pHOTO TALK
Prepared by the staff of Marshall’s Camera
Auburndale, Florida -A11

So you hope that your pictures will look as good as your memory of the scene. Read our columns to make this happen.

QUESTION: When I looked into the viewfinder of my camera the other day a black spot had suddenly appeared near the center of the screen. I pointed the camera in different directions but the spot remained. Even after the lens was cleaned the spot stayed there. I am afraid that it will show up on the pictures. A camera repair place said that camera would have to be taken apart to remove the spot and that the cost would be close to a hundred dollars. What caused the spot and how can it be removed without spending a lot of money?
ANSWER: First of all if you are using a film camera the spot will not show up in the final picture. The spot that you see is caused by a small speck in the viewing system of the camera. When the camera lens is zoomed out air is pulled into the camera. Unless you live in a perfect world dust will also find its way into the camera along with the air. Eventually some of this dust will be deposited in the viewing system. Interestingly enough even extremely small mites and other creatures have managed to expire in the viewing system leaving us to wonder how that could have happened. If you have a simple 35mm camera the viewing system is completely separate from the lens and shutter that is used to take the picture. On the other hand if you have a single lens reflex 35mm camera the mirror flips up and seals the viewing system off from the lens when the shutter opens and shuts to expose the film. So in either situation the speck in the viewing system will not be in the image that creates the picture. If a small speck happens to be on the lens there will not be any effect on the picture as each point on the picture is created by light coming from a relatively large area of the front of the lens. So the worse thing that the speck in the viewing system can do is detract from that magnificent picture which you are composing in the viewfinder.
QUESTION: My uncle is moving into an assisted living facility and he wants to give me all his darkroom equipment that he has used for years. I have a place to set it up. Should I spend time learning how to develop and print pictures or should I just keep on making digital prints like I am doing now?

ANSWER: A few years ago a question like this would not have been asked, but times have changed. Digital photography has advanced to the point where many photographic hobbyists are now electing to make all their prints digitally rather than using the traditional silver based darkroom methods. Digital printing appeals to many people because it does not have to be done in the dark, there are no smelly chemicals involved, and picture alteration is much easier to do. So, with all this said, why would anyone want to make prints the traditional way?
Traditional printing still offers a few advantages over digital printing especially if one wishes to work in black and white. Silver based black and white prints of over one hundred years in age are not rare while the jury is still out on the longevity of digital prints. If one wants to make a big print the traditional way then just raise the head of the enlarger. If even larger prints are needed then projection of the image on the floor or the other side of the room is possible. Of course larger developing trays might have to be made but that never stopped anyone with ingenuity. If printing paper big enough cannot be found then liquid emulsion can be bought so that light sensitive material can be made as needed.
If you are making your prints with a digital printer then the print size is limited by the width of the paper that the machine will hold. The low cost amateur printers on the market today hold paper up to eight and one half inches wide.
Of course the biggest reason to learn to print the traditional way to to satisfy your curiosity. You will never know what the advantages and disadvantages are until you try it out.
So my advice is to get the equipment and learn how to use it. If you think the effort is too much for the prints that are made then the equipment can always be sold or given away to some other deserving person. So, in thirty or forty years when no young person has any idea what you are talking about, you can brag about how you used to “make pictures in a darkroom.”
Marshall’s Camera offers classes on Beginning Photography for film and digital cameras. Class dates are found on the website: MarshallsCamera.com
Email us at: Phototalk@ MarshallsCamera.com
Copyright 2004 by Marshall Ledbetter