In this series of articles I try to discuss some aspects of mastering the craft of photography and get that out of the way, in order to enable photographers to concentrate on the more important creative aspects.
I am not saying that a non-technical approach will not work, for some types of photography it is the only way and I think that’s great.
I am looking at a photographic equivalent of the technical process behind the craft of artists like, let’s say masters in painting, without attempting one second to imply that mastering such a process will by default enable you to come even close to their artistic value. But without technical prowess you will not be able to reach into all the depths of any technical artistic craft or art form.
When discussing photography people often concentrate on cameras. ‘What camera did you use for that photograph’ or, my favorite, ‘That is a beautiful picture, you must be using an expensive camera’.
That’s not a big problem but we tend to forget that a camera is not much more than a light tight box whit a hole in it. The actual subject is transferred to your film or sensor by a lens…
Read MoreWhen you got here you probably already experienced some Sony or Nikon or Canon digital monsters, maybe even dared yourself to work with medium format Phase Ones or Hasselblads or the big Fujis.
Oh dear, you spent a lot …
Read MoreNow that we have our digital negative we need to transform that into a perfect digital original, fit for digital processing and printing.
We are going to …
Read MoreWhen I try to make meaningful photographs I need to be able to concentrate on my subject and the way I want to capture that. I don’t want technical issues to distract me from that process.
I have been working on that for some 40 years now and strange enough I discovered …
This article is not about making a photograph that ‘will do’, I try to discuss some aspects of mastering the craft of photography, in order to …
Read MoreThere is that moment when you discover photography as something you can actually do instead of something you only …
Read More… You could push that a little, but that would have an impact on grain and grey scale, in real life an ISO of 400 or even 360 was the preferred setting for normal work with Tri-X.
In this case I knew I would have to push the sensitivity of film to its limits to get usable results, but that was a problem to be solved later in the dark room …
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