Why print film rebate?

[Bob McCarthy]

If you cropped it out,

You can always add a new one with photoshop, piece of cake. You can even add in or change the notch code!!

bob

[Bob McCarthy]

If you cropped it out,

You can always add a new one with photoshop, piece of cake. You can even add in or change the notch code!!

The ones that are perfectly symmetrical, I assume have been "enhanced" with Photoshop.

bob

[Maris Rusis]

When I shoot 8x10 for contact work the film rebate border, an inherent artifact, is already in place even before I go chasing subject matter. Subject management and image management is merely the process that places stuff within that pre-existing border.

In the final gelatin-silver photograph the black border is a "verification border" that certifies that I take full personal responsibility for what lies within it. The border also certifies to the viewer that they may give themselves wholeheartedly to contemplating the photograph knowing that they are not a victim of some subterfuge or concealment.

[csant]

There is no right answer - there is just the answer each of us found for themselves. And for myself it is because "it is part of the process". I like seeing traces of the actual process in the final image, be it imperfections, rebates, or paper texture…

[tbeaman]

I think, a lot of the time, keeping the rebate showing in the final image has a lot to do with the relationship the author wants with the audience. By leaving it on, you bring attention to the process (and therefore, the photographer too), which then becomes part of the subject. To use a currently trendy word, it's "meta". That's why it's been used so much and is very much associated with that gritty documentary style. It's really kind of cynical and arrogant, but it works for what it is.

Now, these days, it's also used just as much to differentiate analog from digital. Analog has a certain prestige now, and to the youngins, it mostly spells out the word 'authenticity'. This makes it, of course, effectively not all that different from the earlier documentarians.

[D. Bryant]

In the final gelatin-silver photograph the black border is a "verification border" that certifies that I take full personal responsibility for what lies within it.

What Maris said! +1.

The border also certifies to the viewer that they may give themselves wholeheartedly to contemplating the photograph knowing that they are not a victim of some subterfuge or concealment.

Occasionally, I've done just the opposite. That is I've scanned and stitched 2 or 3 sheets of 4x5 and stitched them back together to fool the viewer about the film format being presented, i.e. 4x11.

Don

[Brian Ellis]

I think, a lot of the time, keeping the rebate showing in the final image has a lot to do with the relationship the author wants with the audience. By leaving it on, you bring attention to the process (and therefore, the photographer too), which then becomes part of the subject. To use a currently trendy word, it's "meta". That's why it's been used so much and is very much associated with that gritty documentary style. It's really kind of cynical and arrogant, but it works for what it is.

Now, these days, it's also used just as much to differentiate analog from digital. Analog has a certain prestige now, and to the youngins, it mostly spells out the word 'authenticity'. This makes it, of course, effectively not all that different from the earlier documentarians.

How does it differentiate analog from digital when it's a simple matter to add a film rebate to any digital image?

I don't do that myself but if in fact film carried "prestige" among the people who typically see my photographs I might consider it. The reason I don't do it with digital images and never did it with film (in fact I went to a lot of trouble to get rid of the rebate when I was contact printing) is the same reason why I use white window mats and a plain black or aluminum frame rather than colored mat and a fancy frame. I'm interested in the image, not the process, and I don't want to do anything that calls attention away from the image, which I think the rebate as well as fancy frames and mats do.

[Robert Skeoch]

I've always liked the look myself. Mostly with the larger negatives. My photos always need a crop (or two, or three) so I don't print with rebates.

I would if I could though.

-Rob

[Frank Petronio]

Avedon did it well ;-)

[Drew Wiley]

I've always gotten the distinct impression that showing the non-image border of a
piece of film in an actual print or image reproduction is CORN-E, WANNABEE, ARTSY-
CRAFTSY, as well as a very boring cliche by now.