Workflow for Film Sports Photography

[robbie_caswell]

Honestly, I think everyone is hear to help you. Nobody says you have to conform, just hack out your own path and blaze new trails....

 

I shot an event today and had the treat of watching two AP photogs. They were non stop in action, shooting angles, flash, available light, and one employed a minature snoot!

 

Both were kind and considerate and shared angles and space with all (about six photogs total) and were having a blast. I'd say both were mid thirties and were far from burnt out.

 

Towards the end I saw a lady with a bunch of spent 120 rolls in a zip lock bag fumbling to load (I'm guessing) a Mamiy RF. I was envious.

 

It wasn't easy work but way fun.

[rick_helmke]

There were all kinds of rigs for this stuff. Most of it was clumsy and heavy, a pain to move around. It got better as stuff like the Coolscans came out but they were still awfully limited compared to the most recent units. Same for the chemistry, you had to bring it all with you. Of course C-41 had to be kept up to temp but you could bring a portable water bath rig or just use a bathtub. Honestly when on the road it was just a pain. B&W was and is much easier but you still have to carry stuff around. I enjoy getting my hands wet but for gripngrins or pedestrian stuff digital takes less time. That way I can do the work I care more about when I am able to go to the darkroom.

 

Rick H.

[karl_borowski]

I'm sure that this sort of procedure seems secondnature to you, but I am dumbfounded about doing C-41. Is it possible with the same equipment as B&W if I can find a source of hot water, or must one have a Jobo or other portable processing unit? I'm trying to get in shape, so carrying a lot of heavy equipment around gives me a chance to get in shape during photo assignments instead of spending time at the gym ;-)

 

If someone could describe a basic scanned film photojournalism kit, that'd be great. I know I need a laptop, scanner, and a C-41 press kit, and access to a bathroom, but what other stuff should I bring with me instead of having to figure out the hard way what to bring?

 

Thanks.

 

~Karl

[karl_borowski]

One more thing (there really needs to be an "edit" feature here): I'm not doing this crap to be a hot shot and play myself off like a hotshot PJ, this is only to be used in instances where I would need to have pictures submitted within an hour of the end of the event. Otherwise, I am perfectly happy processing film in the darkroom and scanning it the following day :-)

[dk_thompson]

karl--I worked at papers back in the 80s. the kind of transmitting from the field, that went

on then, was done with the fax type wire machine, scanning a print, that used a modem--

to the early Leaf fax units that were self contained computers, scanners and modems built

into a haliburton case. In both cases, portable darkrooms were used, generally in a hotel

room. It took a long time (by today's standards) to get an image back. The Leafscans took

about 20-30 min. to transmit, the color models that came later took even longer, about

45 min.

 

part of the problem with your query, is that what you describe is akin to being a news

photographer reenactor circa 1985-1995. If you really wanted some advice, the folks to go

to would be those who lambast as "burnouts". the 40 and over crowd--which would

include me, with 20+ yrs in the NPPA to boot, even though I'm in gov't media now. My

sports days are long over, I was never that good, but I was okay with general news.

 

the actual portable darkrooms varied. I was lucky enough to string for a large daily, and I

had a locker, company issued gear, access to individual film rooms, and they had two

gang darkrooms--print & color---with processors etc, and leitz enlargers as well. to this

day, it was the best darkroom I've ever been in. their portable kit, at first had a compact

enlarger, then the leaf fax came along and they processed film only. the film was done

with tanks, but then it was b/w at that time.

 

I also worked at a couple of bi-weeklies that had some pretty different darkrooms. one

used a tray line with rapid fix mixed 1:1 and used single weight, graded kodabromide to

print with. they fixed for about 5 seconds and that was it. another one was pretty low-

tech, and instead of using a darkroom, we actually printed onto a pre-screened dupont

PMT material (85 line screen) and then the paper was flashed to bump the exposure,

processed & pasted up to be shot for the press. I also worked with a publication that had a

portable darkroom that broke down into several cases. It consisted of nikkor tanks for film

processing, and a kodak ektamatic machine for paper processing, along with a couple of

enlargers. This was all in the early 80s, and was pretty slick actually....

 

 

later on, I knew an AP shooter who processed c41 out of his car, with an elaborate home

brew setup. I always thought he was nuts, to be honest. but---well--some papers used

wing lynch machines stripped down for portability. which again, is nuts by today's

standards. a super sidekick would be better, since it tempers on the spot, and can be

hooked up to a water tank (jerry can) and it also dries in the machine. but again--to what

purpose?

 

 

from what you describe --the rare instance you need to do this in the field?--digital is the

answer. you don't win any points, really, for this. You can write me off as a burnout--I

don't care--I'm not. I've managed to make a living in photography for about 20 yrs now,

and I still shoot film, as well as digital. In fact, I work in probably the last area that will use

film to it's dying days, and part of my job is maintaining a lab complete with automatic

processors, qc with control strips etc. but for the shooting part of my job--the studio is

4x5, the events and press coverage is all digital. we got our first nikon digital slr in 1996

for that matter. like some of the posts above--it's something you need to accept, no

matter what part of photography you enter as a professional. I wish I could turn the clock

back, but that's a fantasy, you have to keep up, or you'll be left behind.

 

so, well, there ya go. that's how they did it. if you can use a machine to process c41, and

print RA4---you can do it by hand. It's only messier, incovenient, and exposes your body

more to the chemicals. but then, you're young...not some 40 year old burn out pro

photographer.

[karl_borowski]

For the third time, I am not saying over forty photographers are burnouts. Some of my best friends are 60+. I probalby have more friends double and triple my age than those in the same group. Be as cynical as you would like but that is not what I said.

[lb-]

I can't imagine anyone really cares what you meant anymore karl, your general attitude is so poor it's a wonder anyone is actually taking the time to answer you seriously.

 

you're not really looking for answers anyway, just validation for your retro luddite act.

 

maybe a discussion forum isn't the right venue for you? have you considered a blog? you wouldn't have to deal with all these pesky opposing points of view for which you seem to have no tolerance and you could avoid having to deal with all of us old cynical burnouts.

 

just a thought.

 

anyway...... I wish you the very best of luck in all of your photographic pursuits.

 

cheers

[dk_thompson]

karl--just so you think I'm not holding out any special secrets of the trade from 40 yr old

burn out club...here's another trick, or fact of life or reality-check.

 

when I was shooting sports, I did so on a deadline for a morning paper. I shot tri-x mainly

and used b/w papers. sometimes I had to use graded fiber papers, other times I had the

luxury of using processing machines like the royalprint. I developed my film either in small

deeptank lines, or by stainless steel nikor hand tanks. i generally used d76, or accufine,

but I would also resort to using dektol mixed 1+3, and run my film for about a minute and

a half or so at 75 degrees. this was a time saving, push processing move. the negs were

generally pretty horrible.

 

for the prep sports I shot--I often had to drive one or two counties away. The games

would start at 7 pm, and my deadline would be at 10:00 pm. I needed to have about 4 or 5

prints, with cutlines typed on the back (I used a selectric typewriter for this) and all the

correct IDs of the players as well--delivered to the editors by the deadline. The paper went

to the press for the first edition before 11:00--by that time, copies were run out to the

city editors at their houses for proofs. There were 6 editions total printed by the middle of

the night, that went out for statewide distribution. Basically--you couldn't miss a deadline

by five minutes really.

 

So I had about three hours tops to do all this--before digital, before scanners etc. A hard

copy was the product.

 

The reality was you didn't cover a whole game. The longest you could afford to stay was a

quarter at best. You got in, shot as much as possible (initially when I was hired, they told

me to not come back with less than 4 rolls) and then you got out & hustled back to the

lab. I would have to write my captions as well--and they wouldn't run the pictures without

a full ID, so I had to make sure I could visibly identify the players--which sometimes was

a very anxiety producing task.

 

If the event was a big one, like an acc tournament, or nascar etc--there were teams of

shooters and couriers to run film back to wherever--the paper or a hotel room etc--to

process it as game continued. That way, someone could stay right up to the end. I was

also employed as a courier for film on more than one occasion, and spent my entire day or

night, driving into arenas to pick up film, and driving back to the lab, over and over again.

 

one way you could cut down your time to meet the deadline you describe--would be to

adopt one of these methods. that's about all the hidden knowledge I have for you. good

luck all the same.

[rick_helmke]

A story I get from a friend at a large Southeastern paper, back in the film days during SEC football games, a runner would drive from the office all the way to the front gate of the stadium. One of the photographers would collect all the film each quarter, take it to the gate and THROW it over the fence to the runner, then go back to the game. They did this four times per game and I still don't know how the guy managed to drive all the way to the gate in that kind of traffic. Then there was the time he missed the throw and the bag ended up stuck in a tree. You can't make this stuff up. Now I remember why I got into this business. It sure beats working for a living.

 

Rick H.

[rick_helmke]

C-41 or even E-6 can be done on the road though not without aggravation. I don't remember ever using a press kit per se but we'd get there early, mix up chemistry and get everything set up and turned on. If I were doing this today I'd mix up chemistry and put it in jugs, take separate four-reel steel tanks for each step in the process and just dip and dunk. Expect to waste a lot of chemistry. You'll need a good timer, a Gra-Lab or something, two good thermometers, a graduate or two, some way to hang up the film to dry and a hair drier to dry the film while embedding trash in it. As an alternative you can look around for a small Jobo or other make processor. I saw one the other day for $100 and it even worked. Small and portable but maintenance is becoming an issue. That ought to be enough to fill up your car. But an hour deadline? I don't know.....

 

Rick H.

[robbie_caswell]

Great stories!

 

Now I know why I work for a weekly!

[dk_thompson]

rich--yeah, I'd do it by hand in s.s. tanks, with s.s reels--because they temper better, and

you can double load them as well as load them when wet. Plus since we're making such

sweeping judgements about pro photographers...pros don't use plastic....well, some do,

but since I'm a 40 yr old burnout, I reserve my right to be cynical, uh, critical, oh

whatever...

 

I would splurge and buy a senrac dryer though. what's the weight? I'd bolt it onto the case

I'd haul all this crap around in. You can dry a roll of film in 5 minutes, what's not to like?

the curl? ahh,... don't be such a wet blanket.

 

skip the jobos--take too long to temper, fussy plastic contraptions. if you must--go with

a super sidekick or a winglynch pro6. oh--too bad--they're still in production and cost

about 4-9 grand. why, you could buy a digital camera for that!

 

last tip--use a press camera and type 59. get a big strobe like a norman 400, or use

flashbulbs. you could throw in some front tilts, get all artsy fartsy, and start a new trend

in sports journalism. the sky's the limit....

[karl_borowski]

I'll continue to stand by the assertion that about half of the middle-aged photographers working professionally I've met (about 100 in the past 5 years since I began doing "serious" photography) have been totally burned out to the craft, like what they were doing was no more important than selling stuff on ebay. I'm sure you all have encountered the type. You can be 80 and still see the "magic" in photography, or 13 and already dead to it. People that use photography just to make a buck at the expense of any sort of craftsmanship or art (I've been shocked by how apathetic some of the studio "pros" I've met are to what they do, letting high-school drop outs without any experience go and shoot their important jobs without any training). As I've never met anyone on this forum in person (with the exception of Ron Mowrey), I can only say that of the one photographer I've met, there haven't been any burnouts here ;-)

 

As for this continued hostility towards film, I'm honestly dumbfounded. I wouldn't give a new photographer that is "all digital" such a hard time. I'd be happy to give such a person insight on f-stops, shutter speed, exposure index, primes versus zooms, priority modes, flash synch, etc. if I ever ran into this somebody on the street. I wouldn't immediately demand that digital doesn't work for certain applications (or will the posters on this thread not admit that digital has any drawbacks in any situation ever?). To me photography is just photography. I've never taken a single picture with a digital camera though, and I'm not going to start now. Maybe in the next decade, but not in this one.

 

I appreciate the advice on the scanners and the stories and anecdotes about developing film onsite, mired in sarcasm as they may have been. I'm not trying to play myself off like a high artist, but I try to find art in every event I cover, and learn something new every time.

 

I actually happen to have a (reasonably) portable C-41 processor handy, although it'd have to be rigged up out of a car or hotel room. I'm looking more for really tight-deadline stuff, no time to setup or walk 30 minutes to the car. Is stainless steel reels and a Kindermann tank in a bathroom the way to do it? I think I would need a portable dryer, not a 150 lb. suitcase full of stuff too ;-) I am looking at maybe putting together a kit for such occasions, scanner, laptop, dryer of some sort, chemistry, thermometer, 2x 36 exp tank (or would 4 or 5 reel tanks be necessary?). What are some sorts of setups that people have rigged up working out of a press box bathroom or an improvised darkroom? Remember I'm working for a college rag not Time Magazine.

 

~Karl

[dk_thompson]

karl--there's no hostility coming from me--I think that perception is misplaced, since I'm a film shooter myself. I'm also a realist though. so, don't take this the wrong way, but if you're setting up a 30 minute type deadline? you're not going to make it. there are no magic tricks really. I've already told you, as have a few others, how it used to be done. In my case, it would be to get in & get out. Staying for the whole game is not an option, in order to meet the deadline.

 

you have some complex tasks to figure out though. since you don't plan on leaving early, or handing your film off to an accomplice to run back to a lab and process/scan while you continue shooting--well, then at the end of the game, you have however much film you've accumulated to process, edit & scan within this narrow window of time.

 

It's also complicated by having to run C41 or any color process that will require accurate tempering. If you're on your own, and you stay put for the whole event--then you need to have your process up & ready to run before the game, and 2-3 hours or whatever, is a long time to hold 100 degrees in a makeshift kit. You won't have the luxury of tempering after the game. you also need an adequate amount of water, or a way to heat water if you're not hooked up to any running water. Then, you still have to edit, and then scan for your submissions. I just don't think you'll have enough time to get it done.

 

This is where you need to be realistic, and instead of viewing it in terms of the material used, it might help to think of what it takes to complete the assignment in the eyes of your client. I would say that a good professional, does what they have to do, to get the job done on time. Even if this is a school paper, or you're stringing for free--to me, that doesn't matter. What matters is the responsibility of completing the job on time. I look at this from having had to hire & work with student interns or being a potential employer--this is my take, looking back at my experiences--I'm not interested in someone giving me the excuse you used above, that it's okay to miss a deadline, because they're not getting paid. It's only okay to miss a deadline when you don't take the job in the first place. I'm sorry, if this seems hostile, but that's just reality in terms of working as a photographer. It's pretty simple okay? So, please, cut the 40 yr old burnouts some slack when it comes to preaching about the craft. I think most of the responses you've gotten have been helpful in one way or the other, even if maybe they didn't come across that way.

[karl_borowski]

Hey folks, just finished my first job that I processed "on location", although I cheated a little and used the Material Science Dept's darkroom at the college. First time doing C-41 in spiral tanks. I'll post some pictures of the setup tomorrow, not that anyone will care. . .

[Spearhead]

Why not post some photos of the event as well?

[karl_borowski]

Jeff, I'm not sure if you're being facetious, because I have the best B&W in two threads on this forum already, the alternatvie basketaball picture thread and in the thread right above or below it, "What have you shot lately." I'll see if I can't find a link to the gallery where I have my best 12 from the take posted too.

 

~Karl

[sfh]

You could get an old van, rig up a dark room in the back, and process your film at 80mph

headed towards the newspaper office.

 

But in my opinion, you will save money by going digital simply because once you're set up,

there are almost no expenses except when you need to get a print made, which costs less

anyway.

 

And the only equipment you need aside from your camera is a USB cable.

[karl_borowski]

What if I'm "already set up" with a full-service C-41 darkroom, scanner, and C-41 costs of less than 3c a frame? I happen to be doing film for less than it would cost (factoring a VERY modest $15/hr. for my time) than with digital.roughly 10-15 percent, though I'm shooting maybe 150-250 shots per 40-minute game, not 1000s some of the digital types shoot. That represents overkill plain and simple.

 

Owing to my suffering a high-speed car wreck back in November (55MPH into a concrete pillar), I will try to minimize the 80MPH thing for a while. Processing and scanning on location is better. Mostly it's just a matter of using one of the department's darkrooms, as I'm shooting mostly home games.

[discpad]

Karl,

 

I just discovered this thread. I too have a pair of Sony scanners -- The UY-S90 and UY-S77 -- which on occasion jam when I scan long strips. Since I file 5 frames per strip in pages, I scan in strips of 10 then cut in half for filing.

 

By the way, last summer I was shooting my medium format Mamiya 645AFd at NASCAR events: In the paddock it was fun; and during the races it was a BLAST! I actually had other photographers walk up to me and look over my gear -- And two even thanked me for shooting film to keep it alive!

 

Three years ago, I took my 4x5 Pacemaker Speed Graphic to Indy for the 500. In the garages & prerace, it too was a blast; though at the time it was before I had my 11 Graphmatic film changers.

 

You did the right thing buying used photo processing gear: Now you need to learn how to replenish your chemistry to save even more money. With wet labs closing every day, their loss is your gain!

 

Cheers! Dan

[discpad]

Karl, in case I was a bit muddy, my suggestion was to get a Sony UY-S77, UY-S90, or Sony UY-S100 scanner.