This is not another film post. You might think that I am some sort of anti-digital nut case based on my last few posts. In case it’s not clear at this point - I am not. I shoot digital as much or more than most DSLR owners. I own every digital image editor and photo browser you can think of. In some areas of that software I might even be considered an expert, not that I ever wanted to be. I spend far far more time in front of a computer and specifically in front of Photoshop that I care to recount.

Believe it or not this started while I was shooting film as a capture medium exclusively. The reason is that for my purposes, digital output allowed me to produce output quality that exceeded what I could personally produce or even afford to produce traditionally. This was first true for color and then at some point a while ago it also became true for black and white as well. When I say output what I mean is photographs on paper and other physical artifacts. Which by now you should know is my favorite way to view and share images. I use Aperture 3 as my primary image cataloging system and Photoshop as my primary image manipulation software.

Sometimes new and improved better is not really better. With digital technology new and improved better hardware really is always better. Unfortunately the marketing machines of the 21st century have latched onto this notion and use it to continuously beat us consumers into a never ending consumption chain on just about everything.

Let’s take bicycles as an example. My brother is a bike nut. Specifically a mountain biking nut. The bike industry and aftermarket has latched on to this digital newer = better, older = useless like flies on shit. The pace at which these companies want to sell you new everything that is completely different than what you have at an insane amount of cost has outpaced computing equipment, digital cameras, and just about everything else you could think of.

Way way way back in the day when I shot a hell of a lot of film I got used to having virtually no support from Kodak, Fuji, or Ilford. First of all the concept of support for film didn’t even exist in terms of evangelism or technical support or anything like that. Any type of technical support was entirely between you and your lab or for you to figure out on your own.

In terms of supporting it’s use and therefore you because you used it… Hmmm not really. If you were a rockstar of the industry you might get a paid endorsement but not regular old people that made most of the images. What you did get is some reasonable degree of marketing from these companies with fantastically awesome product brochures, some really great technical guides to their products like the Kodak Black and White Darkroom Dataguide, things like that.

A while back a reader emailed me with a color management issue regarding Aperture 3 profile conversions. The file above is pretty simple (his file). The file has a color space of Adobe 1998 and that green block happens to be out of gamut in sRGB. No big deal right? Well it turns out to be a big deal unless one of us can figure out what is going on here.

I am not some sort of anti-digital yo-yo. Yes I like shooting film, mostly because I like the way it looks. Somewhat for the way a lot of film gear feels, operates, handles, and again because of the image characteristics that that gear produces. On the other hand, I really enjoy digital output. In many cases it can do a fantastic job representing the image characteristics that film produces on paper.

That’s how I got into digital imaging in the first place. Mainly for the output. Of course there are some analog output processes that are very difficult or impossible to reproduce using digital output, like platinum prints. For the most part I have felt digital color has been good to great for a long time. First on Lightjet type C-Print devices and more recently on inkjets.

Wow, look what Leica introduced yesterday. A new camera. I cannot wait to plunk down my money. How much do they want for this Black and White camera? WTF, $8,000. Okay, I think I will pass on the privilege to pay Leica eight thousand dollars for this. Let me be the first, or maybe the second or third to say this is a complete crock of shit.

If you have been hanging around here for a while you know I am not a Leica basher. I actually like Leica gear. I am a customer. I have purchased products new from Leica. I just haven’t done so recently and if they continue going in this direction I may never purchase a new product from Leica again.

More confessions and part of my subversive agenda to get people to shoot at least a little bit of film. I will put the confession part right up front. I am lazy and negative films, both color and black and white, are easy. Crazy easy. Let’s take the above shot as an example of what I am prattling on about.

When I see light that inspires me to make a photograph I want to just take the picture without a lot of fuss. With film this is a no brainer even in what would be considered horrible lighting conditions with digital. This particular shot is mostly backlit with all of the light coming from the window behind daughter #3. There is a bit coming in from behind her and camera right as well. Just enough to be caught in her left eye. The rest of the room is very very dark as you can see in the lower part of the frame. The walls are painted navy blue.

If you have read more than a couple of posts here you have probably figured out that it’s fairly strange mix of digi-techno-stuff, film zealotry, photographic philosophy, and pointless rants about things that set me off. In my last post I challenged you to shoot a contact sheet that you would be comfortable showing other people with a set of very stringent rules designed to alter your thinking just a bit when making decisions about releasing the shutter. While that was my primary agenda of attempting to contribute to the photographic universe of all things that I consider good and righteous, I did have a more nefarious agenda as well.

I have a challenge for all of you. Especially those of you that did not shoot film for any amount of time or only got serious about photography after you went digital. As soon as I present the challenge I will be willing to bet that you will either outwardly groan about it, subconsciously dismiss it as pointless, or actually fear it for what it may reveal. The challenge has no requirement for you to publicly share the results but it may still generate a significant degree of apprehension and anxiety.

First let me give you the challenge and then let me explain why I think that it may be worthwhile. For some people it could be earth shatteringly transformative - even if it utterly fails the first time. Hopefully you may even repeat the exercise on a regular basis and see where it leads you.

As I mentioned yesterday - I am scanning a lot of old negatives for a video slide show project that I am working on for daughter#2. I am definitely going with the “hair theme”. As I mentioned, she insisted on doing her own hair and styling her own clothes since she was about 3 years old or so. It’s definitely unique.

I just had to share a few of these. Check out the hair.