PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED

by John Peters A.R.P.S.



  

FILM

What can I say about film? My photography from the 80's to about 2000 revolved around film. With film came grain and something called reticulation, google it. Imagine a roll of 36 negative film. You had to expose all 36 shots at the one film speed. Yes, you could uprate a 400 ASA film to 800 ASA with a developer adjustment but that was it and affected all 36 negatives. You didn't have the luxury of tweaking a dial or menu for one specific shot then setting things back to what they were, none of the flexibility of digital photograhy. Nearly everything with film was more complicated or took longer and developing film negatives or prints was a 'wet' process, unlike digital. With film, there was 'slow' film and 'fast' film. Check out the A.R.P.S. page where a good selection of film is mentioned.

TOP TIP As I said elsewhere, if I were to design a camera, it would have a vari-angle or flip screen. Candids, selfies, videos, street photography, change the viewpoint, numerous options, all aided by a flip screen. Sadly, some of the top end camera's dont sport a vari-angle screen. Camera's designed by marketing, not photographers.

Flip screen, vari-angle screen

A flip screen or vari-angle screen on a wee compact camera with lots of features. Camera's have a long way to go when compared to smartphone technology.

Pigs photographed with a vari-angle screen

Yes, you may have seen this photograph already. I spent a good hour or so with a DSLR and my best shot came from 5 minutes with a wee compact with a vari-angle screen. I was able to poke it under the electric fence and using HDR with burning/dodging etc. was able to produce this photo which featured in a magazine produced by Kelso-in-the-Borders photo guru David Kilpatrick.