Advice you wish you had when you began photog.

Hi everyone,

I'm new here to photo.net, and actually I'm new to b&w photography too. I'm

just finishing up building my darkroom and I'm starting to get overwhelmed with

all the choices of equipment and supplies. I was just curious if anyone had

some advice they'd like to pass on that would've made their voyage into

photography a little more pleasant. Any advice will be more than appreciated.

Thanks so much!

 

-Rebecca

 

P.S. I did search the website to make sure nothing like this has been posted, if

it has feel free to point me in the right direction and delete this.

No piece of gear will make you a better photographer - only making lots of photos and learning , possibly with input of people you respect for their vision, to edit tightly will.

Ellis makes a great point! It is true that the photographer takes/makes the photo, but I would add to buy the best equipment YOU can.

 

Read all you can, take photo classes at local colleges/arts centers, go to photo exhibits/art galleries and look at other peoples work. Don't necessarily copy their work, but learn from it and perhaps improve on it.

 

Most of all, go out and take all the photos you can, but, make them all good ones!

If you can not see it, you can not photograph it,so work on your awareness level.

Gear has a big influence on final image quality, there can be no doubt about that. Get the

best you can afford, stick to one film/developer combination and go take pictures.

Maybe keep it simple at first. One film, one format. Your work flow will become a snap. Good suggestions above about "seeing and "educating". Also maybe find a style and subject matter that appeals to you. A passion for the subject will show in the end results.

Be yourself.

 

Read and look a lot (art, photography). Absorb ideas and choose those that fit your

approach.

 

Ask specific questions where answers might aid you to overcome a problem or

unknown (PN is pretty good for that, most of us like to share experience).

I suppose you have a camera of some sort already. However, it is a lot more enjoyable to deal with rollfilm when enlarging. Each format has its challenges, but the larger the negative, the easier it is to print.

 

I didn't get to 4X5 until I was 66, but that meant getting an enlarger and a good way to develop sheets. I now use an expert drum for developing and a gravity system for washing.

 

Each format has some good advice from those of us who stumbled through trial and error.

Wow! I agree with everything said above. Would add this: do not make a photograph that looks like one you have seen already. If you want real satisfaction, force yourself to do original work.

There is no magic combination of film and dev, or paper and dev, that will make your photographs brilliant - but practice will. Initially, stick to one fast film, one slow film and one film developer. Ditto paper and paper developer. When you have mastered these, then, and only then, try other films and developers. Always make sure you have a tried and tested routine to fall back on.

"Gear has a big influence on final image quality, there can be no doubt about that."

 

 

Untrue on all levels. Gear doesn't make photographs, photographers do. owning better gear doesn't make you a better photographer, hard work does. Better gear might make it easier but that's all.

Don't get too caught up in multiple lenses and multiple cameras.

 

Before learning to shoot with any kind of artificial lighting, learn to use the sun as a light source.

 

And lastly... a $2000 digital body is a waste of money if it isn't making money for you.

"Gear has a big influence on final image quality, there can be no doubt about that."

 

I agree, to a point. I have made some great images with a pinhole camera, but won't a better quality lens make a better QUALITY photograph when it comes to sharpness,resolution...?

 

Then again, just because an image is soft, does not mean it's poor quality...

 

I'm talking in circles I think...

 

I love making good photographs from cheap/poor gear. Makes it very satisfying :)

Back in 1968 or '69 when I was beginning in news journalism, I wish someone had told me, "Wait for digital!" :-) <p>

I'd be much wealthier, assuming I knew what 'digital' meant! My mother was more philosophical with her comment back then, "At least you did not choose horse-racing!" :-) <p>

. . . and so it goes . . . <p>

Learn a few tools and practice a lot! There is no end, so enjoy the journey!

1) The only way to understand, to learn, to improve, is to go out and burn lots of film. In this way you'll come to learn the difference between "taking pictures" and "making photographs."

 

2) Master your craft to the point that it's all just a set of tools for you to use. Do this so that the craft is nearly automatic and you can therefore concentrate on making your art.

 

3) Take every chance you can to get into galleries and museums and look at other people's art. Spend the time to see if you can figure out why some art "works" for you and other art doesn't. Consciously or unconsciously you'll pull this learning into your own art.

 

Repeat continuously.

1. Save ALL your negatives/slides and ...files... for the worst are also important. You will

learn from your mistakes.

 

Where you are depends an awfully lot on where you have been.

 

[i have found that it is a lot easier to save 'film' in an easily accessible fashion than it is to

save ''digital files' in tomorrow's format.]

 

2. Follow the light.

 

Johnny

The one piece of advice that I got when I began, and that I give everyday is "Everything in the frame must contribute to the picture"

 

Unfortunately, I had been taking pictures for several years before I got that advice, so I wasted a lot of film, paper, and darkroom time.

 

As for life advice, also applicable to photography: "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, you certainly don't have time to do it over."

 

<Chas>

I think JohnnyCake has good advice. Spend time looking at the stuff you shoot. In grad

school, all of us put up a big homasote board in our apartments. We tacked up work prints,

contact sheets, whatever we had printed. Sometimes even test strips.

Seeing those everyday you would tend to make little discoveries about what you were

photographing and how you were printing. It made a big difference.

Avoid being ensnared in the equipment trap. Buy only what will improve your print quality and consider that the very best is hugely more expensive than what is perfectly serviceable. Consider bypassing 35mm and go directly to 120 in the form of a basic twin lens reflex. Your friends will probably roll their eyes but when they see the print quality all the snickering will cease and desist. Tri X and D76 1:1 period. Learn what is meant by "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights" and let that guide you for the rest of your photographic life.

"Gear has a big influence on final image quality, there can be no doubt about that."

 

>Untrue on all levels.

 

This has to be the most boring photography debate... right behind "film vs. digital."

 

Yes, we all know that guns don't kill people, cameras don't take photos, etc. Yet if this were true then we'd find professionals in ANY field using low-grade equipment because, after all, equipment has little to do with their output, right?

 

So golfers and tennis players should use wood clubs/racquets. Super Bowl photographers should use manual focus film cameras with F5.6 lenses.

 

Let's extend this logic across all domains and suddenly it appears absolutely bankrupt.

Wow, thank you all so much! I wasn't expecting such a great response. As of right now i'm working strictly with a pinhole. My photography teacher says "If you can make good photo's with a grits box you know you have the talent to make good photos with a better camera." Which kinda goes along with the better equipment debate.

Thanks again for the response, and i'll look forward to reading more.

You have an uncommonly sensible photography teacher, Rebecca.

(i) Study composition all the time. Look at paintings, architecture, graphic design.

 

(ii) Most of your best photos will be made using a normal lens.

I would like to add: photograph from your heart, not just from your head. Make photos that mean something to you, or that move you in some way.

Sorry Lex, but I must disagree -- assuming that the "grits box" is your reference.

 

I'm not sure (as an Australian) how deep a grits box is, but I suspect quite wide optically as

a pinhole camera.

 

Apart from a guesstimate of exposure time and a wild guess at composition, a pinhole

really is hard to learn basic principles from.

 

How about depth of focus, good composition, accurate exposure, perspective of focal

length, the whole aperture/exposure relationship?

 

I have home modified pinhole and Zero Image pinhole cameras, and they are fascinating to

use, but only as an adjunct and via application of principles learned from conventional

cameras.

 

And the conventional camera doesn't need to be something expensive with lots of bells

and whistles, you will know that the less the automation, the better the learning

possibilities.

 

My apologies if I misunderstand your post.

 

Rebecca, when you are fairly happy with your chosen regular film/developer combination

launch out and try something radically different, there are surprising looks to achieve,

especially in printing, papers and paper developers.

 

Regards - Ross