Film and the human experience

[Nh3]

When I hold a negative and look at it its the final stage in my human sensory experience of being a photographer.

I saw when I took the picture, the smell of chemicals when I poured them in the tank, I heard the developer moving across the film as I agitated the tank, and finally touching the negatives and looking at them again.

... But there is also the final stage and the most powerful; looking at the picture and feeling a surge of emotions.

A complete human experience.



Digital images are somewhere there in the electronic space as 1s and 0s. Screw that!

 

[FrankS]

You're only half way there.

It's not complete until you print it in a wet darkroom.

 

[Morris]

When I hold a negative and look at it its the final stage in my human sensory experience of being a photographer.

Digital images are somewhere there in the electronic space as 1s and 0s. Screw that!

So, are you going to scan this negative to show us? 🙂

 

[Nh3]

You're only half way there.

It's not complete until you print it in a wet darkroom.

I don't have the space for a darkroom yet but I have my negatives and as soon as i have the opportunity I will have my own darkroom or even a temporary one to make prints.

 

[Nh3]

So, are you going to scan this negative to show us? 🙂

Scanning to me is like printing contact sheets.

 

[Fred Burton]

So, posting to a forum isn't a human experience? Those darn 1's and 0's. What a waste of time and human emotion.

 

[Sparrow]

Like an Evangelists one Gospel short of a credo

🙂

 

[back alley]

the image starts in one's head, before the shutter is pressed or a negative or a digital file is created.

 

[Nh3]

In a digital camera the light falls on the sensor, its transformed into date (1s and 0s) then its transferred to the camera's main processing unit. Its corrected by preset algorithms adjusted according to settings, then its embedded with all the EXIF data, named and then sent once again to the memory card... After that its transferred once again to the computer and post-processed with powerful computer programs.

From that initial light to the final product its purely an electric experience and totally alien to human senses.

It took millions of years for us to develop our senses and what we consider human qualities. It has been 50 years since we've had computers.

 

[funkaoshi]

Nh3 mocking digital? Stop the presses!

 

[Morris]

From that initial light to the final product its purely an electric experience and totally alien to human senses.

I think you'll find that the human brain and sensory system is electric powered.

 

[kevin m]

It's not complete until you print it in a wet darkroom....

Pffft!

Long live photoshop, brother! 😀

 

[Sam N]

It took millions of years for us to develop our senses and what we consider human qualities. It has been 50 years since we've had computers.

What's so natural about plastic, smelly chemicals, dyes, or silver grains?
It has been only 150 (ish) years since we've had photography.

Anyway, it is true that film tactile and tangible while digital files are not. There's nothing quite like looking through a nice slide or seeing your negative projected on paper.

 

[gns]

Can one have a non-human experience?

 

[blackwave]

I think tactile is the key word, like Sam N said. I've been wrestling in my brain why the heck I'm so excited about my new Polaroid back and instant film, when I simply have no draw towards digital whatsoever. I always thought my stronghold in film was because of the quality and the process, but instant film takes that away. All I'm left with is the tactile sensations (and that I get to shoot with one of my favorite cameras!)

 

[mh2000]

and when photons (IE. electrons) hit molecules on a sheet of plastic... it is *what* kind of experience?

My final product is a b&w print and that is what my viewers and I experience with our human senses. I have nostalgic feelings for film and prefer some of the subtle qualities more than digital... but they are both photography... and I would rather look at a good print from either than from a bad print from one or the other.

>>From that initial light to the final product its purely an electric experience and totally alien to human senses.

 

[mh2000]

Definitely women!

🙂

>>Again. It is as if to say trucks are better than cars, or vice versa, or men better than women...

 

[newsgrunt]

yano, there have been times when I don't even bother taking the camera out of the bag. when one is truly in the moment, nothing can capture that feeling. film included. have fun with your negative.

 

[benlees]

I think you'll find that the human brain and sensory system is electric powered.

Indeed! Funny that eyes probably have more in common design-wise with the sensor in a digital camera than they do with film!

Human experience is the stepchild of chemistry and electricity! Oh, conundrums!

 

[Morris]

Indeed! Funny that eyes probably have more in common design-wise with the sensor in a digital camera than they do with film!

Rods and cones on the back of the retina.

The "image" perceived is up-side down and reversed left to right, just like on a ground glass. It's the human "software" that "corrects" the image, so that you can walk without falling over.🙂