Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/11/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Craig, I was at the Salgado event (the main one anyway, not the small, intimate dinner one for large donors) in SF and as far as I remember he didn't go into any details of his post-processing, except to say that his assistant "adds grain" to the files and then prints them as digital negs. He did relate that he prints the digital negatives at large sizes and has asked photographer friends to pick out the digital prints from analog -- no one did better than random guessing. What I took from the whole story was that he still prefers the process and look of film: darkroom printing and film grain. He related at length that he would still be using the Pentax except that the hassles of traveling with large amounts of exposed film through airports with irrational (and often simply perversely capricious) security personnel rendered it impractical: too much time wasted in security offices, and too many ruined rolls of film when security at multiple stops insist on x-raying. (The savings in weight and bulk were also appreciated; apparently on his longer trips the volume of film really added up.) Since he can replicate both the look and the final step in the film process (darkroom printing), he is satisfied with digital capture and the hybrid workflow. I would be interested in seeing if he continues this hybrid process if/when he starts using a S2/M9. I was very interested in this part of his talk because I too work in a hybrid fashion (though it's the reverse of his), and have toyed with digital negatives for doing alternative processes (cyanotypes and salt prints). As an aside, I have to agree with Richard's assessment in the blog. The contrast was awful on the slideshow. But even fixing that, it was pretty clear to me that Salgado (at least thus far) is no landscape or nature photographer. His talent is definitely with photographing people. The images in Genesis (thus far) were far below his past work in my opinion. Kevin ============= Only connect. ============= bamboozld at gmail.com my photography: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shudaizi/ On Nov 19, 2009, at 6:54 AM, Craig Semetko wrote: > Now I'm referencing it, Richard:) > > In the blog you say: > > However, he still uses it like in the film days: his assistant makes > contact sheets for him, and his camera is modified to give the same > 645 ratio he is used to. He also has the images processed to look > like Tri-X. For prints, a lab converts the data into a 645 negative > and prints using traditional darkroom process! > > Did he say how he has the digital files processed to look like Tri- > X? Is is assistant using a certain software program? I know there > are a number of programs out there for this; I'm wondering which one > or what process replicates Tri-X accurately enough to his liking. > > TIA, > > Cheers, > > Craig > > > On Nov 19, 2009, at 4:44 AM, lug-request at leica-users.org wrote: > >> Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:00:55 -0800 >> From: Richard Man <richard.lists at gmail.com> >> Subject: Re: [Leica] Lou Reed has an S2 and an M9 >> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> >> Message-ID: >> <7ac27f4f0911181600s57982babm9fa41e0ff48c6fe0 at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 >> >> One or more photogs were shooting with an M9 extensively a few months >> before the info was leaked, so I wouldn't be surprise if some photogs >> have been shooting with a S2 for the last couple months. Real life >> tests and all that. >> >> I hope Saldago get one, my blog entry: >> http://rfman.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/an-evening-with-sebastiao-salgado/ >> still get half a dozen hits every day and more if yet another person >> references it in another blog post (or email like this one :-O ) > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information