Judging from the letters we receive and the action on our Forums (at www.shutterbug.com) the debate between digital and film photographers is ongoing, and shows no signs of abating. Some photographers have manned the silver-halide barricades and defy all comers by waving the silver-halide flag, while others scoff at the film fans by terming them reactionaries and...
I recently got back a roll of processed color negative film from a lab touting itself as “professional” and it reminded me why it’s difficult for me to go back to shooting film. It’s not that I don’t like the look of film, or that I don’t enjoy actually working with it; it’s that the prints were well below my expectations. I checked the negatives and they...
Today's digital photographers have more ways to control color than you can shake a stick at, with programmed White Balance (WB) options, custom color temperature bracketing, and even color maps through which you can toggle to attain any color bias you want, and that's just in the camera. It's almost as if all the designers thought everyone needed a color...
As someone who has paid the rent with photography since high school I often find myself uncomfortable when the words "photography" and "art" are linked in a sentence, especially when art is spelled with a capital "A." I see photography as a craft, one that takes rigor, training, and sacrifice to get right. But I also see photography as an art;...
The portrait is one of the most demanding of all photographic tasks. We are asked to capture the character of a person in the brief, fleeting moment it takes to make an exposure. Painters seem to have the advantage, being able to take hours or days to render their impressions. They can block out forms and fill in the light and shadow as they see fit. What do we have to contend...
In this issue we ask our contributors to pose their thoughts about the future of photography, at least looking forward a year. As is their wont, each has a particular revelation, wish, or projection based upon their sense of optimism (or lack of it) and field of expertise. You'll read echoes of nostalgia for film photography, thoughts on what needs to change to make things...
The line-up of quality 4x6 desktop printers now includes a number of models in the dye sublimation realm. These printers offer computer- or computer-less printing with a host of input options. Smaller than your inkjet, they offer convenience, fast printing, and, increasingly, fairly sophisticated processing options. We recently had the opportunity to work with a new printer from...
Small, 4x6 dye sub prints have their uses, for quick prints of snapshots, for making thumbnail contact sheets from a memory card or CD, or even printing out smaller images on sheet cards for passport, bus pass, or ID cards. They become personal photo kiosks, if you will, making trips down to the store unnecessary when you just want a quick print from your image files. They also...
In this issue we feature images from the last roll of Kodachrome film ever processed. Steve McCurry’s work has always been admirable, but here the photographs have a special poignancy because they will be irrevocably tied to the end of an era in photography. These iconic images now reside in the Eastman House in Rochester, a fitting setting for them among the daguerreotypes, albumen prints, kallitypes, and other images created by processes that have become part of history. True, you can emulate the “look” of these processes with software, and even recreate some of the old paper print processes using custom-mix chemicals and old formulae, but I doubt very much that anyone is going to attempt to set up the massive machinery and chemical soups required to allow Kodachrome to be processed ever again.