Monday, May 24, 2004
From Analog To Digital, And Back
Posted by Suhit Gupta in "ARTICLE" @ 01:00 PM
Here is an interesting account of personal photography experience by Stefan Heijdendael, a professional photographer, who specialized in theater and dance. He now works as a research journalist for Dutch public radio. When he first started in the field of photography, much like all of us, he bought a fancy camera without know what all the parameters/settings of the camera meant and was severely chastised for this by Hans (read article to find out who Hans is). Here are a couple of excerpts, I recommend reading the whole article for more.
"I sold all my Nikon gear, and bought a second-hand Canon F1, with a 50 mm lens. It is a difficult camera, because it is merciless. One mistake, and you are doomed. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it is a horrible camera. I did not know what I was doing. I was used to letting the camera do the thinking for me, and was punished with results that did not satisfy me. With the Canon, there was nothing there to relieve my mind when taking a picture, no automatics of whatever kind to help me out: Just film, a light meter, a shutter, a diaphragm and a lens. A basic camera. But less turned out to be more. For a basic camera gives you the possibility to experience the basics of photography."
"So here’s some free advice from a novice in the digital arena to novices in the field of photography. And of course it is Hans who brought me to this advice. Restrict yourself. Forget about tweaking, and try to get the most perfect frozen moment in time, which will serve as a good base for a print. How? If you don’t want to spend a lot of money, go to a second hand photo store and go look for a basic single lens reflex. There are thousands for sale, and they cost little. Like a Minolta SRT101, Canon Ftb, Nikon FM, Olympus OM1 or maybe, if you’re on a really tight budget, a Praktica. Buy ten rolls of slide film and start to take pictures. Experience failure. Curse yourself when you miscalculate. Choose the wrong parameters. There are only a few rings and dials to master on these basic cameras. You can do that! And when the camera has become your third eye, an intuitive extension of your brain, go to the library and study the work of the great masters. Look at all these beautiful slices of frozen time. And than take your digital camera and put in practice what you learned. You’ll be a better photographer. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Take Hans’."
"I sold all my Nikon gear, and bought a second-hand Canon F1, with a 50 mm lens. It is a difficult camera, because it is merciless. One mistake, and you are doomed. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it is a horrible camera. I did not know what I was doing. I was used to letting the camera do the thinking for me, and was punished with results that did not satisfy me. With the Canon, there was nothing there to relieve my mind when taking a picture, no automatics of whatever kind to help me out: Just film, a light meter, a shutter, a diaphragm and a lens. A basic camera. But less turned out to be more. For a basic camera gives you the possibility to experience the basics of photography."
"So here’s some free advice from a novice in the digital arena to novices in the field of photography. And of course it is Hans who brought me to this advice. Restrict yourself. Forget about tweaking, and try to get the most perfect frozen moment in time, which will serve as a good base for a print. How? If you don’t want to spend a lot of money, go to a second hand photo store and go look for a basic single lens reflex. There are thousands for sale, and they cost little. Like a Minolta SRT101, Canon Ftb, Nikon FM, Olympus OM1 or maybe, if you’re on a really tight budget, a Praktica. Buy ten rolls of slide film and start to take pictures. Experience failure. Curse yourself when you miscalculate. Choose the wrong parameters. There are only a few rings and dials to master on these basic cameras. You can do that! And when the camera has become your third eye, an intuitive extension of your brain, go to the library and study the work of the great masters. Look at all these beautiful slices of frozen time. And than take your digital camera and put in practice what you learned. You’ll be a better photographer. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Take Hans’."
