Too Young
Jul 21, 2019 13:03:02 #
I see all these horror stories and think, well you weren’t alone! Why were all the great shots when the film wasn’t in correctly. 🥴
Jul 21, 2019 13:10:18 #
wdcarrier
Loc: Eureka, California
...or, to find you were at frame #38 of a lot of good images only to realize the film strip had not caught on the winding shaft.
Jul 21, 2019 13:34:23 #
A common enough occurrence. When showing a camera to a new user I advised feeding the film tail to the take up first, giving it a bit of a tug to be sure it had caught, then with a thumb on the sprocket, pulling the can to its spot. After closing the back, carefully take up the slack on the rewind crank, only then use the advance to get to the first frame while watching that crank. Sounds pretty sure right? Guess what? That damn film tail would still come loose!
Jul 21, 2019 13:48:08 #
I'm old! Been in the biz for over 50 years and before that, I started as a hobbyist when I was 7 years old. So...I can remember waiting a week or two for photo finishing results via the drugstore- a roll or two of 127 Verichrom (from the Baby Brownie Special) and some glossy JUMBO prints. By the time I graduated to the Hawkeye (120- 2 1/4) I found out where the lab was that serviced the drugstore- walked 25 blocks and got my prints in 2 days. The Pony 135 introduced me to Kodachrome (processing included) so what with the mails it usually ran 10 days. I would order the slides mounted so it was nice to receive all the SLIDES because severely underexposed or overexposed slides or film that never made it through the camera came back UNmounted. Then cam the Yashica mat and a black and white darkroom in the cellar- same day DIY service in black and white. Kodacolor still went to the photofinisher- about a week!
Fast forward- In my job as a studio apprentice I had two major responsibilities. Shooting Kodachrome 3-D Slides along with the more experienced wedding photographers who were shooting black and white for the MAIN album. Monday morning I would drive to Fairlawn, New Jersey to the Kodak processing station and bring in dozen of rolls (24 Stereos on a 36 roll). Then I would spend the afternoon eating some good diner food and reading 3 different photography magazines. At 4:30 I would pick up the slides and return to Brooklyn. The boss did not trust the mails and if there were any issues with the shooters or the camera we needed to know right away before the next batch of weddings.
Shooting film taught us good habits. As a young wedding shooter in training, I learned the "paranoid" method and "Murphy's Law school of shooting. We worked backward form everything that could go wrong and did everything to prevent it. Obviously, there were no instant readouts, images or "chimping" at the back of the camera so we constantly checked for flash synch, made certain that something did not get into the bellows of our press cameras- like insects in an outdoor shoot or a sheet of film that became dislodged from a holder. We use optical and "wire" viewfinders- no reflex viewing and no Polaroids tests. Of course, we had to do all the preventive action and still concentration exposure, lighting, composition and capturing the action and all the must-have images! The rookies all had our "hearts in our mouths" until the darkroom guys said OK! Most of the weddings were on weekends so Monday afternoon was the time of reckoning!
By the time I was an experienced solo shooter, we were doing most color negative work in medium format and the most studio did not process in-house. The big pro color labs found out proofs within 5 days. We were working closely with lab managers so if there were any glitches in any of the shooting, they will call us as soon as the negatives were processed. Again. we want to address and problem before the next weekend. We were all pretty consistent shooters but we would also worry about lab accidents. We request that each batch of wedding roll would be divided into two processes through the dip and dunk machines. If something were to go wrong on the first run, at least we would have some left. Some of
y' all think you have worries. We used to call the wedding business in the busy season "GH&U"- gray hair and ulcers!
And yes...we did shoot hundreds of sheet and rolls of film and played the waiting game! At least nowadays, if there is an issue, you can detect it right away and make corrections on the spot!
Fast forward- In my job as a studio apprentice I had two major responsibilities. Shooting Kodachrome 3-D Slides along with the more experienced wedding photographers who were shooting black and white for the MAIN album. Monday morning I would drive to Fairlawn, New Jersey to the Kodak processing station and bring in dozen of rolls (24 Stereos on a 36 roll). Then I would spend the afternoon eating some good diner food and reading 3 different photography magazines. At 4:30 I would pick up the slides and return to Brooklyn. The boss did not trust the mails and if there were any issues with the shooters or the camera we needed to know right away before the next batch of weddings.
Shooting film taught us good habits. As a young wedding shooter in training, I learned the "paranoid" method and "Murphy's Law school of shooting. We worked backward form everything that could go wrong and did everything to prevent it. Obviously, there were no instant readouts, images or "chimping" at the back of the camera so we constantly checked for flash synch, made certain that something did not get into the bellows of our press cameras- like insects in an outdoor shoot or a sheet of film that became dislodged from a holder. We use optical and "wire" viewfinders- no reflex viewing and no Polaroids tests. Of course, we had to do all the preventive action and still concentration exposure, lighting, composition and capturing the action and all the must-have images! The rookies all had our "hearts in our mouths" until the darkroom guys said OK! Most of the weddings were on weekends so Monday afternoon was the time of reckoning!
By the time I was an experienced solo shooter, we were doing most color negative work in medium format and the most studio did not process in-house. The big pro color labs found out proofs within 5 days. We were working closely with lab managers so if there were any glitches in any of the shooting, they will call us as soon as the negatives were processed. Again. we want to address and problem before the next weekend. We were all pretty consistent shooters but we would also worry about lab accidents. We request that each batch of wedding roll would be divided into two processes through the dip and dunk machines. If something were to go wrong on the first run, at least we would have some left. Some of
y' all think you have worries. We used to call the wedding business in the busy season "GH&U"- gray hair and ulcers!
And yes...we did shoot hundreds of sheet and rolls of film and played the waiting game! At least nowadays, if there is an issue, you can detect it right away and make corrections on the spot!
Jul 21, 2019 13:50:33 #
Bigmike1
Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.
Yep. Been there. Done that. Those were the days, though.
Jul 21, 2019 13:57:11 #
I was a magazine writer and editor...Sky&Telescope, McGraw-Hill, MBA Communications, Smithsonian and more. Every assignment was different, and I often got reporting assignments because I could do the pix...Scott AFB in Antarctica, etc.
Jul 21, 2019 14:05:13 #
My worst example was shooting a roll of slide film with my Nikon FM2n and 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor. I had so many beautiful shots on that roll and when I sent it out for processing I couldn't wait to get it back. Unfortunately, it never came back. The processor (Adorama) acknowledged receiving and processing it, and sending it out to me, but I never received it. I STILL regret never getting to see the results!
Jul 21, 2019 14:19:21 #
So now we are into memory lane... Another sign of old age - and the start of senility -.
Jul 21, 2019 14:25:32 #
Jul 21, 2019 14:32:27 #
Jul 21, 2019 14:39:29 #
Mac wrote:
.
Waiting two weeks or seeing the bad results immediately makes no difference. An unlearned old or young photographer will always get the same result.
Jul 21, 2019 14:51:49 #
Dikdik
Loc: Winnipeg, Canada
JD750 wrote:
Yes like 24 or 36... or multiples thereof.
SLRs were great because with an SLR you could not shoot with the lens cap on!
SLRs were great because with an SLR you could not shoot with the lens cap on!
Used to roll my own film... could get 40 exposures without 'scuffing' the film.
Dik
Jul 21, 2019 14:52:42 #
srt101fan wrote:
Now that's cold Ron.... but funny!
And, it fits.
Jul 21, 2019 14:53:19 #
Remember, "auto" used to mean that you could view through your SLR lens at full aperture and it would stop down to the taking aperture when you released the shutter, and then it would open up again after the exposure!
Jul 21, 2019 14:55:49 #
Dikdik
Loc: Winnipeg, Canada
wdcarrier wrote:
...or, to find you were at frame #38 of a lot of good images only to realize the film strip had not caught on the winding shaft.
Did that with my first spool of film in my new Nikon F2... after taking about 50 or so pictures, I decided to re-wind it and promptly wound the leader into the cassette... only after processing did I learn of my error. about 50 years back.
Dik
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