Dark Rooms

WOODY · 05-12-2006, 16:00

How Many People Still Use Dark Rooms. As Since Most People Now Use Digital, I Was Wondering How Many People Still Use Film, And Develop And Print Their Own Films. I Would Imagine That With Almost Everyone Having A Digital Camera Now, This Must Have Lost A Lot Of Photographers Work. I Would Think When People Used To Employ A Photographer For Functions Such As Weddings, Christenings, Parties Etc.they Don't Bother Anymore As Everyone There Will Have A Digital Camera. It Might Seem Digital Is The Future, But How Many People Are Suffering Because Of It. In The Eighties I Was Resident Photographer At Caesar's Palace In Luton,which Was A Nightclub, Then I Went To Blazers Nightclub In Windsor. I Used To Make Quite A Good Living From This, But It Was Hard Work From Nine In The Evening Till Two In The Morning,by The Time I Got Home,it Was About 3-30then I Would Get Up At About Seven, To Start Developing And Printing My Films, Which Could Be Between Four And Ten A Night. Plus I Used To Do Weddings,etc As Well.processing Was Hard Work,but It Was Seeing The Print Come Through In The Developer Tray That Gave You The Buzz And Made It Worthwhile. Digital V Film I Don't Know.

Rob Barron · 05-12-2006, 19:06

Woody, hope you don't mind me asking but why do you always type every word with a capital letter? I must confess I have skipped a lot of your posts just because they are so hard to read. I wonder if other people find it hard to read as well?

Just an observation.
Cheers,
Rob

Soupdragon · 05-12-2006, 19:20

STILL doing both.

**Dabhand16** · 05-12-2006, 20:59

Woody, another surviver from Luton/Dunstable!! Did you ever go to the better nightclub, the California?

I always had a problem with having my own darkroom. I started City & Guilds and joined a club just to access a darkroom! Now, I can do everything I ever did in the dark sitting at my computer, (well, almost everything) and I can see the effect instantly, and reverse it if I have over/under done it.

I think you have overlooked a very important point in your thesis. Although lots of people have decent digital cameras now, I would never consider not employing a professional to formally record an important event. There is no way that an average photographer can match what a pro (or very serious amateur) can do. And I'd want my wedding or other important event to be photographed with a medium format camera for preference, or at least, a top end digital/35mm. I'll concede that an MF camera would probably not be the weapon of choice to use in a club, but like for like, digital is now better than 35mm film. You only have to see some of the shots of bands on this forum to see wqhat can be achieved. If you had your D200 in the days you were doing the nightclubs, you could have done the processing quicker, and maybe, better.

If anyone thinks that they only need to get Uncle Fred to bang off a few happy snaps to give them a record of a special event, then good luck to them.

The real loosers in the digital revolution are the processing companies. Joe Average can now produce their own prints that are as good as they can get from the High Street. At far greater cost, of course, but cleaver marketing of the hardware has fooled them into thinking that it is a good idea to do your own printing, and a whole new industry has grown from it.

I know exactly what you mean about the buzz from seeing a print appear in the dish. But it is nowhere near the feeling you get when you realise that the films you have just taken from the developing tank have been bleached out by the fixer not having the right dilution.

Soupdragon · 06-12-2006, 05:52

You'd have a hard job over bleach fixing a film.
All it does is remove residual salts, you would have to leave a film in the tank for days before noticing a discernable difference.
Over devving, now that's another story.

***Dave*** · 06-12-2006, 11:37

Gave up darkroom years ago, as it took up so much time.....says moi now with this site

Although a magical experience in a darkroom, digital has too many advantages for me to ever go back . Each to their own I think

**Dabhand16** · 06-12-2006, 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soupdragon

You'd have a hard job over bleach fixing a film.
All it does is remove residual salts, you would have to live a film in the tank for days before noticing a discernable difference.
Over devving, now that's another story.

Shows you how long it's been since I did this!!

Soupdragon · 06-12-2006, 12:40

That said, the large format puritans would flame me for making heretic comments like that.

Dave Canon · 06-12-2006, 14:06

A long time since I used a darkroom. I do not miss the excitement of processing films and prints because I find it even more interesting using the much greater range of digital techniques. The standard of pictures I can now produce exceeds those of my darkroom era by a large margin. I am not too bothered about the tools and materials I use as it is the final picture that drives me. The world has moved on but one always retains a rosier view of the past than is often justified.

Soupdragon · 06-12-2006, 17:02

Hmmmm!, I still think the two technologies should be complimentary!
If I had a concern (which I do) it would be the longevity of storage media.
I have a number of cd/dvd's that have data on, some or all of which I cannot recover.
Yes it's a chore sloshing around up to your arse in E6 chemistry or having to fill out mailers for your slides but...
I have recently started scanning my slide collection and what suprises me the most is, they look as good as the day I first viewed them, some of which are in excess of 30 years old.
I am not convinced the technology will be around to read cd/dvd's in the next 20 years and that will be a loss to me and my children/grandchildren.
I have no problem with digital in any of its forms and do enjoy the processes as much as the next man, I just do the important stuff on film.

Remember, hold a slide to the light and you see an image, hold a dvd to the light and you see a hole.

**Dabhand16** · 06-12-2006, 19:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soupdragon

Remember, hold a slide to the light and you see an image, hold a dvd to the light and you see a hole.

I wish people would stop knocking Dunstable!!!!

Joseph McGarraghy · 06-12-2006, 19:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dabhand16

I wish people would stop knocking Dunstable!!!!

Dabhand, I like it.

Thanks for your thoughts Soupdragon, You are not the only one who is pleased to have negatives and slides, of 50 years ago, to work from. We did what we did at the time because it was/is creative and we enjoyed it. We had to control our exposures in more sense than shutter speeds.

Soupdragon · 07-12-2006, 05:37

You Guys!

I don't wanna debate digi vs film, I do think people should be concerned about storage media longevity.
As soon as someone comes up with a device for storing images in digi format for in excess of 100 years, I will then use my FD kit for banging in nails and burn my slides.