On March 18th the article What’s With All the Poor Negative Film Reviews? by Brad Nichol´s was published on petaxpixel.com and I not only fully support his point of view, I would also like to use it as a starting point for an very personal tribute to a single piece of hardware that makes the hard task of scanning easier and let´s you learn how color negative film can look like.
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I have not yet decided on the the final title of these series and at the moment the working title seems to be a bit misleading. This is an ongoing series that concentrates on the restaurant, shops and stores at night. Many of these places have a very unique architectural appearance and some - like Chips restaurant and Norms in West Hollywood - fall in a category called Googie architecture. As a side track from the mid century modernism, Googie emphasized the futuristic atmosphere of the 1940s to the 1960s with the jagged lines and modern elements.
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After completing my "Between The Light" book I initially wanted to finish the project and concentrate on other series. But after a while this did feel right for me anymore. I had the desire to continue to work on the project, refine the series and re-work it into a slightly different direction. The new images I planned to create should show more of the unnoticed streets and houses, the well kept secrets, the less beautiful and more exciting places. Light would play a even more important role than before. So after a longer break I brought my Hasselblad on one of my latest visits to San Francisco for some more night time shooting. I concentrated on lower Russian Hill, North Beach, Chinatown and Marina.
Read MoreChoosing a workshop is not easy. Many photographers and self acclaimed photo experts offer workshops these days and I suggest that most of these workshops are either ineffective, boring or aim at beginners. The most important aspect to look at when choosing a workshop is obviously the photographer who is conducting the workshop. This does not necesseraily mean it should be one of the big names, but it should be a person that has something valueable to tell. I don´t attend workshops often, but when I learned about the workshop conducted by Jesse Struyvelt happening during the Summer Festival of the MeinFilmLab, I was immediately hooked. No doubt I wanted to join.
Read MoreInspired by my daylight encounters along the legendary "Pacific Coast Highway" I came up with a first set of images that could be the start of a series on fast food restaurants, diners and shopping locations along and surrounding PCH at night.
Stay tuned for more...
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In my previous post I mentioned that I try to replicate the work done in the traditional wet darkroom. Today I would like to introduce these techniques to you and show you their digital equivalent.
Read MorePier 24 - Below Bay Bridge, San Francisco
I have not done this for a while, but it felt really good to do some black and white long exposure work again. This image and another one were just about right to be added to my series "Bayside Impressions".
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I am very proud to share this very interesting conversation with you. Joerg Bergs is the owner and founder of the "Mein Film Lab" (MFL) in Germany. My personal enjoyment of film photography elevated to a whole new level after I decided to send my film to a professional labs. The results have always been mind blowing. Having such a lab now in Germany is very convenient. Shipping is more simple and therefore turnaround times are way faster. I also enjoy the conversation on a very personal level. At MFL they seem to take note of every input you give them. During one of the conversations I had with Joerg Bergs, he agreed to answer some questions which I am thrilled to share here with you. If you are interested in the original German version of this interview, I will publish it in a separate blog post.
For now, enjoy the Interview.
Read MoreI am presently starting to collect images of different night photographs for Set III. Those photographs have been taken in the side streets of the city and show less known places. This set concentrates on the well kept secrets of the city.
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In my last post I talked about how to prepare Silverfast for negative scanning. Today I aill show you how I mount my medium format film into an Epson V700 film holder. Therefore I have prepared a short video showing how I do the mounting. Let me just tell you real quick why I use the conventional Epson holders and not any kind of third party holders which get good critiques. Well, I have used them, literally every mounting solution availbale for the Epson V-series, and I must say in the end they are not worth the effort. I find the conventional standrad Epson film holder do their job very well. Maybe I am lucky and my scanner is manufactured the way it should be, but I was able to get better sharpness and grain from the Epson holders than from any other holder I was using.
Read MoreWhen I started scanning film, I thought it would be an easy process. I severely underestimated the learning curve required to become a good scanner operator. I intentionally use this term, as it precisely describes what you do when scanning film. Beyond the basic operation of the scanner and software, you need to make basic artistic decision when scanning, similar to those made by master printers in the traditional darkroom.
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Shadow detail comparison of an underexposed negative (left) and overexposed negative (right).
The way we expose film has a tremendous amount on the quality and mood of the final photograph. Of course exposure affects image brightness and contrast, but also quality and color.
Carmencita Film Lab and photographer Johnny Patience both did a wonderful exposure series to demonstrate the effect of under and overexposure to film. Please follow this link to check their series and read their recommendations. You can also find a good film guide from "Mein Film Lab" which explains a lot about the different characters of film. Unfortunately it is only available in German so far.
Read MoreImpressions from a early morning at McClures Beach.
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The art of getting a good color print from a negtaive seems to be a dying craft. The modern photographer who still shoots color film normally uses a scanner to get to the desired print. The scanning process is much cheaper, less labor-some and more flexible. In order to learn what is required to get descent scans from color negs, you need to be aware of some important facts.
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I feel very honored that "Mein Film Lab" in Germany decided to feature my new series "Between the Light" on their blog. As the feature was written in German I thought it would be nice to have it in English as well.
Read Morewebsite - tumblr - Twitter - flickr
Sandy Phimester is one of the photographers I really admire. His dedication to the medium of film and his portrait work really resonate with me. That´s why I asked him for a short interview. He runs a small photography business that still allows him time for personal projects. The vast majority of his work is personal. He talks about his creative voice and photography as a creative outlet for himself.
Read MoreMark Ivkovic is a London based fashion and portrait photographer as well as a member of this group. He has been working for several companies recently including ATQM, JimBag and Educate Elevate . You can find out more about Mark on his website, his blog or his tumblr site.
Read MoreThis interview has first been published at the Critique Portfolio Pro flickr group in 2013. I thought you might be interested to read this interview again, here on my new blog.
I was able to interview Jan Scholz, a portrait photographer based in Brussels. Jan exclusively uses analog film cameras. But this is only one secret ingredient to his very emotional and powerful portraits.
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The mouthwatering flavor of freshly baked “Foccacia” touches my nose while walking down Filbert Street, looking at the beautiful “Saints Peter & Paul” church. North Beach, San Francisco’s Little Italy, does everything to be enchanting and unobtrusive at once. The spirit of this place is present at every street corner. Well known for its culinary highlights, its small bars and restaurants and its pulsating nightlife, North Beach can be seen as a natural counterpart to the Piers of Fisherman’s Wharf and the busy streets of Chinatown.
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