Who are we?

[Q.G.]

This is BS...sorry....why do you think film shooters bracket? Why do you think bracketing is almost never used with digital? Yes, we film lovers do sometime guess at exposure...hence the bracketing, the extra shots at different exposures, ect...not a bad thing, by the way....just the way it is sometimes.

BS?
In too many decades of photography i would like to admit to, i have never bracketed. I never felt the need to. I never found out afterwards that i better would have bracketed either.

There is absolutely no need for guesswork. Never.

So are you sure that you're not "so insecure"? Because i'm sure, reading your "BS" apology for bracketing, that you are.

[agw]

Hmm, IT people more affine to analog photography? Not in my experience.

I work as an architect for an IT consultancy / custom software development company, and while there are quite a lot of my colleagues who are relatively deep into photography, I seem to be the last one holding out as a heavy film user, and the only one to do his own wet processing.

Or, maybe I'm just the first one to come back to film and wet darkroom?

For a while, I was exclusively digital. Then I got increasingly dissatisfied with the the many color variables needing tweaking in the workflow, and the fact that it's nearly impossible to do a really black&white only print using inkjet printers (or at least, my printer).

Now, I'm mostly back to shooting b&w film, and doing my own processing and enlarging. I shoot mainly for recreational purposes anyway (stress-relaxant from my mostly gnaw-my-brains only job), and greatly enjoy the manual, LCD-screen-less nature of the workflow.

[gr82bart]

This is BS...sorry....why do you think film shooters bracket? Why do you think bracketing is almost never used with digital? Yes, we film lovers do sometime guess at exposure...hence the bracketing, the extra shots at different exposures, ect...not a bad thing, by the way....just the way it is sometimes.I call BS on the BS. I have never bracketed to take a normal pic since I was like 12 or 13 years old. In fact I have never heard of film photographers bracketing as standard practice at all. It's usually novices or folks that don't know what they are doing practicing bracketing for normal exposures.

Regards, Art.

[David Brown]

I have found that two kinds of people are overrepresented as film shooters. Artists and IT-people.

Or maybe I am making too much out of what is after all a very small sample...

Speaking as an auditor for many years and dealing with sampling on a regular basis: yes your sampling is flawed. :p (just kidding)

I was an IT security auditor for about 6 years and I started out adult life with my degree in music, so I fall into your categories. However, I stick primarily with film for much more pragmatic reasons.

One, I already have all of the gear I would ever need (and it will outlast me) and am acquiring even more of it at ridiculous prices.

But, two (and the most important), is that I am good at it. I would rather continue with the skills I enjoy then start over learning to print again in another media. I'm too old to bother.

Bottom line: I'm not a Luddite, or an old soul, I'm just lazy ...

[SilverGlow]

BS?
In too many decades of photography i would like to admit to, i have never bracketed. I never felt the need to. I never found out afterwards that i better would have bracketed either.

There is absolutely no need for guesswork. Never.

So are you sure that you're not "so insecure"? Because i'm sure, reading your "BS" apology for bracketing, that you are.

Well, then I guess you don't aspire to shoot like a pro because I know many pros that bracket.

For example, a customer wants a sunset behind their family portrait. How dark or light the sunset should be is SUBJECTIVE, so the smart pro will bracket the background exposure, even as the flash exposing the human skin is constant. The bracketing is via the change in shutter speed....faster darkens the background, slowing it down lightens it. You can't know until you see the prints from the lab; allowing the customer to pick and choose what works best for them.

Funny, but ALL pro 35mm SLR's come with bracketing features. Bracketing is often not about guessing but rather bringing different "correct" exposures to the mix, allow you or the customer to pick and choose which works "best" because "best" is subjective.

In the last 10 years I have bracketed thousands of times and I make no apologies for this and I think anyone that says they've not done this in 20+ years is someone that lacks imagination.

I'm a braketing shooter and pround of it! :D No, I don't do it often, but when the situation calls for it I do.

[spolly74]

I've toiled in the software industry for 10 years or so, which makes me an IT guy more than anything else. I spend my day dealing with bugs and glitches and algorthyms, so it is nice to unwind with a non-digital hobby. More than anything, however, I want my results (such as they are) to be based on reality. If I get a good image, it's because of my understanding of light and chemistry and process, not because my camera is more sophisticated than the lunar lander.

[SilverGlow]

I've toiled in the software industry for 10 years or so, which makes me an IT guy more than anything else. I spend my day dealing with bugs and glitches and algorthyms, so it is nice to unwind with a non-digital hobby. More than anything, however, I want my results (such as they are) to be based on reality. If I get a good image, it's because of my understanding of light and chemistry and process, not because my camera is more sophisticated than the lunar lander.

All cameras for all types of mediums require the mastering of light, exposure, and camera workflow...I find it odd you don't acknowledge this.

[Q.G.]

In the last 10 years I have bracketed thousands of times and I make no apologies for this and I think anyone that says they've not done this in 20+ years is someone that lacks imagination.

I'm a braketing shooter and pround of it! :D No, I don't do it often, but when the situation calls for it I do.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step on the way to recovery.
So good for you! ;)



All cameras for all types of mediums require the mastering of light, exposure, and camera workflow...I find it odd you don't acknowledge this.

Yet you think bracketing could be a good thing... :D

[TheFlyingCamera]

Admitting you have a problem is the first step on the way to recovery.
So good for you! ;)




Yet you think bracketing could be a good thing... :D

Please do not feed or tease the trolls.

[spolly74]

All cameras for all types of mediums require the mastering of light, exposure, and camera workflow...I find it odd you don't acknowledge this.


I don't know about your cameras, but mine don't require a darned thing. I can just pick them up and push the button -my 4 year old does it all the time.

The results I get, however, are dependent on a lot of factors. Chief among these is how well I understand the things you list. My point (perhaps not well made) was that FOR ME, the technology in a camera would get in the way of learning these things.

[hvandam2]

I've been in "high tech" for 30 years, with the last 20 as a software developer. My background, education and passion is music, but this software stuff pays the bills quite nicely. I only shoot film, using 35mm and MF, and I'm building a large format 4x5.

For me, the last thing I want to do when I've finished a 50+ hour work week is sit in front of a computer for 2 more days. I love the process of film photography, the chemistry, the science, the "organic" nature of it.

As far as bracketing is concerned, I have done some to evaluate film and camera, and to help me build an intuition about how film behaves. It is a great learning tool. I do not do it as a general rule. I do understand from some of my digital friends that these computers will bracket several partial stops on either side of the central exposure without the photographer thinking about it. I'd prefer to use my skills and take a chance on one exposure, even though I may get it wrong :)

[SilverGlow]

Please do not feed or tease the trolls.

Perhaps you and QG might want to get use to other opinions, points of view. Reality is really not so bad....

[Q.G.]

Reality is really not so bad....

That's right.
So stop clinging to your security blanket, throw away those crutches, and face reality head on. Dare to live. Let your skills cope with the world. And stop hiding behind "but what if..."s.
:D

[SilverGlow]

That's right.
So stop clinging to your security blanket, throw away those crutches, and face reality head on. Dare to live. Let your skills cope with the world. And stop hiding behind "but what if..."s.
:D

It seems you're still wearing those rose...ah, I mean red colored glasses. I'd suggest you put the pipe down, and get back to Jesus. For good. It shows :rolleyes:

[AmsterdamMartin]

Maybe the division is not at all about IT, art people etc.
Nowadays a lot of people work in "IT". Sign of the times.
In the late nineties a lot of my friends moved to IT, which was a relative new technology (for the masses) and a somewhat more clear dinstinguisable area than it is for me now.
At present day 2010, for me, there isn't something like a somewhat separate IT anymore like we used to now.
Perhaps in the end, history will not acknowlegde our millennium-style classification of professions.
I am not IT allthough I have used computers since the early eighties. I am not a professional artist either.

[benjiboy]

What I know about I.T. you could write on the head of a pin, neither am I an Artist, I shoot film because although I've been doing it all my adult life I still don't begin to understand it's beauty and mystery, I have no desire to start to learn another medium, and undertake the considerable outlay in time and money that would be necessary to replace my film equipment with the digital equipment of commensurate quality it would take.

[Paul Jenkin]

Well, I'm not into IT, per se, but my work involves a lot of spreadsheets, Word documents and product specifications. There's also a helluva lot of work and I'm out of the house at 6am and back no earlier than 7pm. That doesn't leave a lot of time for photography - apart from weekends - and I use both digital and analogue equipment according to whether I have a bit of time or need a quick fix...!

Like Bejiboy, I've used film for many, many years and still it surprises me how good it can be and how little I understand about the process of getting it right. Digital is much more "in your face". It's a great medium (IMO) but much colder and more clinical than film. I don't believe in soul and all that anthropomorphist mumbo-jumbo but, if I did, I would define film cameras as having it and digital cameras being robotic.