Teaching B&W Photography

Well, I guess this isn't directly related to LF, but more that I

wanted answers from the specific group of people in this forum, not

from everyone in "Camera Equipment". I guess I trust the collective

opinion of this board a bit more.

 

Here goes:

I have a friend (also a junior in HS) who's been shooting digital for

about four months. He's already had prints in the school art show and

sold a number to faculty and friends, which has his ego a bit out of

proportion. His biggest problem is cliches - he shoots a lot and

doesn't knwo it. But anyway, his dad shot with Minolta SRTs, and has

given my friend his entire kit - a pretty good array of lenses and 2

bodies. So, he's never shot B&W before (or any film seriously) and it

has fallen upon my shoulders to teach him.

 

I'm planning a few trips into the field - a local state park - for

basics, and he has his choice of subjects. But I can't get out there

for a while, so he's coming over for a few lessons in the basics.

I've used the New Ansel Adams series as a rough guide, and pulled 5-6

books for him to look through. I'm planning on following the logical

progression from equipment choice considerations to the fine print,

mounting, display. I made a little outline, and plan to throw in some

MF and LF comments here and there, nothing too in-depth.

 

I have two packs of Polapan B&W ISO 400 for my ETRS (is it 672 or

680, I never remember Pola numbers) which I plan on using heavily as

a teaching tool. I wish I had 4x5.

 

I was hoping to get some suggestions for...anything. Any ideas that

you guys have, as I know you'll have a lot. He's mainly into

portraiture and macro work (ugh, pictures of flowers) and I'm a

landscape guy, so I'll try to make it relative to all subject matter.

 

 

Thanks. I'll try not to get into too much about how my barrel lens is

better than his digital.

Stop! while you can. You'll be eternally sorry. Back out. Say you were only kidding. Visit a sick relative. Visit a DEAD relative. Anything. Do whatever you have to, only DON'T DO IT!

Bill is right, mostly. Do not teach him anything technical--not about

cameras, lenses, film, anything else. But there is something you can

do. Show him photographs from books of the great photographers. He

likes close-ups; show him Weston's photographs of shells and peppers.

He likes portraits; show him photographs by Arnold Newman, Avedon,

etc. Better than this, since you are in New Jersey, take him into New

York City to look at fine photographs in the museums. Make an

appointment at the Museum of Modern Art--to see if they still do that

now that they are in their temporary location. Get "Photography in New

York" and go into the city to look at photographs on exhibition at a

number of galleries--at any moment there must be 150 exhibtions up.

Next February go to the AIPAD Expo at the Hilton. At least 10,000 fine

photographs (and, admittedly, some not so fine) will be on display.

You would probably learn a lot from this, too. If he "gets it," he'll

ask about specific technical things if he feels he needs them. At that

point, but only in request to specific questions, lead him to the

answers--don't tell him, lead him to discover the answers himself. If

he doesn't "get it" you have saved yourself a lot of time and have had

the valuabler experience of seeing a bunch of fine work yourself.

When I was getting turned on to photography (in high school too), I got the best education from being given my own bulk roll of B&W. I think I put a couple hundred rolls of B&W and slightly outdated E6 film through my Canon AE1 in a couple of months. The trial and error process taught me more about photography than what I learned in class.

 

Limit your instruction to basic B&W development and printing techniques and let your friend discover what he needs to know for himself. If he's genuinely interested in photography, it will be a real pleasure for him.

 

Good Luck,

If I were you Jason, I wouldn't worry about it. Do your thing and

share with your buddy what you like and think is cool. Digital also

has some good qualities..so maybe you could gain something

from your friend, too? Michael Smith seems to have a few good

ideas...check out some of the masters, BOTH old and current.

You're going to disagree about many things...and that's cool,

'cause that's life! Just don't beat the *c23@#$% out of each

other, like a lot of us grown-ups tend to do on this forum.

having gone through this myself I have a few questions:

 

who approached who about learning???

 

what exactly do you mean by B&W photography??? seeing or the

nuts and bolts end of it???

 

the best thing I ever did when teaching a friend- was having him

expose a few rolls (with one of my cameras), showed him how to

process them, and than letting him decide how far he wanted to

go after that.

 

getting to much into technique to fast, tends to bore the

un-intiated. letting them have fun by shooting first and than

seeing if they even want to "get into it" goes a long way for both of

your sanity.

 

your 'lesson plan" idea IMHO sounds a little to structured and

might end up turning your friend off to film based photography.

remember, he is coming from the "instant" readout type of world.

 

hang out one day, take out the 35's and burn up the film, worry

about everything else later. if he's like my friend, seeing that first

roll of film when it comes out of the fixer, will have him hooked

and he will do the rest on his own with your knowledge and

guidance to assist him.

 

remember, your friend has to screw up at first to learn- refrain

from "holding his hand", I know it is hard but he will thank you

later on.

 

after a few months, you can make fun of his lenses.....

Contact any local college, university, or community college and see if there are any continuing education courses in photography. This avenue is very affordable, educational and fun as well.

I agreed, being his friend, to show him the basics. He already has specific technical questions - "What do I do?"

 

In the time since I started this post I agreed to have him come over this afternoon. There's still the possibility that he'll cancel.

 

If it comes to it, I'll take him outside (or inside with the lights), have him shoot a roll, and then develop it. Have HIM develop it. When he perfects his developing, I'll let him use the Jobo. Then again, the difference between 240mL and 17 oz is quite big. Maybe he'll pay for the chemistry.

 

I'll take it at his pace, if he wants to just borrow a stack of books and then talk for a while thats fine, if he wants "Intro to B&W Photography" I'm ready for it and have my Polaroid out of the fridge.

 

Thanks for all the advice, but whats done is done. I learned pretty much on my own, and if he wants to he taught thats fine with me. He'll probably get some hands-on time on the Bronica pretty early, as Polaroid for 35mm is both not in my arsenal and pointless.

I've shot 35mm for 30 years, 4x5 for one year, and I can't wait to get a halfway decent digital camera. It's a different medium, with different expectations. As for your friend, show him a 30x40 inch landscape from a nice sharp 4x5 negative, then put him to work counting blades of grass...

Dont teach him technical "stuff" unless he asks -

 

Instead teach him - or show him how to see! Show him your excitement over an image you see, tell him that everything in the image is important; teach him to leave out unimportant elements; teach him to search for his own way of seeing.

 

And tell him to look at everything around him with inquisitive eyes!

Well we had the first "lesson". I gave him a talk of what he needs to know to expose film - camera operation, metering, lenses, DOF. Used the Pola for lenses and DOF. He was quite interested in the 8x10, so I let him climb under the darkcloth and play around a little.

 

He's going to start on shooting some film, hopefully sometime next week we'll go up to the park and shoot a bit, then have him develop it.

You can't teach what a person doesn't want to know or cannot absorb at a given time.

 

Offer answers - as succinctly as possible - to the questions he asks.

 

When he seems stuck, offer suggestions. Let him figure out as much as possible for himself. Give an occasional nudge to get him on track.

 

Don't judge. There's enough of that already in the online world. Leave it out of face-to-face relationships.

 

You're a pretty sharp young man. You'll do well.

Try to get him enrolled in a Basic Photography Class (Photography 101) at a Community College.. there he will be immerse himself in lab, Black and White, the gears, etc etc.... and then may be an Intermediate level class..?

Someone said (echoing a sentiment expressed by others here):

<p><i>Dont teach him technical "stuff" unless he asks.</i>

<p>I say, why not? In fact, <i>only</i> teaching him "technical stuff" might be the best thing to do. Giving him the basic tools to do with what he wants, etc., etc.

<p>I'd be skeptical of deploying the "artsy-fartsy" approach too soon. There's plenty of time for that later; first thing is you gotta know at least the basics about how to use the equipment.

The whole idea was to teach him the technical stuff. This wasn't a lesson in Zone System, why Azo is better, and the qualities of light. It was a lesson in finding the shutter speed dial and aperature ring, learning what they do, and figuring out how to meter a scene, and how to read a meter.

 

I threw in some things that were beyond first-day photography, but only because either he wanted to know, or because I didn't want to make it sound like my simplified lesson was the only way to do it.

 

We spent some time with the ETRS, simply because of the polaroid capability, and the larger image in the viewfinder. Also a few minutes at the end showing him the view camera - he had the usual questions - what does it do, what's it look like to look at it, and why is it so good that i'd hike up a mountain with that thing.

 

In the future we'll discuss camera choice a little more in-depth.

Jason, Heres two thoughts: 1) Let your friend watch as an image develops under a safe light. Way cool. Then show him a color and a B+W photo, either snap shot or potrait, side by side from the 1960s or 1970s. The jaundice looking people will be in the color print. These little exercises are great motivation for learning B+W and a motivated student is always a better student.