The Internet Radio Show for Folks Who Love Film! Epic Summer ’12 Episode! Large Format! Shoot X-Ray Film?! Vintage Kodak! Drum Scans! SLR Camera Giveaway! Special Guests and Lots More!!!
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Show Notes
Show notes by Alex Luyckx
Hosted By Michael Raso, Mat Marrash, John Fedele, Dane Johnson, Mark Dalzell, with special guests William Hellfire, Kevin Neblung of the Pink Delicates and the Trackman!
On today’s show: Live in Studio…Pink Delicates, getting to know your camera, film photography on the rise, shooting large format on a budget, book of the month, camera show-and-tell, drum scanning, and darkroom tips!
Fans of the Pink Delicates Rejoice! Their new album is ready and on its way to be pressed! In fact the Pink Delicates (FPP John Fedele and Kevin Neblung) perform live tracks from their new album! Kevin assures us that they’re looking at an album every six months going forward!
After the wonderful music at the start of the show, Mat kicks it off with getting to know your camera. It’s fun to try out new formats and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s also just as important to really get to know your gear as every camera will have little quirks. Slow down a little – nothing will work right straight out of the box. Take your time and build a rapport, once you’re past that comfort zone you’ll be more willing to try new things and push yourself.
Film photography is on the rise! Mat’s been seeing it a lot on social media and more photographers, both young and old are picking up film cameras for their work. With Lomography and Impossible Project , it’s helping bring more and more people back to film photography. Japan Camera Hunter, a blog that Mat was featured on earlier this year is the brainchild of a British photographer living in Tokyo who has been hunting down rare cameras for people in the various camera shops that Tokyo has to offer. Are you noticing a rise in film photography in your area, send us a note at podcast@filmphotographyproject.com we’d love to hear your stories!
Mat brings us a secret today and that secret is if you’re turned off of Large Format photography because of the price, there’s a way to shoot on a budget. X-Ray film (now that doesn’t mean you need to go hunting around in your local hospital’s basement for film stock) is available online here at The FPP Store! X-Ray film, Mat continues to explain, is Ortho chromatic, so it doesn’t see red light. In addition to that there are two other types of film – green Sensitive (red and blue are dark) and blue sensitive (red and green are dark). So the results are definitely unique. Mat loves to use them for landscape work. You don’t need a special camera either – you can use your own large format camera to shoot the film. X-Ray film only behaves like you would expect when using proper x-ray equipment. You can read more about X-Ray film over on Mat’s Blog – http://www.matmarrash.com/
A big thanks to Kodak for continuing to support the FPP by providing film to us for all our meetups over the course of 2012! In fact Mark shows off his collection of Kodak cameras for the gang, mostly brownies ranging from early to mid 20th century including a beautiful 127 film folding camera dating to 1921. Dane shows off his newest camera, a SLR by Porst. Porst he explains has been around since the 1920s and simply purchased existing cameras and added their own brand to them. Mat comments that his SLR looks like a Canon FTb, but is really a Cosina copy! This heavy camera, nicknamed the Clapper (due to its loud shutter) uses the common M42 screw mount (allowing for a lot of great lenses to be used on it) is a cheap alternative to more expensive M42 cameras, you can find them for 20 bucks on Ebay!
It’s Book of the Month time – Using The View Camera by Steve Simmons. This is the Bible for large format photographers because it will tell you everything you need to know about shooting with a Large Format camera. Mostly aimed at studio photographers, it covers everything from setting up the camera, movements, and even processing the film once you’ve shot it. Anyone who has a Large Format Camera or it contemplating it should pick this up!
Mat reveals the mystery of what sets Drum Scanning apart from your desktop Epson V700. The Drum Scanner is designed to produce big (really big), juicy enlargements from your negatives – 35mm all the way up to 20 by 24 inch ultra-large format shots. How it achieves this is that your film is mounted into acetate, then suspended in a liquid (to keep dust off it), then mounted into a drum. The drum is rotated at a high speed and scanned with a bright light source and a scanner unit mounted with a lens. The resolution is insane, bringing out shadow and highlight detail from even the toughest of chrome (slide film) negs. These are for the faint of heart, drum scanners are operated by highly trained technicians. The results, you can easily get your 35mm drum scan printed at 40 by 50 inches, insanity!
Billboard image NYC 2009 by Michael Raso – possibly scanned using a drum scanner.
Today’s darkroom tip is on flashing your paper (and is a continuation of last episode’s topic on paper negatives). Flashing is when you hit your paper with light from your enlarger before you put your negative in to print, usually between 1-5 seconds, this helps bring out details in highlights if you have a really constrasty negative. If you’re facing troubles in your printing and would like some pointers, shoot Mat an email mat@filmphotographyproject.com include a scan of your negative and print. For further reading check out: Way Beyond Monochrome, The Print, and Beyond the Zone System.
And what a great way to end off the podcast but with a new giveaway, an Olympus OM-10 – built and sized similar to the Pentax K1000 but features, manual, aperture priority, and full auto mode with beautiful mint Olympus Zuiko glass. Head over to our giveaways section to be included in the draw!
Lastly, Michael mentions that he screened the New York premiere of Grant Hamilton’s film “TIME ZERO: The Last Year of Polaroid Film!” Michael highly recommends the film. The screening schedule can be viewed at – http://timezeromovie.com/
That’s it for now! See you in two weeks (two weeks, you sound like a bird!) Remember, FPP will be taking a broadcasting break through the month of August!