Do you keep a photo log/diary/journal??

[fixbones]

Most of the film/older photography books that i had the pleasure reading recommends keeping a photo log/journal/diary to record informations of pictures taken i.e shutter, aperture, lighting conditons etc.

The most obvious reason of course is for documentation purpose as film images does not come with luxury of EXIF datas (although some more recent film SLRs are capable of recording such information). Also, it allows the photographer to think back and learn.

Now many of you keep one? If so, tell us more about it !!!

 

[fixbones]

i am planning to start one..... so thought i'd hear more from those more experienced than me =D

 

[Pickett Wilson]

They are only useful if you refer back to them. I was always too busy shooting to ever look back at my entries.

 

[selloutboy]

i may not be that experienced but when I started taking photos last year, i kept a small tickler recording the settings I used if i'm doing landscapes or long exposures but when I got more amused with street photography, I find ticking every shot ruins the momentum especially on crowded streets where a bunch of things are happening.
But it is a good practice and it helped me master basic exposure settings like f/16 rule and what not 😀

Go ahead and try it! 😀

 

[Lilserenity]

I keep one, and have done for most of my shooting life. Still not filled it up (it's a big old book for sure).

It's divided up into three sections:

1. Exposure notes and location notes, tricky exposures or where I have bracketed noted. Frame count notes (I often swap in/out films part way through to re-load at a later date) and the location notes are used to describe where the photos have been taken. Might sound obvious but if you're photographing a town/suburbs and need to remember where each one was at a later date or have been on a long walking trip, it's nice to know roughly where you were taking it.
2. Print notes - I write down all the timings for my prints as I often do split-grade printing and it's nice to have on tap what times I need for a 10x8 or 9 1/2 x 12 without needing to do a couple of tests all over again years later.
3. Development notes - noting development times, methods and chemicals and grading how happy I was with the result and highlighting what works well.

It's my little bible really, as important to me in many ways as the camera.

It's all part of that 'breathing it in' I feel I need with photography, slowing down, being closer to what I am doing by spending time over it.

Vicky

 

[35mmdelux]

I'm lucky to get a date on them.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I make notes on the negative glassines and backs of contact sheets, everything from dates and names of people to special equipment utilized in the shoot. Most of the info about equipment doesn't need to get recorded. A lot of us would file notches in the edge of the camera aperture plate so you'd know which camera was screwing up.

What amazes me is just how much trivia I remember about various shoots going back to the early 1960's, although once in awhile I can't recall a name. I put a lot of old stuff on my blog, including camera and lens info a lot of times. http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com

 

[NathanJD]

Not really, maybe it's because I started taking photography seriously when I was shooting digital or maybe I’m just generally far too lazy in that way anyway but I’ve never really felt the need to record such information. I find that I just use a few rules when it comes to my photography and make adjustments on the fly:

I try and use as wide an aperture as I feel comfortable with between f8 and f16 when I’m on the street zone focusing, but if I’m just snapping things as they come by I stick to a smaller aperture.


In the above instances I use mental aperture priority and choose shutter speed purely according to the lighting conditions and change it when the light changes accordingly - I don't do much shutter priority shots with movement in them but it has been known! In these cases I use 60, 1/125 and 1/250 speeds to control motion blur accordingly.

As I have older lenses I try and shoot portraiture at f5.6 which is for all intents and purposes said to be the sweet spots of my lenses.

I tend to only use the widest apertures in the evening with fast film and expose whole rolls in one place and within the confines of a few stops so the pictures themselves tell me if I’ve hit the mark or not.

I have always felt that everything else I need to know is in the picture, I’m not one for discriminating between images by way of the exposure settings and have only ever looked at the EXIF of a couple of my photos, and that was for no other reason than to see how many actions my D200 had done.


Other than that my negatives are kept in sleeves with the camera, lens, developer and the date written on it.

 

[JohnTF]

I keep a notebook in the darkroom, if I am trying to make other than mental notes when I shoot, I have a small digital recorder.

My usual subjects are a bit fleeting for note taking, unless I am shooting a landscape, and even then the light may be changing.

 

[capitalK]

I try to keep my info on my Print File sleeves for film type (though I know I can just look at the negs) and developer, time, dilution and date of development. If I can remember the date they were taken or if it's a birthday or some other date I can pin down I'll write that too.

For my upcoming trip to Newfoundland I PLAN on numbering my rolls and writing info in a Moleskine for time/date/exposure/etc but I don't want to lose my rhythm. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Spleenrippa]

I just keep the expensive leather notebook and fountain pen in the camera bag for looks :-\
No, really.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Never have. It's a waste of shooting time, and besides, how often are you going to encounter exactly the same subject, in exactly the same lighting, using exactly the same equipment? A log may have had some use in the days of plates (indivdual development), one camera and one lens (couldn't afford more) and no light meters, but even that, I doubt.

I keep a darkroom log for film developing, and Frances does for printing -- but for shooting, never.

Cheers,

R.

 

[pvdhaar]

Following such recommendations years and years ago, I kept a log for a couple of months. It was no help at all. If I had underexposed a frame, it didn't matter if I underexposed at 1/500th or at 1/8th.. I just hadn't metered the scene appropriately. And the image told me what the circumstances were where I did. Same with depth of field, it's not the difference between f2 and f2.8 that makes or breaks a picture; it's between f2 and f16. And that I could see from the final image straight away. After about ten rolls of film, I gave up the idea of keeping track. Too much hassle, not enough reward.

 

[HMFriedman]

No. And I don't make contact sheets either.

There ... I feel much better now.

 

[fixbones]

very interesting so far
seems like it has fallen out of fashion...hmmm
I'll see how it goes for me. Still 'planning' ....... might not even happen but if it does, i don't intend to jot down everything and certainly not during my shooting sessions.

Most likely to make the entries only on certain shots and when i am home while everything is still fresh in memory

 

[Bobbie]

I never used one for myself, though I got my son to use one while teaching him.
He was having trouble with wild exposures and also dof problems (with a rangefinder), so I had him note how and where (in the frame) he was metering. Then later, looking at the proofs he could figure things out. The most problems were in bright sun with harsh shadows but he quickly picked up how to average things out.
The appreciation of how much dof came with experience too.




Bobbie.

 

[Don Parsons]

I use a blog more like a diary than for keeping information of photo's I take. My walk-around camera is now a Canon A570 and since it's digital, it records time, focal length and exposure information for me. This camera is the size of a small Olympus P&S, weighs next to nothing and takes great pictures. I go back and look at my pictures from previous years to see what I was doing and it gives me a sense of where I am at in my life.

I wish I could get shallower DOF on it, but only sometimes. But the ease and speed of use, particularly in getting a print or posting on my blog makes it ideal.

That said, I still love shooting film with my Pentax MX or Nikon FE/FM. There's a tactile feel I get from having to do everything. I would love to have an M6 and a couple lens but that's out of the question for a while right now.

 

[bsdunek]

I keep a darkroom log like Roger and Francis. A section for printing and a section for film developing. I do keep some notes on my photos with IR film or pinhole - but not a real log.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Never have. It's a waste of shooting time, and besides, how often are you going to encounter exactly the same subject, in exactly the same lighting, using exactly the same equipment? A log may have had some use in the days of plates (indivdual development), one camera and one lens (couldn't afford more) and no light meters, but even that, I doubt.

I keep a darkroom log for film developing, and Frances does for printing -- but for shooting, never.

Cheers,

R.

Actually keeping notes is quite useful. My earliest work is from the mid 1990's as far as serious artistic work (I began photographing as a little kid but none of that was important work). I can't remember when I shot most of those early photos, what year or month, and some I can't remember the locations. I deeply regret not keeping a journal of my work back then. When I lived in Santa Fe, I bought a Moleskine notebook and began recording each shooting day's locations and what film and equipment was used. I've filled several of those notebooks now! Also useful for recording names of people I meet and such.

 

[sunsworth]

No, I've never seen the point. When I was shooting film I'd write on the negative sleeve the date and location (and the film number), but I never took notes regarding lens/exposure etc.

If I'm shooting in an unfamiliar location I'll write the date and time in a notebook, but that's about it,