[Leica] Re: Old time look

[kd7olf at xmission.com (Gerald Homeyer)]

Very good points indeed.   And tempting as well.  Doing the 4x5 thing  
wouldn't be too big a deal, this semester was Photo II, or as I like  
to call it, a semester of zone, zone, and more zone that I shot with  
a Sinar F.  The big hurdle would be snagging equipment in time, as  
lugging the Sinar around trying to get the rights shots might be a  
bit difficult.

It would take everybody seriously off guard though, which really I  
think is what I'm trying to do more than anything else.  Bad habit of  
mine...

Gerald

On Apr 27, 2006, at 6:04 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
>
> Gerald,
>
> There is a qualitatively different look about pictures shot with  
> 1930s to 1950s era press equipment and pictures shot with modern 35  
> mm and digital cameras. Many of these differences derive from the  
> differences inherent in the equipment. A Speed Graphic with an  
> attached flash gun weighs four to five pounds. Operation with sheet  
> film holders is quite slow. Most photograpers used only one lens,  
> usually a F4.5 127 mm Graphtar, Wollensack, or Ektar. This was a  
> comparatively wide angle lens, roughly equivalent to a 35 mm lens  
> on a Leica. Cropping was usually done in the darkroom, the large  
> negative size permitting considerable freedom in composition.  
> Photographers usually carried only six film holders on an  
> assignment. As a result shots were often set up in advance.  
> Photographers jockeyed for position at public events and fired off  
> one or, at most, two shots. Flash bulbs were used, even in  
> daylight, to make sure we got a picture. You don't need 36  
> exposures and a motordrive if you plan carefully. Pictures were  
> developed to a relatively high degree of contrast to provide  
> "punch" when printed on newsprint with a 65 screen halftone  
> pattern. That's not to say that the old equipment was incapable of  
> high quality results. Press cameras were, after all, modified field  
> cameras and some mighty fine pictorial images were taken with the  
> same equipment.
>
> What I have said was largely true of US newspapers. Editors had a  
> low tolerance for the fuzzy, low key, available light photos taken  
> by European photographers with their Leicas and Contaxes. Life  
> magazine photographers took the middle ground with Rolleis. Bigger  
> film, sharper results, more flash. I was almost fired from my paper  
> for daring to use a Kodak Medalist with its 6x9 frame size because  
> my editor felt that it was too small to get good results.
>
> So if you really want to give your students a taste of old time  
> photojournalism, dust off that old Graphic and buy a box of sheef  
> film. You can develop the film in trays in D-72 paper developer. It  
> certainly will be an educational experience.
>
> Larry Z