Originally Posted by
henrysamson
Way back in the 70's I got a job at a NASA base as a photographer. I was given a Crown Graphic, a Honeywell flash and a bunch of grafmatic 6 sheet film holders. The strobe was the kind that had an external high voltage battery that was in a pack that I wore over my shoulder. The head was attached to a flash bulb handle that was attached to the camera and provided a nice hand grip. I would load the holders with 4x5 Tri-X and shoot all kinds of PR stuff. Award ceremonies, group shots, grip and grins, etc. I shot handheld with natural light outside or the strobe inside. The leaf shutter in the lens (135mm) synced at all speeds so it was possible to use the flash to fill in the shadows a bit in direct sunlight. Yes, I did use a tripod when it was appropriate and possible. After an assignment the film would be developed in a Kodak Versamat processor and come out dry in about 7 minutes.
I know that by this time most of this kind of work was being shot on 35mm but our manager was kind of old school. Also, it allowed us to take just a couple of shots, process the film and have it in the print lab very quickly. It also gave our "customers" fewer shots to choose from and streamlined the workflow. Last but not least, the photographs came out a lot better that 35mm. The tones were much smoother and 8x10 prints were grainless and reasonable cropping could be done without loss of quality. It was easy to edit the shots since the negative was so large. I learned a lot and it was a great experience. I've done it some myself over the years and it is a lot of fun and attracts a lot of attention.
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