This letter is in response to the letter from Alfred Gescheidt about generic identification of camera and film types (May-issue “Letters to the Editor,” p. 6). I pretty much agree with his statement that the camera a photographer chooses is a matter of “idiosyncratic choice.”
Tips on food photography: pursuing the fine arts of dining and shooting well
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Carl Purcell
Food is one of the occupational hazards of traveling. It can be an almost certain adventure in excess calories. It offers the traveling photographer, however, a rich variety of photo subjects, from markets to restaurants. Indeed, some travel photographers specialize in food, artfully arranging exotic delicacies in foreign settings.
A skeptic’s tests; some thoughts about Adams, Winogrand
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David Vestal
First I'll review a hard-to-find book. Then I'll say a little about Ansel Adams and Garry Winogrand, photographers I knew and liked. Controls in Black-and-White Photography, by Richard J. Henry. Monterey, Ca.: Angel Press, 1983; 183 pp., many graphs; hardcover, $14.95.
Camera and equipment designers are trying to make the hardware do all of photography’s chores, but they’ve still got a way to go
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Norman Goldberg
Today’s 35-mm SLR may seem so highly perfected and automated that its evolution has peaked. But it hasn’t. As long as even the smallest difficulty remains between visualizing and achieving the final image, both the camera and photographic equipment will continue to evolve.
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be? Don’t you believe it! Photos make it better than ever
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Kenneth Poli
Built-in, and add-on, and dedicated flash units were flickering like heat lighting, as everything from disk to 35-mm cameras clicked and whirred, making album photos. A trio of 20-plus-year-olds were playing what they thought were ’30s and '40s tunes (some went back to the '20s, but who counts?).
I give “Better Mouse Trap Awards” to these products because they make darkroom work more pleasurable
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Larry Sribnick
My first “Better Mouse Trap Award” goes to the Super-Proofer, distributed by The Saunders Group, 67 Deep Rock Rd., Rochester, N.Y. 14624. Until I tried the Super-Proofer, I had never been happy with any of the contact-printing or proofing easels or guides on the market.
Photography as Fine Art: The Gallery of World Photography, Volume I, with introduction by Douglas Davis. New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1983; 218 pp. with 208 photographs in black-and-white and color; hardcover, $42.50. By now, one might expect that discussions of photography as one of the “fine arts" had been done to death—with or without illustrative material.
Advertising photography today; a pictorial history of Lady Liberty; the creation of the Panama Canal
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Harvey V. Fondiller
Advertising photography has arrived, politically as well as artistically. Mayor Koch of New York proclaimed June “Advertising Photographers Month,” stating that the work of these talented individuals illustrates “the glamour, energy, variety, vitality, and commitment to quality that are the trademarks of New York City.”
More about masking—a great way to lower contrast when printing color slides
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Norman Rothschild
The introduction of Cibachrome ushered in an era in which color prints of great longevity can be produced from slides easily and at reasonable cost by labs and darkroom enthusiasts. But the original Cibachrome material was quite contrasty.
Photojournalism should work on more than one level—and its images should be clear, simple, and spontaneous
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Howard Chapnick
Meaningful photojournalism is based on incisive and decisive-moment photography. It is the opposite of much current photographic illustration which uses manipulated elements to create contrived photographs that have no relation to reality. This brings me to my love affair with documentary photography— and to Dorothea Lange.
You can make your travel slide shows more interesting by borrowing a technique from movie makers: start with a series of overall shots, then add variety and a change of pace by including close-ups of important action and details. Example: my overall shot of a woman in a marketplace near Oaxaca, Mexico gives us the general idea that she is selling fruit.
POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY will periodically list nationwide photographic workshops. If you wish to have your workshop listed, please send complete information at least three months prior to the registration date to: Workshops, POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY, One Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.
Once upon a time, cameras were purely mechanical-optical artifacts, and photography was restricted to visual images created by photons bombarding silver-halide crystals. The case is far more complex today, with ever-increasing electronification of cameras, the explosive growth of video-image recording, and all-electric still photography under development.
When does a 500-mm come on like a wide-angle? When Francis Sakamoto sets out to shoot his pictures of subjects that are beyond the beyond!
Can’t afford a supertele? Rent one!
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William Brand
For San Francisco’s Francis Sakamoto, a 500or 1,000-mm lens is practically a wide-angle. Sakamoto, whose stunning landscapes—he calls them telescapes— appear on these pages, works out at the far fringe of terrestrial telephotography.
Speed demons head new eight-member high-tech family
Agfachrome l000 RS
Agfa-Gevaert’s new color films
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Bob Schwalberg
Two new ISO 1,000 color films from Agfa-Gevaert—Agfachrome 1000 RS Professional for slides, and Agfacolor XRS 1000 for prints—provide real speed and quality gains with normal E-6 processing for the positive transparencies, and regulation C-41 handling for the color negatives.
Camera Type: 35-mm multimode SLR with dual auto-exposure program modes (aperture-weighted for depth of field and shutter-weighted for action) plus aperture-priority AE and full manual control Normal Lenses: 50-mm Auto Chinon multicoated f/1.4, f/1.7; 50-mm Auto Chinon f/1.9 (all tested)
A portfolio of images by a man whose sense of style set a trend for three decades
Exhibition Schedule
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W. L. Broecker
Leslie Gill’s photographs have significantly influenced the development of modern American illustration—he has been called the father of American still-life photography—but his pictures have not achieved the “star” popularity that galleries and collectors have awarded to the work of many self-proclaimed artist-photographers.
The usual weakness of 80→200-mm zoom lenses has been their relatively slow maximum aperture—typically f/3.5 or smaller. Therefore, this Tokina ATX 80→200-mm f/2.8 should be welcomed by those who like a moderate-range telephoto zoom, but also need a faster lens for much of their shooting.
Rechargeable outboard battery pack for flash offers more shots, faster recycling
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Robert F. Kneller
For photographers who shoot a lot with flash, AA alkaline cells can be frustrating: recycle times quickly get longer and longer. Nicads, while offering somewhat quicker recycling, also require increasingly longer waits for full power, but at least they are rechargeable.
Minolta’s Auto Electroflash Macro 80PX Set for close-up photography has a ringlight that’s more like a square. Instead of a single-tube ring, it has four flashtubes that surround the lens; you can switch them on individually from the back.
At last, your options include light weight, compactness, convenience, and sufficient indoor-lighting sensitivity
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Leendert Drukker
Over a million Americans can't be all wrong, and that’s how many have bought video cameras. Very likely, more than another half-million or so will join them within a year. Why would anyone—you, for example—want to spend upward of $600, plus perhaps another $800 or so, for a recorder to go with it?
JVC’s VideoMovie is a beautifully designed camcorder—e.g., a combination video camera and recorder. It balances nicely on the shoulder, handles well, and has all the features one really needs, including an electronic viewfinder. It is a complete recording/playback system, using the 20-minute VHS-C cassette, yet it weighs a mere 4.3 lb.
Video enhancers: Can they really sharpen your tapes?
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Leendert Drukker
As any seasoned photographer or filmmaker is well aware, copying is inevitably accompanied by a loss of quality. The “dupe,” no matter how carefully made, is never quite the equal of the original. Unfortunately, videotape can only be edited by copying the desired shots in sequence onto another tape and, as as you would expect, your final version will show some degradation, probably most notably of “sharpness.”
Since the introduction of the Leica R4S, the emphasis has been on its lower price, compared to the R4. While this does make it easier to enter the “World of Leica Photography,” my main interest in this latest model is its capabilities as an image-making instrument.
Wish you were much steadier with a camera? I bet you could be if you used these ideas
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Cora Wright Kennedy
The longer I teach photography, the more I realize that you can’t talk too often about the importance of camera steadiness. Too many picture makers still goof badly in this regard. So even though I wrote about this topic rather fully not too long ago (September and October, 1982), there are other useful points that need to be made.
The 75→200-mm MC Quantaray Auto Zoom is a one-touch telephoto zoom lens with some unusually attractive features, such as a fast aperture and continuous focusing for making close-ups. The f/2.8 aperture, available over most of the zoom range, makes this also a practical lens for low-light photography, such as in theatrical work.
The Spiratone Auto-Quick cutter-mounter transforms slide-mounting from a chore into a pleasure. It doesn’t require laborious threading of film, the floor won't be littered with film chips, and you don’t even have to open and close the mount.
Decision-free Minolta Freedom I and II cameras accept 35-mm DX film cartridges that set films speeds (ISO 100,200,400, and 1,000) automatically. Non-DX cartridges can be used, as film-speed settings of ISO 100, 200, and 400 can be set manually.
This month witnesses the publication of Aberdeen, a book of Alfred Eisenstaedt photographs. It will be published jointly by the Louisiana State University Press and Mobil North Seas, Ltd. For the book, Eisenstaedt documented the changing culture of Aberdeen, Scotland.
What produces these terrible gray spots when I develop my black-and-white film? Diane Cashion, Mount Kisco, N. Y. These round spots (shown on an enlarged portion of your print) are typical of trapped air bubbles, sometimes called air bells.