drmike99 Loc: Fairfield Connecticut

Every so often someone posts about straight out of camera (SOOC) photography. It occurs to me that for those of us who learned 35mm photography in the 1950s and early '60s, if we wanted color it HAD to be SOOC. Kodak did not make Kodacolor available in 35 mm until 1958 (according to Wikipedia), though my memory puts it actually in the 1960s. Color photography in that era meant Kodachrome or Ektachrome (or Anscochrome if you could stand it) which meant you took the pictures and watched them on a screen using a projector. No post processing, not even cropping. What you photographed is what you got. So SOOC was the standard then. And for most folks, who did NOT process their own black and white, it was the same for Plus-X and Tri-X also, as you were stuck with the prints that came back from the lab. Printing from slides in those days meant those awful little plastic type-R prints. Eventually there was Cibachrome for home color printing from slides, and some labs did decent enlargements, usually from internegatives. So, at least for me, post processing even today is limited to adjusting the contrast (what I did with black and white by choosing which contrast paper to print on, or which polycontrast filter to print through), and cropping. SOOC is really second nature to us old guard photogs.

PhotoKurtz Loc: Carterville, IL

I was in a color slide photo club in Lombard IL. We did crop slides using masks and/or foil tape. Color was wonderful from Kodachrome.

TBerwick Loc: Houston, Texas

I really liked Kodachrome. Still have dozens of slide trays stuffed with memories.

LarryFB Loc: Depends where our RV is parked

I totally understand where you are coming from. My first 35mm camera was a Petrie 1.9 rangefinder camera. In the late sixties I moved up to a Minolta SRT-101.In the early 1970's I had my own darkroom and usually bought TRI-X in bulk and loaded my own cassettes. I also shot slides, and at my wife's insistence, used Kodacolor on occasion.

Today, at least to me, SOOC means shooting JPEG, not RAW. However, JPEG is not quite like a negative, where you can make improvements in the darkroom or by using various labs to develop and make prints; that is just what your camera does. RAW allows YOU to make your own improvements depending on what you want. Now, post processing allows you more flexibility.

Time has changed. What you can do with color photos has changed significantly and I respect that change. I no longer have to be frustrated because I used a daylight film and made photos in incadesent light, that is easily corrected.

My bottom line is simply to embrace the opportunities provided by technology.

Kuzano

Watch the drippy drama movie KodaChrome to see the actual owner of Dwaynes Processing, as he greets a photographer who drives cross country with his son to deliver his last rolls of KC. Dwaynes in the Midwest was the last processor for Kodachrome in the country. The project ran months over deadline, because so much unprocessed Kodachrome came out of the woodwork. Dwaynes was the last and no one processes Kodachrome after Dwayne shut down their processing of the emulsion.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

With color negative film, as apposed to slide film, a lab actually has a great deal of control over the rendition of color at the printing stage. Maybe not through a photo kiosk and the like cranking out machine prints for the general public, but at a proper professional lab with custom printing capabilities, it is and was very much possible.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Old Song: Those were the days my friend, thought they would never end....

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

SOOC has worked for me for 60+ years. I'm happy with it and get the results I want. When shooting Crime Scenes, accidents, fire and murder scenes etc., you want to see it as it actually is and usually do not have time to play Dr. in a lab setting. Whatever trips your trigger, Baby!

srt101fan

This subject of SOOC has come up many times, along with the debate as to why, for some folks at least, it is somehow a superior form of photography.

I don't get it (and I'm an old "bulk-load your own Tri-X" guy too!).

Are we hung up on the definition of "photography"? Whether we use selectively-covered photo-sensitive paper exposed to sunlight, a pin-hole camera, an old film camera, a modern camera with a built-in computer, or a modern camera with a built-in computer plus a second computer for further processing - we're all creating images with light.

It's like arguing over North Carolina, Alabama, or Texas barbecue....

waegwan Loc: Mae Won Li

I guess I'm missing something here or I don't really understand what SOOC is. In my understanding, there is no such thing as SOOC.

kschwegl Loc: Orangeburg, NY

I loved Kodachrome II. Shot a lot of it. Recently had color slides from my honeymoon 44 years ago (in the UK) digitized. Color is still vivid!

P.S. There's a Netflix movie called "Kodachrome" staring Ed Harris. Good movie.

Ken S.

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

It Means: Straight Out Of Camera

No post processing

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

In the film days those of us who worked in or had a dark room did post processing work such as cropping, dodge and burn, sharpening (using an un-sharpen mask) and a host of other techniques. I also used National Color Labs to do some of my wedding shots and requested them (at extra cost) to do some post processing. My point is post processing is not new because of the digital world it existed in the film days and if you chose not to do or have post processing done that was your call.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I would not say that an image straight out of camera is what all old timers are using today. I am one of those old timers who process the image with my editors to improve its quality.

waegwan Loc: Mae Won Li

Explain how that is possible.