Hybrid Artist Stephen M. Schaub summarizes his 2 week photographic excursion in Puerto Rico with suggestions and real world shooting solutions for the working photographer. Upcoming related audioblogs will include: film tests for the new Kodak TMY-2 (TMAX 400) and The Y Strap User Report.
digital photography
Next On The Revolution!
During the next two weeks I will be photographing in the rainforest of Puerto Rico and surrounding areas. During this time I will be testing the new Kodak TMAX 400 (35mm) film and plan on a full report upon my return. Initial testing done by me at Indian Hill Imageworks indicates that this may be my new favorite film (best 400 speed I’ve ever seen)…amazing grain (almost as good as most 100 speed films) with a huge tonal range. Stay tuned!
Viva La Revolution!!
The Real Story On Digital Permanence
A wakeup call for photographers, paper manufacturers and ink makers on the enigma of proper digital print presentation, finishing and long term storage. Do you think traditional darkroom prints and digital prints (say inkjet) can be finished using the exact same technique and materials (like most galleries and frame shops?) …WRONG! Give a listen and lets make this important discussion happen now before digital printing is forever labeled as less archival, less permanent- LESS in general than traditional darkroom prints….it just ain’t so.
Plastic People
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Stan Lee, From the first issue of Spider Man
These words should be branded on photographers world-wide.
Why do I say this?
I just received the current issue of “Professional Photographer Magazine” today (I’m not quite sure why I receive this magazine) and noticed that almost all the images of people in the magazine- articles and ads alike- were not… real. These poor folks had been retouched out of existence…morphing into Zappa-esque “Plastic People”. I had to do a double take on more than a few of them to check to see if they really were photography, rather than CGI (computer generated imagery) …and the scary thing about that is that on more than one I’m still not really sure.
But we’d be lucky if this phenomenon were limited to the pages of one crappy industry rag. Just go to your local bookstore and check out the magazine stand and you’ll see the magnitude of this travesty…WARNING: it is so scary that I would only recommend it to photographers over 18 years in age due to the shocking and graphic nature of the visual insanity. How could we as photographers have forgotten that it is the human element in an image that counts and that the quest for the perfect print/ perfect model/ perfect everything is doomed to perfect failure? That the quest for Perfection in the wrong hands can kill a photograph? A true master photographer knows to when to stop. You the photographer with a click of your mouse and perhaps the wave of your wand have the full capacity to squeeze every bit of life and passion out of even the most amazing image…so just don’t do it. Yes your computer is amazing and yes your skills at Photoshop are fantastic but don’t feel like you need to use all of them at once on every single image…for the love of god, man, step away from the computer!
So where do we go from here? I for one am taping the quote from Stan Lee to my desktop and the next time I am tempted to remove just one more wrinkle I will read the quote and recall with a shudder the insanity epitomized by “Professional Photographer Magazine.”
Alternative Light Source
By Stephen M. Schaub
First off let me be VERY clear…the Figital Revolution is not one of those sites where reviews are paid by advertising dollars (we have no dollars) and this site is not the place to go see and read all about the next piece of crap you don’t really need.
Having now cleared that up I had the chance this last week to look at a new item I feel may just fit some photographers’ needs, both for film and digital (imagine that!) I got this idea in my head that wouldn’t it be great to have an on-camera light (not flash) that could be dimmed, daylight balanced, light-weight and rechargable. Drumroll please…Presenting Vidled. Yes this product which is really intended for video purposes can be mounted in your hot shoe using a small ball head (very cul) and allow you to see exactly what you light is going to look like and by the use of a dimmer on the unit tweak it perfectly…and it is really a nice quality of light…for some things. My initial idea was to use this with a wee bit of a softening gel over the light for intimate portraits where flash just wasn’t right and big hot light wern’t either. Problem is that LED lights are really bright and difficult to look at even with my diffuser installed. Additionally, the light output is not huge so doing a portrait at say a distance of 7+ feet requires near full power which of course is going to blind your subject. But this brings me to the area where this handy little gadget in my opinion could be useful: MACRO and CLOSEUPS as well as still subjects that need just a little bit more light at, say, a distance not past 8 or 9 feet. You could also paint your subject with light and do some amazing long exposure stuff. The battery (depending on the version) lasts from 1.5 – 3 hours on full blast…not bad. The weight is equal to my Sunpak 383 with batteries so…reasonable. For more information on this product and to view their different configurations just visit: vidled.com
Steel Versus Plastic…the Final Word!
I have heard old time photographers and newbies alike swear to the professional quality and unmatched superiority of both steel and plastic reels. This is just such a ridiculous argument that I will end NOW once and for all. Who is right you ask? Answer…(drum roll please) BOTH. Once again the choice (and choice is good) is yours based on your working style. Just let it be known that most mid-size labs run Jobos or similar processors for their 135 and 120 films and guess what those machines use: PLASTIC reels. Steel reels are great especially if you are willing to buy good ones like Hewes but plastic is hard to beat if you are on a budget. I personally find plastic easier to use as it does not bend and loads very quickly- cleanup is also a snap. I have both in our studio and use them interchangeably so there you have it…you pick which one you like and lets now have a discussion about something important like what your work is really about.
Figital Revolution 