Once upon a time there was a big trend, right after films and lenses became faster--say ASA 400 and f/1.4--to shoot everything available light. I like the approach used it for years but I wasn't getting paid for my production. Many famous "available light" pix were carefully composed, subjects often directed to move into bright ambient light before shots were made, candles added to tables, cigarettes lighted, etc. This was the era of "Gene" Smith at Life magazine. Roughly the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. Needless to say combat photographers rarely used flash units. Weegee was from an earlier era, he carried a Speed Graphic and pockets full of Press 25 or 5 bulbs, or even bigger number 1's and 2's. Shots were occasionally made with multiple flash units usually hard wired together, rigs were commercially made that held 3 press bulbs to fire at once to deliver even more light. Night shots of speeding locomotives were done with hundreds of bulbs strung parallel to the railroad tracks to evenly illuminate the length of the entire train. Currently most work for papers is shot in color even if the planned usage is black and white. With color you want daylight balance illumination so everyone shoots flash. You shoot color all the time. Digital color--just as easy as BW and a snap to convert if needed and people will order color reprints more readily than black and white and many papers take their reprint orders to Walmart. A tidy sum of extra income. Wetlab color, easier to maintain just a C-41 line than C-41 and black and white. Color film is cheaper than black and white, stringers can buy more film locally in a pinch. C-41 press films push rather well. C-41 processing time is about half of what Black and White requires. And color reprint orders (again) sell better than black and white. darkroommike ---------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert G. Earnest" <rge@earnestphoto.com> To: "List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students" <photoforum@listserver.isc.rit.edu> Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 9:29 PM Subject: Re: do newpaper phojos carry lights > > I have had a hard time thinking about this thread. It seems silly to > ask, "Do newspaper phojos carry lights?" > > I reckon a better discussion would be "Do newspaper phojos generally > carry lights? Why or why not?" > > I would like to think that good photographers of every ilk do and use > whatever they need to accomplish the task at hand. If phojo's are locked > to a "shoot 'em as they lie" form of implied integrity, than I can see > not using a flash. > > On the other hand I would suspect that using a flash does more than > simply make the scene look differently. It would impact the situation > and change the course of action of the people being photographed by > alerting them to the fact that they are being recorded. (imagine how > different Spirers work would be if he used a flash) > > I can think of one instance when it wouldn't make a difference but I am > not sure if Weegee was a phojo. > > r >
