even work at all on a newer computer. Some scanners won't work on anything newer than Win-XP SP2 and there are no drivers or workarounds for later OS.
Then there's software. Most of the older scanners came with crap software. Most of us preferred Vuescan. But all of it has a steep learning curve, which if you only plan to digitize 500 slides, is probably not worth the bother. Save the money and have only those scanned high-res which you want to make large prints. Specify to the scan service what the maximum size you will be printing. Unless you intend cropping, there is absolutely no advantage to having scans at higher resolution than optimal for each print size. The printer driver simply tosses the rest out anyway.

 

[pappymac]

Warren -

An old Masterchief Photographer's Mate broke it down like this back in the 70s: "80 percent of good photography is being in the right place at the right time. You still have to have a good eye, good equipment and the brains to know what you're doing. 90 percent of great News photography is being in the right place at the right time to catch the image. If you are not there at the right moment then you are not going to get the shot no matter what you do in the darkroom."
He would also go through photography books and manuals and point out historically important photos that were badly exposed or out of focus but the image was important because of what it captured.

 

[warren]

That's the mantra for most wildlife shooters: If you aren't there, you won't get the shot. Another is: The lens you want or need is back in camp.
I have a third: Have a plan! I always spend time, before leaving to shoot, determining what I'm likely to run into and the equipment I'll most likely need. Very rarely do I set out without a purpose.
And yes, sometimes a poor shot is better than no shot at all. More important in shooting current events than wildlife though. News photographers are probably the ones benefiting most from the digital age. Memory cards which hold thousands of shots, programmable cameras, powerful batteries, great flash units which work seamlessly with the bodies, video when required with decent mics, the photojournalist and news photographer are the original "point and shoot" guys and today's equipment is a real boon for those professions.
My wife's uncle shot the "Dempsey v Tunny" long count. He did it with a 4x5 camera. Amazing!

 

[pappymac]

I've known news photographers in the past who carried Instamatics with them just in case of a camera failure.

 

[filmshooter]

I just started playing with 4x5. A crown graphic in amazing condition with the original case, flash, holders, everything. I could not imagine shooting, grabbing a hot flashbulb, inserting dark slides, pulling a holder, reinserting, cocking the shutter, pulling the dark slide again, putting a new bulb in, shooting..... and starting over. amazing