For Christmas somewhere between fifty and sixty years ago, my uncle gave me the books by Ansel Adams, THE NEGATIVE, THE PRINT, and THE CAMERA, and I just thought he was the best thing alive...then I saw THIS video...I immediately realized how simple, pure, and exacting it was. No enlarger, I think, mainly, was mainly responsible for its purity, plus his attitude toward it.
Thanks for making this video! My high school photography class got to go on a day-long field trip to Point Lobos to photograph and then we got a private tour of the property, darkroom and got to talk to Kim for as long as we wanted about anything we wanted to, a seminal day in my photography career, thanks for making this video! It reminds me of that awesome day!
thank you i visted mr weston darkroom with the friends of photography years ago it was magic then and and now with again.wonderful a true master of the art of seeing.
Thanks for sharing this delicious insight into Ed's place ans work. A great lesson of simplicity and artist's determination. Photographic cheers from France, Jean
Thanks for this! Took me back to my days in the darkroom in high school and the magic of watching your picture develop. Back then, in the early ‘90’s, they made us wear rubber gloves so we wouldn’t touch the chemicals!
Back when Weston, Adams, etc. started B&W film was orthochromatic (not sensitive to red light) and it was the common practice to develop sheet film visually in trays, similar to how prints are, pulling them from the developer at the point where experience told the photographer the density in the highlights matched the range of the print paper they were using. Thus the axiom ‘Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights (to fit dynamic range of print). Adams’ Zone System - which I used from 1971-1990 - was based on the same principle because he liked to make all his prints on the same grade of paper. But for Panchromatic film which had to be developed in total darkness one needed to know the EV range of scene from shadow-to-highlight in order to know (based on previous testing) how long to develop the film for sunny, cloudy, overcast or open shade lighting contrast. Adams used an early version of a spot meter to determine the EV range. 1 EV = 2x as much light. A primitive form of spot meter was a card with two holes in it, one clear and the other with a strip of variable neutral density. Each .30 of ND = 1 EV. You’d put the clear hole over the shadow area and one with ND over highlight, pulling on the strip until the ND made the two appear the same. A 2.4 ND would be an 8 EV range, 2.7 ND = 9EV range, 3.0 = 10EV, 3.3ND = 11EV, etc. I had an electronic spot meter when I learned the Adams Zone system making it much easier to directly meter the shadow of the scene for exposure then highlight for EV range and know exactly how long to develop the negative, or if using consistent developed and changing paper grade of Polycontrast paper what filter pack to use when printing.
6:52 They talk about developing the print (I doubt Ansel used Dektol for negatives), so how does it make a difference if you enlarge or contact print? It is about the grain of the paper here, not of the enlarged grain of the negative.
When you enlarged a negative to make a print you magnified whatever grain pattern was on the negative. The point he was making at 6:52 was that since Weston didn’t make enlargement he didn’t worry much about grain on the film negative. The other advantage with contact printing is that anytime optics are involved there will be some degradation of sharpness.
Contact prints are also better quality. You lose a certain amount of sharpness and detail when you enlarge a negative, regardless of how large you go. No matter how good your enlarging lens is, it’s still not as good as a contact print.
It was the Leave it to Beaver generation. Nothing in the home was ever as it appeared. Yet how I would have been alive at that time to try to learn from him.
You're welcome. Now you have no excuses. A diy cardboard pinhole camera, 8x10 paper negatives, a bare light bulb and 25 cats. You, too, can be Edward Weston ;-)
Please, as a suggestion for your next videos. Put some captions for non-native english speakers, because sometimes the person speaks low or we can't understand some words just by listening to them.
Viewing Edwards prints in person at the Gallery in Carmel I was really put back by the poor quality. Ansel Adams works was also there and his prints are light years better.
If you read Adams' autobiography, he comments on his fellow photographers. On Edwards, he notes that Edwards had almost no technical knowledge of the photo process and worked pretty much by trial and error. The talk here about "pre-visualization" by Edwards to a total crock, a revision of history to fit modern expectations. Note the talk about Dektol and Amidol(which is an agent, not a developer) as relatively fine grain (film developer). These are paper developers, not for film, and neither are "fine grain".
Like Weston, Adams, Carteir-Bresson, Avadon, and so many more.... You are a treasure to photography, Marc Silber! Thank you for all you do.
Monty, I'm honored by your kind words, thanks much.
Monty, want to be my publicist?!
Advancing Your Photography what would that entail?
Monty shoot me an email ayp@silberstudios.com
Avadon has no relationship with Weston. Sorry.
For Christmas somewhere between fifty and sixty years ago, my uncle gave me the books by
Ansel Adams, THE NEGATIVE, THE PRINT, and THE CAMERA, and I just thought he was the best thing alive...then I saw THIS video...I immediately realized how simple, pure, and exacting it was.
No enlarger, I think, mainly, was mainly responsible for its purity, plus his attitude toward it.
Yes I have them too and still use those books!
What a treat that was! Loved hearing the family stories and seeing the space where he lived and worked. Thanks for the wonderful video!
Feeling privileged to be watching a legend work.
👍👍
I’ve never cleared my throat so much in my life while watching a video!
Joke aside: thanks for sharing this gem!
Thanks for making this video! My high school photography class got to go on a day-long field trip to Point Lobos to photograph and then we got a private tour of the property, darkroom and got to talk to Kim for as long as we wanted about anything we wanted to, a seminal day in my photography career, thanks for making this video! It reminds me of that awesome day!
what a great experience! Next time you're here, look me up, we're 5 mins from Weston's
I definitely will!
thank you i visted mr weston darkroom with the friends of photography years ago it was magic then and and now with again.wonderful a true master of the art of seeing.
So great you had a chance to see it, it's is magical.
Excellent Black & White presentation.
Fantastic video. Love the way that Edward Weston developed his images and this was a real insight and inspiration. Thanks for posting.
Thanks so much for watching!
I was fortunate to visit Wildcat Hill in 2010 and be given a tour of Edward’s darkroom by his grandson Kim.
I had chills just being there.
I know - it’s a sacred spot indeed!
I enjoyed this very creative, fun, interesting way of integrating old footage into your interview.
Fred
thanks Fred and I had fun editing it!
Thanks for sharing this delicious insight into Ed's place ans work. A great lesson of simplicity and artist's determination.
Photographic cheers from France, Jean
Thanks for this! Took me back to my days in the darkroom in high school and the magic of watching your picture develop. Back then, in the early ‘90’s, they made us wear rubber gloves so we wouldn’t touch the chemicals!
Thank you! It was pleasure to watch. :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fantastic thank for this video ✌️✌️✌️😎😎😎 And cool the video is in Black & white
Back when Weston, Adams, etc. started B&W film was orthochromatic (not sensitive to red light) and it was the common practice to develop sheet film visually in trays, similar to how prints are, pulling them from the developer at the point where experience told the photographer the density in the highlights matched the range of the print paper they were using. Thus the axiom ‘Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights (to fit dynamic range of print).
Adams’ Zone System - which I used from 1971-1990 - was based on the same principle because he liked to make all his prints on the same grade of paper. But for Panchromatic film which had to be developed in total darkness one needed to know the EV range of scene from shadow-to-highlight in order to know (based on previous testing) how long to develop the film for sunny, cloudy, overcast or open shade lighting contrast. Adams used an early version of a spot meter to determine the EV range. 1 EV = 2x as much light.
A primitive form of spot meter was a card with two holes in it, one clear and the other with a strip of variable neutral density. Each .30 of ND = 1 EV. You’d put the clear hole over the shadow area and one with ND over highlight, pulling on the strip until the ND made the two appear the same. A 2.4 ND would be an 8 EV range, 2.7 ND = 9EV range, 3.0 = 10EV, 3.3ND = 11EV, etc.
I had an electronic spot meter when I learned the Adams Zone system making it much easier to directly meter the shadow of the scene for exposure then highlight for EV range and know exactly how long to develop the negative, or if using consistent developed and changing paper grade of Polycontrast paper what filter pack to use when printing.
This was a joy, Thank You
🙏
A wonderful documentary. Thx so much, Marc. I learnt a lot. 👍🤩
Thanks, yes much to learn from him.
Спасибо за публикацию видео. Приятно смотреть как работал великий фотограф! Всегда хочется узнавать больше.
A craft skill as exciting as exposing plate or film itself
Technique !
Thank you. Great video on darkroom Masters.
Thank you a bunch for this! What a treat! Very inspiring.
👍💥
great fun, thank you
That was gold
Wonderful! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for making this!
you're welcome Paul!
Well done. Thank you.
Thank you too!
Super
the footage from the documentary at the end actually uses music from Hitchcock's Suspicion !
Patience & time...
From the u.k. excellent.
6:52 They talk about developing the print (I doubt Ansel used Dektol for negatives), so how does it make a difference if you enlarge or contact print? It is about the grain of the paper here, not of the enlarged grain of the negative.
When you enlarged a negative to make a print you magnified whatever grain pattern was on the negative. The point he was making at 6:52 was that since Weston didn’t make enlargement he didn’t worry much about grain on the film negative. The other advantage with contact printing is that anytime optics are involved there will be some degradation of sharpness.
Contact prints are also better quality. You lose a certain amount of sharpness and detail when you enlarge a negative, regardless of how large you go. No matter how good your enlarging lens is, it’s still not as good as a contact print.
This guy was a great lover of, you guessed it, women!
yes he was and made beautiful photos of them
It was the Leave it to Beaver generation. Nothing in the home was ever as it appeared. Yet how I would have been alive at that time to try to learn from him.
I am so Inspired by Edward Weston,That i Still shoot with my 4x5 Large format camera!!!
Good fo you! I should too and now that his grandson opened up a darkroom in our area I have no excuses!
Great video. Would you mind sharing the missing credits for the film on Weston? Thanks.
Hey Bruno yo can see them here archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.46998
@@marcsilber Thanks. Legally and ethically shouldn’t they be more obvious,? Think if your own work was treated that way?
Thanks again. I wonder, is there more of the old film documentary to view?
th-cam.com/video/5sF8K1NfHnM/w-d-xo.html
Andrew Bowers thanks. I just watched the Weston Video.
You're welcome. Now you have no excuses. A diy cardboard pinhole camera, 8x10 paper negatives, a bare light bulb and 25 cats. You, too, can be Edward Weston ;-)
Please, as a suggestion for your next videos. Put some captions for non-native english speakers, because sometimes the person speaks low or we can't understand some words just by listening to them.
Can we see somewhere the original old documentary which starts and ends this video? Greetings from Poland :)
I will be posting it with some additions, stay tuned.
th-cam.com/video/5sF8K1NfHnM/w-d-xo.html
REPLY
Viewing Edwards prints in person at the Gallery in Carmel I was really put back by the poor quality. Ansel Adams works was also there and his prints are light years better.
If you read Adams' autobiography, he comments on his fellow photographers. On Edwards, he notes that Edwards had almost no technical knowledge of the photo process and worked pretty much by trial and error. The talk here about "pre-visualization" by Edwards to a total crock, a revision of history to fit modern expectations. Note the talk about Dektol and Amidol(which is an agent, not a developer) as relatively fine grain (film developer). These are paper developers, not for film, and neither are "fine grain".
Randall Stewart really that is interesting for sure thank you I need to get Adams Biography.
"Crossdressing parties were a regular event." California at its best.
Who is the woman with him ?
It’s one of his assistants at the time
Yeah, but who?@@marcsilber
This is my manager’s grandfather lol
#crossdressingparties
Brilliant! Thank you for sharing