[Leica] Film Lab

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

I?ve seen this a lot on the internet and it?s not true or don?t agree with 
it? it?s not true. But it?s really out there being passed around big time 
and achieving some unfortunate credulity as that?s how information spreds 
now. The better virus wins. And you never know which Meme will fly and which 
will die.
And that?s this backing up to analog as if chemistry based stuff is more 
archival than digital. Or just thinking you are covered if you have a film 
or paper copy of something.
When we all first heard about this new digital thing coming out the basic 
idea behind the whole thing was the advantage of digital is its digital. 
You make a copy of the thing and the it?s a clone not a copy. It?s the same 
only it exists in a different space.  For photography that?s revolutionary. 
Because in the past when make a copy of a negative or of a print and hold 
them side by side and they are no way identical. The ?copy? of the thing in 
most cases is a sad joke.  So, you try to avoid copies. You cover yourself 
as you?re shooting. You go ?click? a bunch of times not just once or twice. 
The best copy or backup is another origional.
More to the point is the reality that the minute your film is dry or your 
print is dry it starts decomposing; leaking gasses, fading, and staining, 
changing color. Film and prints exist in the organic carbon based world just 
like people and trees. Film is made from dead bunnies (the gelatin). Prints 
are made from that and cotton and wood. Just like people they are dying the 
minute they are born. Returning to the earth from whence they came?
So your film based print and the film itself is not the same image as every 
day goes by. Every day in every way your print is worser and worser. Film 
too. Not as much.
This is a main advantage not disadvantage of digital. It?s a plus check not 
a minus. You could claim to hate the ?digital look? but go with it anyway 
because it lasts forever. Its digital.  Other than the small possibility of 
an isolated file getting corrupted when you go to your digital file to 
Photoshop it again to print it or put it up on the internet again a decade 
or so later you?re NOT dealing with a faded different version of the thing. 
In digital if you can get that single file open it?s the same file you dealt 
the first-time decades going by.  Not one 100000th of a percent different.
And if that file doesn?t open you grab another older backup hard disk and it 
will.
In the past decade, my digital body of work is on hard disks and right here 
near me. My chemical body of work is in a storage cubicle with fumes coming 
out of each and every print and neg and slide.  I?ve not seen it in a few 
days I hope to soon and I don?t pass out from the gasses as I open the door.
By the way if one print or roll of film is under fixed or under washed it 
gives off a lot more and nastier gases than the stuff which was properly 
fixed and washed sitting near it or in the same closet. So, the properly 
processed stuff is probably fading at an accelerated rate too.  
The chemical analog workflow is messy. The advantages are hard to find. And 
if there are any advantages to film archivalness is not one of them. 

-- 

Mark William Rabiner
Photographer

On 6/7/17, 4:14 AM, "LUG on behalf of Dan Khong" 
<lug-bounces+mark=rabinergroup.com at leica-users.org on behalf of dankhong 
at gmail.com> wrote:

    I just souped a roll of Tri-X and waiting to send it to the pro-lab to 
have
    it scanned into digital. After that, I have the options of two work
    processes - digital and analog. And my negatives will serve as my 
archival
    backup.
    
    All said, 90% of my B&W pics (100% of color) are now taken on digital, 
but
    it's the last bit that is analog that gives me memories that spans back 
50
    years when film was there in the most impressionable years of my life.
    Those were the days of Nam and protest songs, and growing up into
    adulthood.
    
    Dan K.
    
 
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