Alright, so I am about to print this photo and I cannot decide whether I prefer the color version or the black and white version. Any feedback on which, and why would be much appreciated.

I love the black and white shot (the crispness of the shadow is quite remarkable), but I think the colour one would look better printed.

Because...it reminds me of when The Wizard of Oz goes Technicolor. And that's one of the coolest things in all of cinema. Or one of those old black and white portraits that's been hand-coloured by the photographer.

It's a great shot both ways but print the colour one.

Erin.
::righteous babe::

I think the B/W has much more impact. Don't ya love digital though where you can do it either way after the fact. With B/W film there was no natural way to get color. You could make a B/W print from a color negative using a special paper. (You could actually do it with any paper, but there was one Kodak paper particularly made to do a decent B/W from a color negative. A color slide required an internegative, which was a bit trick and required a slide copier.

Jon

^Digital is convenient, and I love it, but I also love film.

Specifically, I've been shooting stereo slides recently. I actually shot this same show another day in stereo (without my light meter because I'm an idiot and it was with one of my other cameras) and it came out quite well all things considered. Now if only it wasn't such an expensive process = \

Gee I haven't see stereo slides in over 50 years. They were sort of popular in the 1950's. A neighbor had one (not me or my family though.)

I've got something like 8 or 9 film cameras here, most 35mm Nikons (FE, FM, FE2, F3, two F2s, EM) plus a Hasselblad outfit and a twin lens reflex Rollei. Most of these I bought of the bulletin board where I worked where service people bought them in the Far East rather cheaply at the post exchanges and then decided they needed the money more once the came back to the states. They'd sell whole outfits for the cost of a lens. What I really wanted were the lenses, but they'd throw in the camera, bag, maybe a flash. I just got a bunch of batteries to see if they all work (they do) and when I finish my basement redo, I want to do some of this work again...this time for fun. (I gave up pro work 18 years ago totally and pretty much gave it up when I wrote the last check for my kids' college.) Right at the moment though I am awaiting a door I ordered for the darkroom. It's a bit hard to do darkroom work if you can't make the room dark .
Many of these I used when I did pro work though most of that was with 120 roll film (the 'Blad, and I used to have Mamaya 645s systems.)

I still have a darkroom, but haven't used it in some time except to print some old negatives I had.

Jon

I've currently got a stereo realist that was my grandfather's, and a pentax film SLR, as well as a little collection of older just for fun film cameras (my favorites being a No.3 folding autographic kodak brownie and a Asahi Pentax auto 110 miniature camera with a full lens set). I also have all the equipment for developing black and white film, but no darkroom =/

One of the nice things about the digital revolution is the fact that a lot of hobby photographers are quick to ditch their old film equipment at cheap prices in order to "upgrade" to digital.

B&W for SURE. The color of his shirt kind of takes away from his face because it's a brighter color, but when it's black and white the main focus is his face. Also, the black and white makes his perspiration harder to see and also hides the color variances in his skin, especially his nose, which makes for less visual distraction. Also, his eyes stand out a lot more in the B&W.

I love this picture, by the way. His outfit, the focus of the background, his expression... awesome.

Just a question: when you made the picture B&W did you use a standard desaturation or did you use a luminosity feature?

I chose the black and white. It came out beautifully. Mounted with a bright red mat in a simple black frame; it pops like crazy. Thanks for the advice.

And thank you for the compliment, Trout ^_^ I love shooting my boyfriend's dance troupe at renaissance faire.

As for the process, I used a neutral tone black and white filter, adjusted my color curves, adjusted contrast, and did some dodge and burn.

Twitchkit wrote:

I've currently got a stereo realist that was my grandfather's, and a pentax film SLR, as well as a little collection of older just for fun film cameras (my favorites being a No.3 folding autographic kodak brownie and a Asahi Pentax auto 110 miniature camera with a full lens setl.

I think the Stereo Realist was what our neighbors had. Neat effects, but these people shot nothing more exciting than their kids' birthday parties.

Which Pentax SLR do you have? When I taught photography, I recommended the Pentax K1000 for my students who did not have an adjustable SLR with a built in meter. In the early 80's you could buy this camera for $135 new. I wish I had $10 for every one of my students who bought one.

Where do you even get film for a Kodak folding camera? My parents had one and it used the long obsolete 620 film (which may be actually the same as 120 size film, but a different framing specification.) I just found a cache of family photos made with that camera including photos of my infancy and even my parents dating era. I had a couple of old cameras made obsolete by the withdrawal of the old 127 film size. I also remember the 110 size, but I had no entusiasm for these small frame consumer cameras. My folk had a pocket Instamatic, which was of similar size and those negative are almost impossible to get a good quality photo. The photos are just too grainy. Even places like Costco and Sam's don't seem to sell even 35mm film any more. When I take B/W film again I may have to order 100 foot rolls of bulk 35mm film and load my own cassettes. I still have a couple of loaders. That's what I did to cut costs when I was learning photography. I think I would have to mail order that stuff.

Jon

My Pentax is a ZX-50. It was my boyfriend's mother's camera which she was not using anymore.

Sadly, my kodak is at this point for decoration only. I don't know where to get the film and the shutter cable is frayed. It's just pretty. There is a really neat camera store near my hometown that has a massive collection of vintage cameras, and it always fascinated me as a kid, so as I got a bit older I began to start my own. It's small at the moment, but the kodak is part of that.

The 110 was something my grandfather took on vacations (my grandparents did a lot of traveling after retiring. I've not actually shot that one either (although it is in working condition) as I acquired it at the same time as the realist and that has completely absorbed my attention in the film department.

We have tons of family photos dating at least as far back as when my grandfather was born (1915)and that side of the family has always been into photography, which is why I have some of the more gimmicky cameras kicking around (like the realist and small format 110).

I'm sad that it's such a pain to get most types of film these days; I end up having to mail order most of mine. Hadn't even thought of loading my own cassettes. I winder what that would take these days.

As for the process, I used a neutral tone black and white filter, adjusted my color curves, adjusted contrast, and did some dodge and burn.

Neat. You can really tell the difference. I think color curves is the best tool ever invented, by the way.

Again, awesome pic. I think this is my favorite of the ones you have posted so far.

^Here is a link to a quick overview of loading film into cassettes. This is something which has to be first done in total darkness...not even a red safelight can be used. But once the film is in the bulk loader...I have one just like the link has and I have one more buy a different company, but works just the same. You can acutally work in room light. You would probably have to get the bulk film and the reloadable cassettes from a major mail order place. You can reload the cassettes several times if you keep them clean. I'd probably only do B/W film nowadays, but I used to do all sorts of film...B/W in several ASA sensitivities, Color Slide (Ektachrome only...Kodachrome was not available this way.) I think color negative was also available, but I never rolled my own because I could buy it in bulk packages from my processing lab. I did both color and B/W processing and printing. Doing color was a bit boring once you knew how to do it, but when I turned pro (unexpectedly) I very soon discovered that you could not make money in the darkroom, so a commercial lab catering to pro event photographers did all my color work thereafter.

Jon