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Erwin Puts' Latest Blog on "Celluloid" - Film vs Digital


gberger

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As a Tri-X + Rodinal user, his comments on Tanol are interesting. How good are Tanol's anti-oxidant qualities? The main reason I use Rodinal is that due to being out of the country for nine or ten weeks at a time, there are gaps of three months between my development activities and Rodinal does not suffer from oxidisation. Yes, yes, I know about inert gases and filling part-used bottles with marbles but having once lost a roll to three month old Ilfosol, I am reluctant to take risks.

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Yeah, I wondered about that, also; however, his observations about film vs digital are interesting.

Thanks George for the post :)

Celluloid | The TAO of Leica

I agree , some quotations of common sense :)

"Since I own the Leica M-A I have not made any digital images" E. Puts

for celluloid :

"The movie has been shot on celluloid or in Italian ‘pellicola’ and the maker of the film (Alice Rohrwachter) has chosen this medium with conviction. Her argument is that digital film making is faster and easier and more practical than working with pellicola, but not necessarily produces better results. "

It's correct :

Cannes Q&A: Director Alice Rohrwacher Explains Mix of Languages ‘Le Meraviglie’ | Variety

Best

Henry

Edited by Doc Henry
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I tend to think that Erwin overstates the significance of small differences, but this article makes the point that the oft benighted shutter lag is overstated. I like this comment:

 

The digital photographer can shoot at will to capture the moment, but the celluloid photographer has to be more attentive to what is happening and to be more conscious of when the moment is there

 

I have never really got away from the way I was taught to take pictures - plan, and take at the right moment, as you will then need to wind the film on. We were miserly and didn't bracket, which meant you had to be accurate with exposure and focus - you weren't going to get another shot.

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As a Tri-X + Rodinal user, his comments on Tanol are interesting. How good are Tanol's anti-oxidant qualities? The main reason I use Rodinal is that due to being out of the country for nine or ten weeks at a time, there are gaps of three months between my development activities and Rodinal does not suffer from oxidisation. Yes, yes, I know about inert gases and filling part-used bottles with marbles but having once lost a roll to three month old Ilfosol, I am reluctant to take risks.

 

Drop an email to Wolfgang, he is a nice chap. I would guess longer keeping properties are very good, as is the case with many similar types of developer. But compensating and staining developers can be addictive once tried, they are often very benign and fine grain, and with some remarkable properties for processing different ISO films in the same tank for the same processing time without any loss of quality.

 

 

Steve

Edited by 250swb
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I tend to think that Erwin overstates the significance of small differences, but this article makes the point that the oft benighted shutter lag is overstated. I like this comment:

 

 

 

I have never really got away from the way I was taught to take pictures - plan, and take at the right moment, as you will then need to wind the film on. We were miserly and didn't bracket, which meant you had to be accurate with exposure and focus - you weren't going to get another shot.

 

What the does Mr. Puts mean exactly by this quote? I have no idea, and his blog post didn't really provide much context. Seems like hot air to me.

 

And why does he define "decisive moment" based on an interpretation of one single photographer's style? I get the fact that HCB invented the term. However, that was a long time ago and the term now has been used and abused for decades.

 

With all due respect, the blog post seems like babbling to some degree...

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I bet if you study his contact sheets, he missed many decisive moments too. Every photographer knew that there could be a critical time to capture action or when everything in the scene came together. Now I think HCB did great work but it wasn't magic.

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:)Someone from the fire department.

 

You're thinking of cellulose nitrate; scary stuff. Cellulose acetate? Not so bad. ORWO N74's base is thicker than Tri-X's and I always thought Tech Pan felt crisp under the scissors. Don't care what those people are using as long as I can buy their film.

 

s-a

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I bet if you study his contact sheets, he missed many decisive moments too. Every photographer knew that there could be a critical time to capture action or when everything in the scene came together. Now I think HCB did great work but it wasn't magic.

 

 

Interesting thing is that he destroyed his contact sheets ...

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Now I think HCB did great work but it wasn't magic.

 

No, it wasn't magic, it was hard work. In the introduction to the 'The Decisive Moment' Bresson encourages staying with the subject (working the subject), all he adds as a proviso is to guard against using the camera like a machine gun. This is an early bit of text from the Introduction so often forgotten when in later paragraphs the nature of the decisive moment is cherry picked out of context.

 

So Puts nostalgic idea that 'you weren't going to get another shot' (if it really applies to learning from the HCB ethos) is very wide of the mark, and which Bresson's contact sheets also disprove. Bresson gave himself plenty of second attempts. I can't imagine Puts hasn't read 'The Decisive Moment', but he ought to read it again.

 

Steve

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How Studying Contact Sheets Can Make You a Better Street Photographer

 

I always wondered why we push the shutter release countless times when we "know" we don't have a great photo. But I long ago decided that this is just part of the process of being there and paying attention for the few times when something really good actually comes together in front of you.

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