Mel Jacobson on thu 4 sep 97
remember when hiring a photographer, get real bids....actual costs.
i was looking for one this spring, went to a local adv/photo/studio
and the cost would have been nearly $2,000.00 for 12 pots.
i found another photographer. great work, came to my studio,
we set up, used lights, background, i set the pots, worked as his assistant,
and we shot 100 pots. did the historical study of my work....turned out
great....and the costs came to about $500.00. but ,he got a painting and
a couple of teabowls too......but the trading was a joy. many ways to skin
that cat. also when you work "with" a photographer you learn so
much....(my guy was a great teacher.)
mel.mn.
http://www.pclink.com/melpots
mel jacobson on wed 28 jul 99
camera that is.
when shooting out doors....wait for a hazy day...go the
north side of a building, use a bent piece of formica or
gray cardboard.
the big issue is:
slow down the camera....
close down the lens.
and, have a good light meter.
tripod.
i tend to use....fourth of a second @ f22
good depth of field.
i use fuji asta slide film...100.
400 asa film is actually counter productive to
slow work. and can be grainy.
kodak is red corrected, fuji is green corrected.
kodak is great for people....not as good with pots.
just an opinion.
mel/mn
http://www.pclink.com/melpots
from minnetonka, minnesota, u.s.a.
mel jacobson on sat 9 sep 00
pictures are very important.
it is not that hard to get a decent picture.
as we all know, if you want to get in a show...it is the slides.
first:
close up lens.
buy a sheet of gray formica..any home depot or such. 25 bucks.
shut off all florescent lights, they will change your pix to green.
have a flash fill...it can even point at the ceiling, but have that
flash fill for perfect color.
I have an old big strobe turned down on my picture table, six feet above
the table.. have a long
cord. i shoot at f22@half second and the flash just goes off
during the exposure. i use four of the old blue photo bulbs, they
burn out about 2 hours old, but can get great pix in that time.
get a light meter...even buy one used. they are the greatest.
(the one in your camera will not last a lifetime, and they cannot
be repaired. most tend to be several stops off.)
fuji, fuji, fuji.
that is the film for pots...fuji. try their new pro films...and use
asa 100...stay away from 2-400. not good for still work. provia,
astia. nice stuff.
get all your developing done at a quality professional processor.
you may have to mail away.
i am a lucky boy...i take my slides to procolor in mpls..they deliver
them to my front door within the same day. perfect every time.
it costs a bit more...but, perfect slides are worth a great deal
to me. (procolor- 1-800 332 7753)
most film is ruined by processors. it is a fact. one hour is a rip.
don't use it. they also do not get washed...last about 5 years.
they depend on the buyer to think they made bad pix...sorry.
the cost of development is in the chemicals that they use.
kodak predicts how many rolls the chemicals will do...the drug store may
double that and if your stuff is in the last batch..well it will
be burned and lose color. a fact.
a few years back i met with the minneapolis tech rep for kodak.
i had at least 5 rolls of film ruined. he took the negs back to
the lab in chicago. they ran tests. all had been burned by the
processing lab in mpls...he told me to switch to procolor...have
been there ever since. it is very easy to get a tech to look at
my pictures if i have questions. they will go through them and make
suggestions...these are not pimply faced high school kids with a backward
cap saying `hey dudville, what do you want?`. they are
professionals. it costs nothing to have them look at your pix.
if you use kodak. send them to their labs. it takes weeks, but it is
done correctly.
what is the rush to get one hour...i do not understand it. get
the pix of grandma, rush to the drug store, come back and show
them around, stick them in a drawer. dumb.
when doing general photography of people, if you can get one
decent picture from a roll of 36 you are doing miracles. i throw
a great many away...get a good one, make an 8x10.
jay misel, the great new york photographer says that he has to
shoot 20 rolls of film to get one good neg. that is 720 images.
take black and white at least once a year. they will last forever.
color fades. i have over two hundred black and white pix from
japan. i am lucky. they are perfect still.
i have several walls at home and at the farm that are lined with
8x10 pictures. i do not put out pictures of my family..they belong
in our bedroom (in my opinion) but, the great pictures done in
8x10 of our travels around the world are sorta like paintings. i do
like them. add about 1 per year to my collection. just sent an
8x10 to the family of `butch` the sawyer. one of our hay creekers took
the picture and had the 8x10 made...it is priceless.
photography of your work is critical. learn to do it, or pay the piper.
i had a bid a few years back...one roll of film, 24 pots =1000+ bucks.
did it myself. have not looked back.
mel
FROM MINNETONKA, MINNESOTA, USA
http://www.pclink.com/melpots (website)
remr1 on sun 10 sep 00
Mel:
I concur on your choice of film. I use Fuji Provia 100 F in both 35 mm and
6 x 4.5 cm.
Rafael
----- Original Message -----
From: "mel jacobson"
To:
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2000 12:09 PM
Subject: photogs
> pictures are very important.
>
> it is not that hard to get a decent picture.
> as we all know, if you want to get in a show...it is the slides.
>
> first:
> close up lens.
> buy a sheet of gray formica..any home depot or such. 25 bucks.
>
> shut off all florescent lights, they will change your pix to green.
> have a flash fill...it can even point at the ceiling, but have that
> flash fill for perfect color.
>
> I have an old big strobe turned down on my picture table, six feet above
> the table.. have a long
> cord. i shoot at f22@half second and the flash just goes off
> during the exposure. i use four of the old blue photo bulbs, they
> burn out about 2 hours old, but can get great pix in that time.
>
> get a light meter...even buy one used. they are the greatest.
> (the one in your camera will not last a lifetime, and they cannot
> be repaired. most tend to be several stops off.)
>
> fuji, fuji, fuji.
> that is the film for pots...fuji. try their new pro films...and use
> asa 100...stay away from 2-400. not good for still work. provia,
> astia. nice stuff.
>
> get all your developing done at a quality professional processor.
> you may have to mail away.
>
> i am a lucky boy...i take my slides to procolor in mpls..they deliver
> them to my front door within the same day. perfect every time.
> it costs a bit more...but, perfect slides are worth a great deal
> to me. (procolor- 1-800 332 7753)
>
> most film is ruined by processors. it is a fact. one hour is a rip.
> don't use it. they also do not get washed...last about 5 years.
> they depend on the buyer to think they made bad pix...sorry.
> the cost of development is in the chemicals that they use.
> kodak predicts how many rolls the chemicals will do...the drug store may
> double that and if your stuff is in the last batch..well it will
> be burned and lose color. a fact.
>
> a few years back i met with the minneapolis tech rep for kodak.
> i had at least 5 rolls of film ruined. he took the negs back to
> the lab in chicago. they ran tests. all had been burned by the
> processing lab in mpls...he told me to switch to procolor...have
> been there ever since. it is very easy to get a tech to look at
> my pictures if i have questions. they will go through them and make
> suggestions...these are not pimply faced high school kids with a backward
> cap saying `hey dudville, what do you want?`. they are
> professionals. it costs nothing to have them look at your pix.
>
> if you use kodak. send them to their labs. it takes weeks, but it is
> done correctly.
>
> what is the rush to get one hour...i do not understand it. get
> the pix of grandma, rush to the drug store, come back and show
> them around, stick them in a drawer. dumb.
>
> when doing general photography of people, if you can get one
> decent picture from a roll of 36 you are doing miracles. i throw
> a great many away...get a good one, make an 8x10.
>
> jay misel, the great new york photographer says that he has to
> shoot 20 rolls of film to get one good neg. that is 720 images.
>
> take black and white at least once a year. they will last forever.
> color fades. i have over two hundred black and white pix from
> japan. i am lucky. they are perfect still.
> i have several walls at home and at the farm that are lined with
> 8x10 pictures. i do not put out pictures of my family..they belong
> in our bedroom (in my opinion) but, the great pictures done in
> 8x10 of our travels around the world are sorta like paintings. i do
> like them. add about 1 per year to my collection. just sent an
> 8x10 to the family of `butch` the sawyer. one of our hay creekers took
> the picture and had the 8x10 made...it is priceless.
>
> photography of your work is critical. learn to do it, or pay the piper.
> i had a bid a few years back...one roll of film, 24 pots =1000+ bucks.
> did it myself. have not looked back.
> mel
>
>
>
>
>
>
> FROM MINNETONKA, MINNESOTA, USA
> http://www.pclink.com/melpots (website)
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
Wesley C. Rolley on mon 11 sep 00
>> if you use kodak. send them to their labs. it takes weeks, but it is
>> done correctly.
Mel, I agree with almost all that you say except for this. I sent a roll
of Kodak BW T-MAX 400 film to Kodak and it came back with one negative cut
through the middle of the picture and the rest of the pictures printed
offset equal to the amount of of the first negative that had been chopped
off. They ran it through a machine just like the local drug store does.
On top of that, inquiries to Kodak have been met with deafining silence.
Just to keep things equal, I have had similar results sending Fuji film off
to be done by Fuji. Where human beings enter the process, there can be a
lot of errors when people do not pay attention.
My best results are to have my color print work done at my local Long's
Drug Store where the lead tech in the photo department used to work in a
professional color lab and maintains strict standards for herself and all
of the other people working there. For slides and B/W I now use a
professional color lab whose work I trust. Not all labs are equal.
Wes Rolleyh
David Hendley on tue 12 sep 00
I have had pretty rocky results with Procolor in
Minneapolis. They have always done a good job
processing slides, both Kodak and Fuji.
They usually do a good job with prints; good
accurate colors with true gray backgrounds.
But,
last year they lost 2 rolls of film. I sent them
side and print film. They returned the slides and
lost the print film.
You gotta wonder.
This year they sent back a package of photos
with all of the prints off-center. Same deal as
Wes describes below; the first one was off, and
the off-registration continued through the whole roll.
Not awful, but just enough off to look bad.
You gotta wonder.
By the time I pay extra for shipping, it cost me quite
a bit more to use Procolor. I gotta wonder if it's
worth it.
P.S., when they lost the film they didn't charge for
the processing for the slides, and they reprinted
the off-center roll when I returned it.
--
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com/
----- Original Message -----
| i am a lucky boy...i take my slides to procolor in mpls..they deliver
| them to my front door within the same day. perfect every time.
| it costs a bit more...but, perfect slides are worth a great deal
| to me. (procolor- 1-800 332 7753)
|
| most film is ruined by processors. it is a fact. one hour is a rip.
| don't use it. they also do not get washed...last about 5 years.
| they depend on the buyer to think they made bad pix...sorry.
| the cost of development is in the chemicals that they use.
| kodak predicts how many rolls the chemicals will do...the drug store may
| double that and if your stuff is in the last batch..well it will
| be burned and lose color. a fact.
|
| if you use kodak. send them to their labs. it takes weeks, but it is
| done correctly.
|
| Mel, I agree with almost all that you say except for this. I sent a roll
| of Kodak BW T-MAX 400 film to Kodak and it came back with one negative cut
| through the middle of the picture and the rest of the pictures printed
| offset equal to the amount of of the first negative that had been chopped
| off. They ran it through a machine just like the local drug store does.
| On top of that, inquiries to Kodak have been met with deafining silence.
|
| Just to keep things equal, I have had similar results sending Fuji film
off
| to be done by Fuji. Where human beings enter the process, there can be a
| lot of errors when people do not pay attention.
|
| My best results are to have my color print work done at my local Long's
| Drug Store where the lead tech in the photo department used to work in a
| professional color lab and maintains strict standards for herself and all
| of the other people working there. For slides and B/W I now use a
| professional color lab whose work I trust. Not all labs are equal.
|
| Wes Rolleyh
|
|
| |
|
