Digital BW, The Print

I've noticed most venues are still using slides for entry.  Makes a certain amount of sense to me.  Especially since most people haven't developed a good single glance contact sheet in digital form.  I can therefore understand that galleries don't want to open each file, etc.

?? What's the going rate for having slides made ??  Or are you charging to make slides ??
?? When you have a digital file, I'm presuming making a slide of the print, just as you would a silver ??
?? When doing slides yourself are you bracketing like crazy to be sure ??
?? When doing slides yourself HOW MANY slides are you trying for of each work to have on hand ??

The show at our local community college of photography opening this weekend is a complete mix of traditional and digital.  I suspect the 'amateur' market is quicker to take up the digital.  The 'professional' has already been hit with the benefits of digital in certain aspects of his work long ago.  The "advanced amateur" is hanging a bit, if they are undecided about their 'career' goals.

Curiously,
Cleavis


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Lyons Cox" 
<lyonscox@c...> wrote:

> 
> ?? What's the going rate for having slides made ??  Or are you 
charging to make slides ??

Rate depends on several factors-you can take you prints in to a 
photo-lab and have them done, that have a first-shot fee of $10-20 
in my area, with duplicates at $1-3 each; Photogs who go out to do 
slides for artists and art galleires sometimes charge a base fee of 
at least $75.00 with a per-slide fee on top, or sometimes for a more 
extensive shoot, a time & materials rate which depends a lot on your 
location.

> ?? When you have a digital file, I'm presuming making a slide of 
the print, just as you would a silver ??

Not necessarily-my local lab can make a slide from a file that is 
just awesome. They have a minimum charge of $20.00 but that will get 
you 5 copies.

> ?? When doing slides yourself are you bracketing like crazy to be 
sure ??

NO... if you want to do it right, you should set up, do a bracket of 
one piece with a gray-card and/or color-checker in the image, and 
take that to the lab and proccess it, then pick your exposure. If 
you have to change camera-to-subject distance a lot, then do a 
bracket at furthest distance and closest, to account for lens 
extension. 
Since your light won't change, the best exposure now applies to 
anything you put in that light. If you make a note of the exposure 
setting for that film and cam-to-subject range, you should be able 
to do the next session without testing or bracketing, provided 
nothing important changes. 
This method allows you to check not only film speed, but color-
shift, evenness of lighting as well as rectilinear alignment of your 
camera to copy-board. If you shoot a heavily textured paper or 
painting, or anything under glass, you will need to polarize both 
lights and camera to get rid of specular highlights, reflections, 
etc.

> ?? When doing slides yourself HOW MANY slides are you trying for 
of each work to have on hand ??

Depends on how many contests you can stand to enter. Best approach 
is to set one of each aside, and if you run out have dupes made-
they're relatively cheap.
> 
> The show at our local community college of photography opening 
this weekend is a complete mix of traditional and digital.  I 
suspect the 'amateur' market is quicker to take up the digital.  
The 'professional' has already been hit with the benefits of digital 
in certain aspects of his work long ago. 

Unfortunately, some of us 'professionals' have yet to be presented 
with a viable and affordable solution. It still isn't practical for 
architectural/interior work, which is what pays my bills.. Maybe 
next year.

Steve K

> The "advanced amateur" is hanging a bit, if they are undecided 
about their 'career' goals.

> 
> Curiously,
> Cleavis
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 01:57 PM 5/7/03 -0700, you wrote:
>I've noticed most venues are still using slides for entry.  Makes a 
>certain amount of sense to me.  Especially since most people haven't 
>developed a good single glance contact sheet in digital form.  I can 
>therefore understand that galleries don't want to open each file, etc.
>
>?? What's the going rate for having slides made ??  Or are you charging to 
>make slides ??
>?? When you have a digital file, I'm presuming making a slide of the 
>print, just as you would a silver ??
>?? When doing slides yourself are you bracketing like crazy to be sure ??
>?? When doing slides yourself HOW MANY slides are you trying for of each 
>work to have on hand ??
>
>The show at our local community college of photography opening this 
>weekend is a complete mix of traditional and digital.  I suspect the 
>'amateur' market is quicker to take up the digital.  The 'professional' 
>has already been hit with the benefits of digital in certain aspects of 
>his work long ago.  The "advanced amateur" is hanging a bit, if they are 
>undecided about their 'career' goals.
>
>Curiously,
>Cleavis
>
>
>Cleavis,

Cleavis,
I am on the exhibition committee of my coop gallery and we ask for slides 
for submissions.  We accept digital files, prints, and slides for 
submission but don't advertise it on our prospectus.  The more artists 
complain about slides the sooner they will become obsolete. I'm looking 
forward to the day when we toss out the slide projectors.

So far I haven't had digital files made into slides but a local service 
will do it for as low as a dollar each - not sure of the quantity.  I 
wonder if anyone has tried shooting off their VDT screen?  I have a copy 
stand and use Ektachrome Tungsten film when I have to. I don't bracket - 
just leave it on Auto. Shoot extras rather than having copies 
made.  Trouble is I have boxes of out-of date slides and am reluctant to 
keep accumulating more.   My pan photos really suffer as slides.  It would 
be great if CD's became the norm.

AZ



Build a Lookaround!
The Lookaround Book.
http://www.panoramacamera.us

Steve & Alan,

Thanks for the replies.  Would like to have seen some more comments 
on price ranges.

I asked the question having already had some practice.  I usually 
shoot with a Dyna-lite 'portrait' kit, Sensia100 rated at 100 and 
exposed 1/2 under and 1 f-stop under meter reading (Sekonic L508).  I 
like this because it produces one slide right on and one a trace 
dark, which I think projects better.  Development at the 'plant' can 
occassionally throw things a bit off, in general my slides are 
excellent.

Haven't had a problem shooting through glass yet but haven't figured 
out how to polarize the lights when shooting into the umbrellas yet 
either.  When I do frame something, I usually use AR/museum glass 
which minimized the problem.  Shooting at night with the flash helps 
too.

Like Alan, some picture formats suffer slide duplication.  I can see 
with PS7 having a thumbnail of files that people might accept Cds 
more in the future.  I've been noticing most submission guidelines 
like to have work 2-years old or more recent.  Understandable but 
still unreasonable if people actually want to see 'your best work' 
which evolves and accumulates over time. Having juried recently, 
original work is valuable but difficult in most circumstances.  Can't 
win for losing ;-)

Thanks again,
Cleavis


> Rate depends on several factors-you can take you prints in to a 
> photo-lab and have them done, that have a first-shot fee of $10-20 
> in my area, with duplicates at $1-3 each; Photogs who go out to do 
> slides for artists and art galleires sometimes charge a base fee of 
> at least $75.00 with a per-slide fee on top, or sometimes for a 
more > extensive shoot, a time & materials rate which depends a lot 
on your location.

At 02:35 PM 5/10/03 +0000, you wrote:
>Steve & Alan,
>
>Thanks for the replies.  Would like to have seen some more comments
>on price ranges.
>
>I asked the question having already had some practice.  I usually
>shoot with a Dyna-lite 'portrait' kit, Sensia100 rated at 100 and
>exposed 1/2 under and 1 f-stop under meter reading (Sekonic L508).  I
>like this because it produces one slide right on and one a trace
>dark, which I think projects better.  Development at the 'plant' can
>occassionally throw things a bit off, in general my slides are
>excellent.
>
>Haven't had a problem shooting through glass yet but haven't figured
>out how to polarize the lights when shooting into the umbrellas yet
>either.  When I do frame something, I usually use AR/museum glass
>which minimized the problem.  Shooting at night with the flash helps
>too.
>
>Like Alan, some picture formats suffer slide duplication.  I can see
>with PS7 having a thumbnail of files that people might accept Cds
>more in the future.  I've been noticing most submission guidelines
>like to have work 2-years old or more recent.  Understandable but
>still unreasonable if people actually want to see 'your best work'
>which evolves and accumulates over time. Having juried recently,
>original work is valuable but difficult in most circumstances.  Can't
>win for losing ;-)
>
>Thanks again,
>Cleavis

Cleavis,

You raise an interesting point.  I am just now printing work for the first 
time that I shot in the '80s.  To me it's new work!  Us photographers tend 
to build on themes over the years and may not make our final opus "before 
its time". I guess the way to sneak past the juror is to title the work "No 
36 from the Wombat series, 1962 - 2003."  From the juror's standpoint, they 
don't want work that has been widely exhibited by the artist for one 
thing.  Also productivity is seen as a sign of seriousness - for what that 
is worth.

AZ





Build a Lookaround!
The Lookaround Book.
http://www.panoramacamera.us