Platinum The Way it Used to Was...

[vindibona1]

I stumbled upon some prints the other day that I had made in the 80's and stood back and contemplated how much skill it took to get what we got without digital. In my case, no zoom, no auto focus, no auto exposure...even no meter in the camera. With film, unlike today where you can look at the back of your camera a second after pushing the button to see what you got, you just had to KNOW- because you wouldn't see the proofs for a week. We had to be super steady because we were mostly shooting at ISO 100, often rated at ISO 64! Retouching? That was all done directly on film and paper. And you had to know lighting! So yeah, sometimes the images we took were less spontaneous, but it's hard when you have to chase your subject around with a tripod. We had to use physical tools at our disposal, high key and low key vignetters, bellows shades, nylon diffusers (my stuff was mostly home made). Getting a print "competition ready" could take weeks, if not months and was very costly. Nothing like today.

But I thought I'd share these three images taken between 1986 and 1989. I copied them with my cell, and certainly they've yellowed over time, but hopefully you can see what we were doing back in the day, understanding what we had to do to get the images we did. Enjoy

 

[Prop Wash]

Very nice pics!! I'm guessing a family member who is all grown up by now.

I understand what you're saying about the "old days." So much has changed over the years technology-wise in so many industries. Until I was 12, we had a Black and White TV. Thought we'd hit it big when my parents brought the color set. Sometimes, my grandkids look at me baffled when I talk about my childhood. No smart phones, no computers, no internet, no Hi-Def TVs. They don't know what cassette tapes, 8-track players, record players or typewriters are. Yet, the world is filled with stuff that got done with the 'technology' of the day.

 

[Gagey52]

Gentlemen it was a different life then, I’m sure I wouldn’t want to be starting all over again, my thoughts, and thanks for sharing.
Regards

 

[vindibona1]

Very nice pics!! I'm guessing a family member who is all grown up by now.

I understand what you're saying about the "old days." So much has changed over the years technology-wise in so many industries. Until I was 12, we had a Black and White TV. Thought we'd hit it big when my parents brought the color set. Sometimes, my grandkids look at me baffled when I talk about my childhood. No smart phones, no computers, no internet, no Hi-Def TVs. They don't know what cassette tapes, 8-track players, record players or typewriters are. Yet, the world is filled with stuff that got done with the 'technology' of the day.

Thanks. Yeah... Those are my kids, now 35 and 39 in the days that I was developing my skill and business. Great models. The older one to this day has never ruined a single photo. All the manual retouching I learned was a direct crossover to Photoshop because it taught us WHAT do do (and not do).

 

[55Kevy]

Our local art museum has an exhibition on now of Ansel Adams and Alan Ross. Gives me goosebumps every time I visit (I docent there once a week) and think about their equipment and the darkroom work. Spectacular images.

 

[vindibona1]

Our local art museum has an exhibition on now of Ansel Adams and Alan Ross. Gives me goosebumps every time I visit (I docent there once a week) and think about their equipment and the darkroom work. Spectacular images.

It used to take real skill to get those kinds of image results. COMPLETE technical skill had to be part of a photographer's DNA. I miss the day when I could set the shutter speed and just slam the aperture into the proper setting. IMO it was more reliable than auto exposure than 1100 focus/exposure points. And your eye had to be good enough to identify when the image was razor sharp 'cause there was nothing in the camera to tell you it was in focus. In fact, I often set the focus ring distance based on my judgement of how far the subject was from the camera, not even looking through the viewfinder. I had very, very few out of focus shots. This really helped in the dark (sometimes having to use a flashlight to see the distance scale on the lens :0.

Raise your hand if you know who Leon Kennamer was and what he was famous for.

 

[Gagey52]

Raise your hand if you know who Leon Kennamer was and what he was famous for.

Had to google his name. He must have been good, I see he lectured in Aus back in 1975.
Regards

 

[GrayHornet]

Very nice pics!! I'm guessing a family member who is all grown up by now.

I understand what you're saying about the "old days." So much has changed over the years technology-wise in so many industries. Until I was 12, we had a Black and White TV. Thought we'd hit it big when my parents brought the color set. Sometimes, my grandkids look at me baffled when I talk about my childhood. No smart phones, no computers, no internet, no Hi-Def TVs. They don't know what cassette tapes, 8-track players, record players or typewriters are. Yet, the world is filled with stuff that got done with the 'technology' of the day.

Rotary dial telephone and a long distance call from family was a a special event!

 

[vindibona1]

Had to google his name. He must have been good, I see he lectured in Aus back in 1975.
Regards

Leon Kennamer is a forgotten name, but he was (IMO at least) the Godfather of “subtractive lighting”. Raise your hand if you know what that is. The low key (3rd) of my images was done utilizing subtractive lighting. It continues to be rare that I use “fill -in flash”.

Just for good measure, while digital and not film (and a little cheesy, but cute) here is a double subtractive lighting example. I think I had a shiny reflector on the dog. It was hard to get the dog in the exact position for the light and composition, but with a little coaxing I got lucky. Normally I would have thrown on more vignetting, but didn't want to get too obvious for this illustration.

 

[Lets Fly]

I stumbled upon some prints the other day that I had made in the 80's and stood back and contemplated how much skill it took to get what we got without digital. In my case, no zoom, no auto focus, no auto exposure...even no meter in the camera. With film, unlike today where you can look at the back of your camera a second after pushing the button to see what you got, you just had to KNOW- because you wouldn't see the proofs for a week. We had to be super steady because we were mostly shooting at ISO 100, often rated at ISO 64! Retouching? That was all done directly on film and paper. And you had to know lighting! So yeah, sometimes the images we took were less spontaneous, but it's hard when you have to chase your subject around with a tripod. We had to use physical tools at our disposal, high key and low key vignetters, bellows shades, nylon diffusers (my stuff was mostly home made). Getting a print "competition ready" could take weeks, if not months and was very costly. Nothing like today.

But I thought I'd share these three images taken between 1986 and 1989. I copied them with my cell, and certainly they've yellowed over time, but hopefully you can see what we were doing back in the day, understanding what we had to do to get the images we did. Enjoy

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Seems I've seen this post before, but 1989 (back in the day?) that's twenty years after I joined the army. Back in the day is relative, for some of us that was the 50s and 60s, and our cameras had no special attachments either.

 

[vindibona1]

Seems I've seen this post before, but 1989 (back in the day?) that's twenty years after I joined the army. Back in the day is relative, for some of us that was the 50s and 60s, and our cameras had no special attachments either.

It's hard to believe I'm much younger than anyone on this forum. I didn't get into photography until 1973 when I could afford my first SLR, a Nikkormat FTN. I did buy a used Hasselblad in 1974 or so with darkroom equipment but sold it a few years later. I got reinvigorated with taking photos around 1981, started working professionally, first with video around 1983 and the went full on stills in 1984. Within a few months of starting out I moved up to medium format with Bronica ETRS (645) but was captivated by the square format and was back full with a couple Hasselblad systems by sometime1986. I have four kits in my storage units that haven't seen action in 20 years. They were great cameras. Too bad Hassy's digital offerings are over-the-top expensive.

 

[macfawlty]

I started in photography around 1980 w/ a Canon AE Program and some medium format film cameras along the way. One of the biggest issues was the limitations in quantity of images, 24 or 36 images per roll of film, developing was expensive and I was never truly happy with print quality. Some of the earlier digital camera only shot compressed JPGs that would deteriorate quickly with any attempts at editing. I've lost interest at various points with photography, periodically renewed with some new technology. The Canon 5D mkII I bought in was a game-changer. Full frame sensor that introduced the film look to digital video. I've sustained interest for the most part since then, but my first real drone, the DJI P3 4k was huge for me. Aside from my corporate professional video work, I do a lot more aerial video than anything now.

 

[vindibona1]

I started in photography around 1980 w/ a Canon AE Program and some medium format film cameras along the way. One of the biggest issues was the limitations in quantity of images, 24 or 36 images per roll of film, developing was expensive and I was never truly happy with print quality. Some of the earlier digital camera only shot compressed JPGs that would deteriorate quickly with any attempts at editing. I've lost interest at various points with photography, periodically renewed with some new technology. The Canon 5D mkII I bought in was a game-changer. Full frame sensor that introduced the film look to digital video. I've sustained interest for the most part since then, but my first real drone, the DJI P3 4k was huge for me. Aside from my corporate professional video work, I do a lot more aerial video than anything now.

I get it. the only thing I'm mostly interested in is aerial work. I've sort of been there/done that.

 

[macfawlty]

I get it. the only thing I'm mostly interested in is aerial work. I've sort of been there/done that.

Yes, I do photography when traveling to foreign destinations, but after a while it’s like… what am I gonna do with all this sh#t? I’m basically documenting places I’ve visited knowing that I can’t rely on my memory to recall all the places I’ve been. I have to go through my Flickr account to figure out when I traveled to a destination and what I saw. So, thank God for photography.