Incompetence As Artistic Expression

"Unintentional Grunge" March 2012, Chicago, IL
(Canon F1, 24mm 2.8, Ilford FP4+, home developed and scanned)

Some photographers spend a lot of time and effort getting that "grunge" look for their photographs. They apply layers, filters and textures to make their pristine, perfectly exposed images look dingy, scratchy and poorly handled. I wonder if they know they can save themselves all that trouble with the application of traditional analog processes.

For example, to achieve the image above was simple three-step process: 1) don't open the gate on your bulk loader while rolling up a cartridge of film, thereby scratching the bloody $#!^% out of the film emulsion; 2) after developing the the roll at home, drop the still damp strip of film onto some carpet near the cats' litter box; and 3) scan as normal. Voila! Scratches aplenty; muck and "texture" galore all over the image.

And to think that if I had tried to emulate this look digitally, it might have taken me hours to get that "screwed up negative" look just right. All this took was a couple of moments of being an idiot.

Digital Darkroom: Scanning Black & White Film In Color

This post is about being reminded that while trial and error can be lead one down creative roads that would otherwise remain unexplored, it can also send you down the wrong path without even being aware that there might be a better way.

It's a basic fact of modern photography that almost all film shooters are also digital, even if they don't own a single digital camera. Unless all you want to do is make wet prints in the darkroom to pass around by hand, you are going to need to find a way to digitize your analog images if you want them to get seen. Most people don't even deal with paper prints anymore - they shoot on digital, post images to Facebook, Flickr and etc. or maybe email digital photo files to friends, family and like, all of which get viewed on some type of monitor.

"New Year Light" - January 1, 2012, Chicago, Illinois
(Canonet QL-17, Fomapan 400 film, home developed and scanned)
The final, post-processed "color scan" of the black & white negative. The negative was scanned as a 24 bit color image (RGB) and outputted to a 24 bit RGB TIF file. There is much more detail in the shadow areas and much smoother transitions between tones than any of the Grayscale scans of the same negative, even when saved at the highest Grayscale bit setting.

If you are shooting film, getting that image converted to a digital file means getting a scan somewhere along the line. You can scan prints, of course. And scanning a print is relatively straightforward. Even low-end scanners will generally give you a decent scan of a color or black & white print. But a scan of a print is, at best, a third-hand representation. The negative is used to make the print, which is used to make the scan - each step in the chain represents a potential loss of detail and degradation of the image.