i heart film

JC

2011-10-09T15:33:00.001-07:00

Why and How to Become a Professional Wedding Photographer

2011-09-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Are you anything but a geek? Do you hate going for the cliche professions and favour choosing something unconventional for your living? Do you prefer following your heart over following books? Then go out and explore the world. You will definitely find something matching your avocation. And, as you know, when vocation and avocation match, it can do wonders to your career. It adds that "feel good" factor which most people miss in their job. One interesting thing you can try out is Wedding photography.

Wedding photographers need to have immense creativity, imagination, observation power, a passion for the camera & the concept of marriage, ability to mix with new people and capacity to work hard. If you have it all, be sure you will make an awesome Wedding photographer. However, besides these very basic points, you need to keep some details in your mind.

These details will help you to excel in this field and compete efficiently with your fellow contenders. In this world of competition you always need to be alert and continue your "improvement phase" throughout the lifetime of your work; otherwise, you will be thrown out and have no value in the market. So if challenges do fascinate you, then this is another reason you must try it out. Plus, you also get to attend so many weddings! Isn't that just absolutely amazing?

If you are just a novice in the field of photography, the first thing that you should do is take training in some photography school or under some established photographer. Unless you know the broad spectrum well, how will you specialize in the wedding photography section separately?

Even if you think your natural passion is sufficient, I would suggest you consult some expert. Their tricks and tips can be of great use. Here I will give you some small tips on how you can transform yourself from an amateur to a professional wedding photographer. Before arriving, do some homework. Visit the venue as well as the couple's place to know their family and their expectations. Get a list of probable shots they want. Get a director from both the sides to guide you in the final day. Use more than one camera, with their sounds turned off, to capture natural detailed moments. Take care of the light and the background. After the shoot, with the couple's permission, put your best photos up for display in your office and website to grab new customers and use the not-so-nice ones to learn from your mistakes.

However, most importantly make sure you have fun. If you are not happy yourself, how can you, being the wedding photographer efficiently capture the "happy moments" of the auspicious occasion?

Instamatic Cameras Are Here to Stay

2011-09-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

If the Polaroid instamatic camera is set to make a comeback in 2010, then the Fuji Instax Mini 7 is the camera built to last while we wait. The Fuji Instax Mini 7 is a fun way to take pictures with today's modern downloadable technology saturating the industry of digital cameras and digital camera options. The Fuji camera is lightweight and easy to pack into your bag. Its compact size makes it an ideal camera to travel with.

There are no extensive manuals to follow. To use this one step two step camera you simply point the camera in the right direction, aim and press the shutter. Within minutes, the mini7 camera releases a miniature size photograph created and developed on the spot from the camera base slot. Stylish and sleek, the instax mini 7can be used as a main camera for the whole family or as an accessory camera to accompany any other camera in your collection.

The credit card size instant photo is a much smaller photo produced in comparison to that produced by the Polaroid instant photo camera. Instant vibrant color photos at your finger tips are a fun way to capture the moment forever. In minutes of taking a photo the instax mini produces clear sharp photo images which means no wait time as is the case with uploading images from a digital camera.

Like the Polaroid, the Fuji Instax Mini7 is easy to operate. Back in the days, the camera industry struck gold when it first introduced the instant photo image camera called Polaroid. The Polaroid camera was a smash hit in the 70's. The much larger size Polaroid camera was also easy to use. In comparison to the lightweight Fuji Instax Mini7, the original Polaroid camera was enormous by today's camera size standards.

Unfortunately, years of struggling sales and fearsome technological advance in the photographic industry saw Polaroid close their doors for the final time leaving the photographic world somewhat stunned. A year after Polaroid went out of business renowned and amateur photographers are rising up to resurrect the Polaroid camera they love so very much. An avid admirer and Vienna, Austria based follower of the camera launched a revival company to bring the Polaroid back.

Film Photography Vs. Digital Photography: Advantages and Disadvantages

2011-09-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

While digital photography offers convenience and practicality, the use of film photography, especially when using manual SLR cameras, allows you to better understand how exposure, shutter speed and aperture work. These terms are used both in film and digital photography.

Film and Digital Cameras

Before digital cameras and memory cards came into play, photography required the use of a film negative loaded into the camera, using up the entire roll of negative, unloading it from the camera and bringing it to a photo laboratory for developing of the negative and printing of the photos. A digital camera allows you to see and print your photos without having to use up all the space in the memory card. You can either connect the digital camera directly to a computer to download the image files or insert the memory card into a card reader to download the images to your computer.

Film Photography

Film Processing and Printing

Both a film negative and the photo paper where an image gets printed are made from light-sensitive materials. The emulsion is the light-sensitive portion of a negative or photo paper that records the image. It has silver halides, also called silver salts, along with other special sensitizing dyes. Depending on the amount of light and the type of silver halide, the light produces a visible or invisible change to the halides of a film. The invisible change is made visible by film processing, also addressed to as film developing, and the film printing of the photo which also involves the use of chemicals and specific technical procedures.

Resolution

Whether using regular or high-end film camera or any brand of negative, film photography provides standard resolution that allows enlargement and projection of a photo without compensating on the image's resolution. This means any photo shot on film can be blown up to poster size or even larger sizes without suffering on the resolution. This is done by using the film negative as the image source for the blown up copy. Unlike a digital photo that has a threshold on the maximum print size possible (depending on the megapixel count), a film photo doesn't get "pixilated." This is because film is made up of very small grains that are circular in shape as compared to the small squares (pixels) of digital photos.

Given the very small circular properties of film grains, a blown up photo from a film negative allows enlarged printing without sacrificing the general quality of the photo. Even if the grains show up, especially in very large prints, the photo doesn't get the digital problem on pixels that fill oversized digital photos with conspicuous little squares.

Digital Photography

Digital Imaging

The image sensor of a digital camera reads the intensity of light getting into the camera to process an image; while the digital memory space, whether through a camera's internal memory or through an external memory device, stores the digital information as an image file. Unlike with film photography requiring film developing and printing before seeing the actual photo, a digital camera readily displays the photo taken through the LCD screen. The camera can be easily connected to a computer for archiving, photo manipulation or printing. Some cameras also allow manipulation of the photos from the camera or direct printing from the camera.

You can even come up with 3D photos using regular digital cameras by employing a few additional steps. Once applied, you can see its three-dimensional depth by wearing 3D glasses.

Practicality

Digital photography is generally a more practical choice because it allows you to instantly see the photos you shoot, delete unwanted photos without wasting any resources (unlike a film negative which can only be used once), reuse memory card by easily transferring the photos to a hard drive and other storage device, and readily enhance or edit the photos using imaging software (editing film photos requires digitizing them first by using a scanner). You can also control the size and resolution of your photos in most digital cameras.

Kodachrome

2011-02-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

Kodachrome is the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak from 1935 to 2009.Kodachrome was the first successfully mass-marketed color still film using a subtractive method, in contrast to earlier additive "screenplate" methods such as Autochrome and Dufaycolor, and remained the oldest brand of color film.

Kodachrome film was manufactured for 74 years in various formats to suit still and motion picture cameras, including 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm for movies and 35mm, 120, 110, 126, 828 and large format for still photography. For many years, it was used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media. The film was sold with processing included in the purchase price except in the United States, where a 1954 legal ruling ended that practice.

Kodachrome is appreciated in the archival and professional market for its dark-storage longevity. Because of these qualities, Kodachrome was used by professional photographers like Steve McCurry and Alex Webb. McCurry used Kodachrome for his well-known 1984 portrait of Sharbat Gula, the "Afghan Girl" for the National Geographic magazine. It was also used by Walton Sound and Film Services in the UK in 1953 for the only official 16mm film of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. Subsequent prints for sale to the public were also produced using Kodachrome.

Competing slide films, such as Fujichrome and Kodak Ektachrome, use the E-6 process which is simpler, less expensive, more quickly processed and more widely available; this eroded Kodachrome's market share as the quality of competing films improved during the 1980s and 1990s. As digital photography reduced the demand for all varieties of film in the first decade of the 21st century, Kodachrome sales further declined. On 22 June 2009, Kodak announced the end of Kodachrome production, citing declining demand.[4]

During its heyday, many Kodak and independent laboratories processed Kodachrome; by 2010, one Kodak certified facility remained: Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas.[5] On 14 July 2010 it was announced that the last produced roll of Kodachrome was developed by Dwayne's for photographer Steve McCurry on assignment for National Geographic. The 36 slides will be permanently housed at the Eastman House in Rochester, NY and most of the pictures, excluding a few near-duplicates, have been published on the Internet by Vanity Fair magazine.

Dwaynes Photo announced it would cease Kodachrome processing on 30 December 2010. However, the company received such a large quantity of film during December 2010 that processing continued until 18 January 2011.

KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA 400 Film

2011-02-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

The new PORTRA 400 is the world’s finest grain high-speed color negative film. At true ISO 400 speed, this film delivers spectacular skin tones plus exceptional color saturation over a wide range of lighting conditions.

For years, professional photographers have preferred KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA Films because of their consistently smooth, natural reproduction of the full range of skin tones. In that same tradition, the new PORTRA 400 Film is the ideal choice for portrait and fashion photography, as well as for nature, travel and outdoor photography, where the action is fast or the lighting can’t be controlled.

PORTRA 400's skin tones are spot on without compromising saturation and contrast. And for someone who scans film in house, it could not be easier to scan in terms of density and color. This new film delivers consistent and reliable results under a myriad of lighting situations.

I love the warm vibrant tones I get with the new PORTRA 400. It renders wonderfully under a variety of lighting conditions both in the studio and in natural light. The grain is also exceptionally fine for a 400 speed film.

With the new fine grain PORTRA 400, I can confidently go for the extra speed without having to compromise the sharpness and decadence that I've grown accustomed to.

Sarangani Highlands

2010-02-27T03:49:00.002-08:00

The Nikon F5

2009-11-19T16:53:00.001-08:00

The Nikon F5 is a 35 mm film-based single-lens reflex camera body manufactured by Nikon from 1996 through 2004. It was the fifth in Nikon's professional film camera line, which began in 1959 with the Nikon F, and followed the Nikon F4. It was succeeded by the Nikon F6, as well as the Nikon D2X and Nikon D3 professional digital SLRs.

Important advances in the F5 included:

Nikon 3-D color matrix meter (the F4 had introduced multi-segment matrix metering to the F series, but color sensing was new).

A self-diagnostic and self-adjusting shutter.

Electronically controlled exposure times from 1/8000 second to 30 minutes.

Built-in 8 frame per second motor drive (up from 5.7 frame/s on the F4).

1/300 second flash sync (up from 1/250 on the F4).

Full support for Nikkor AF-S and G designated lenses (the F4 could not use G lenses in aperture-priority or full manual modes).

Support for the Vibration Reduction (VR) image stabilization feature of newer Nikkor lenses.

Five focus points for the autofocus sensor (up from one on the F4).

A new industrial design by Giorgetto Giugiaro (also designer of the F3 and F4).

An integrated vertical/battery grip with additional shutter release and adjustment wheel controls (the F4 had three different interchangeable battery grips).

Like all previous Nikon F series cameras, the F5 had manual film rewind, high durability, exceptionally short shutter lag, interchangeable 100% coverage viewfinders (including a large-view Action Finder, Waist-Level Finder, and 6x High-Magnification Finder, in addition to the stock multi-metering pentaprism), and the Nikon F-mount for lenses.

Coral Gardens, Samal Island Davao Del Sur, Philippines

2009-11-15T16:31:00.001-08:00

Underwater photos by my friend Edmund John Ong using a Nikonos V. We heart film =)

The Nikonos V

2009-11-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

Commercially, this all-weather Nikonos was perhaps the most successful model among al the Nikonos family of underwater camera. The Film speed range remained the same at 25 to 1600 ISO with a quartz-timed, stepless shutter speed range from 1/30 to 1/1000 sec., a time-exposure at B setting and a back-up mechanical shutter speed of 1/90 sec. (M90). It offers both TTL center-weighted metering, auto-exposure (Aperture Priority AE) as well as Manual exposure control. The Albada finder has parallax markings, LEDs for exposure readings, low shutter speed warning as well as flash ready light. The most significant improvement made was the TTL auto flash exposure control with other applicable Nikonos speedlights such as SB-102, SB-105 etc. making flash photography results the underwater so easy & assuring. Along with other features made to improve its overall handling under or above the water, Nikon has designed one of the most friendly underwater camera in the Nikonos V.

Fuji Instax Mini 7

2009-11-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

What is Instax you ask? It is an instant film made by FujiFilm. Polaroid may be dead, but the science of instant film is not. Its like Kleenex, they are not the only makers of tissues for your nose :). Polaroid is just a name, which has now faded (MAYBE). The best thing about this film, it not only looking better than Polaroid in color/contrast/saturation, is that it is READILY AVAILABLE and in CURRENT PRODUCTION. No crazy bidding wars on ebay.

What to love about this mini is:

1. smaller camera
2. uber Japanese looking
3. the photos are the size of a credit card and fit in your wallet
4. more control in the exposure
5. focusing up to 1.8 ft
6. film is less expensive than the Instax 200
7. VERTICAL FORMAT! that's how i see the world anyway so it is uber convenient

royal hotel, general santos

2009-05-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

gumasa, glan, sarangani province

2009-04-28T19:47:00.001-07:00

backyard

2009-04-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

2009-04-16T07:07:00.000-07:00