29,000 Photos to Tell a Story

[Brian C. Miller]

Or, why National Geographic wasn't using large format cameras in 2000.

Because that's the average number of photographs for each article in NG. Over 800 rolls of 35mm film per article. For each photograph you saw in the magazine, there were over 1,900 that didn't make it.



At least watch the first three minutes. Then Marcus Donner discusses how he did 600 captures to illustrate a story about swing dancing.

Now, how would you do that with large format?



"A velvet hand, a hawk's eye, these we all should have... If the shutter was released at the decisive moment, you have instinctively fixed a geometric pattern without which the photograph would have been both formless and lifeless."
Henri Cartier-Bresson

[jonreid]

Grafmatics

[biedron]

I only watched the first 5 minutes or so, but I was struck by the fact that as a "professional" photographer, it took him quite a few shots with the refinery structure in the background before he realized that made a pretty poor backdrop for the Lindy Hop dancers.

Bob

[bob carnie]

I could be corrected

But In The American West by Richard Avedon, he exposed 17000 8x10 negatives and then culled down to around 110 images for the show.

Having the experience of processing 8x10 film I can attest this is an incredible amount of film to document a story.
I can process 5 8 x10 sheets at a time maximum 10 runs a day.. this would mean 3400 runs of film = about 1 year of processing, not to mention contacts , edit printing and framing.

[Brian Ellis]

Wait a minute! I thought "spray and pray" was a practice that started with digital cameras.

[Jim Jones]

In the 1970s a Playboy photographer mentioned shooting a model 600 times on 8x10 Ektachrome at $6 a pop to get the coverage (or uncoverage) they wanted for a centerspread feature. The model also got a few thousand, and very good publicity (or pubicity?). Then a 36 exposure B&W roll cost about one dollar.

Not all of the NGS photographers were trigger happy. Cole Weston returned from an assignment of underwater photography with just a few rolls of film, much to the shock of the desk-bound experts at NGS.

William Henry Jackson worked all day to get three wet plate negatives in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The darkroom tent was erected at the top of the canyon. Each exposure involved descending to a good location, setting up the camera, returning to the darkroom, preparing the wet plate, descending to the camera, making the exposure, and climbing back to the darkroom to process the plate before it had a chance to dry. Then the process was repeated. It must have been a good life; he lived to be almost 100, although he did eventually use a Leica.

[Kirk Gittings]

Wait a minute! I thought "spray and pray" was a practice that started with digital cameras.

!!!!!!!No way. You mean Auto focus, Auto Exposure and Auto Film Advance actually existed before digital?

[C. D. Keth]

Having the experience of processing 8x10 film I can attest this is an incredible amount of film to document a story.
I can process 5 8 x10 sheets at a time maximum 10 runs a day.. this would mean 3400 runs of film = about 1 year of processing, not to mention contacts , edit printing and framing.

Keep in mind that nearly all of Avedon's processing and printing was done by assistants.

[bob carnie]

So the point being?? thats one hell of a lot of film assistant or no assistant, he still stood in front of the camera and made 17000 exposures, I would like assistants for that gig as well.

Keep in mind that nearly all of Avedon's processing and printing was done by assistants.

[C. D. Keth]

So the point being?? thats one hell of a lot of film assistant or no assistant, he still stood in front of the camera and made 17000 exposures, I would like assistants for that gig as well.

He had assistants for location, too. My point was just that he wasn't shooting 30 or 40 sheets in a day and then going home and developing for 4 hours. Avedon had a veritable factory going at that point.