photo-breezing

Canonet QL17 GIII

also Bruce Gilden seems like such a dick

ha ha word
it's not like he even has this groundshaking collection of stolen pics like weegee's or anything, he just has shit he could probably achieve by waving a flash around in more amicable circumstances

Left the 6D at home today for the first time since I got it. Felt good not to have a kilo and a half slung over my shoulder but, of course, I'm assaulted by images all the way into work - sky like wrestling ghosts, vivid patterns in the rain-coated streets, a gaggle of hard-hats peering at a cherry-picker, so much signage. Good to refresh the senses though.

The last two years I've done a time based challenge/project (photo a day in 2012, portrait a week in 2013), it's been nice to not have anything like that hanging over me so far this year, both could be quite time consuming or distracting. I've enjoyed the space to think more about what I'd like to achieve with a camera this year, without having come to any conclusions. Maybe improve my developing technique.

I've set myself a deadline of March 31st to use up every roll of film currently in a camera and, thereafter, get an order into AG Photo at least every two months, concentrating on the FTb and the Bronica. I've let my film shooting lapse for so long I no longer have an unexpired roll in the house.

This is my wife's 1974-ish FTb and she's keen to start cranking through fast B&W again (but we don't have any!).

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5541/12180667223_d6229f51cb_c.jpg

(Taken at ISO 25600 with the 6D... you can kinda see the appeal of digital).

Picked up an open-box Sigma 85mm f/1.4 from Amazon for a (relatively) bargain price last week. Presumably it was returned to Amazon by its original buyer because it front-focuses like crazy. I'm hoping AF microadjust on my 6D can save it, because when it does nail focus it is gorgeous.

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg622/bizarrogazzara/2014-01-27_zpsd3d43943.jpg

(focus is a little off there, admittedly, but I like it anyway)

Thanks to cerealbar for the recommendation of Everybody Street upthread, by the way - I watched it recently and thought it was great, although I wished there was more on Elliot Erwitt, who I love.

I'm making books now. it's fun! Just doing blurb. it's a whole new angle to scanninglove.
also thanks to a very kind loan I'm messing with medium format! but maybe being too precious about shooting (it's only 8 photos per roll at 6x9!). it's tough to decide between formats since I've never had that question before.
I also picked up 4 wolfgan tillmans books last night and they're great!
so long flickr... hello bookworld.

sweet bokeh bizarro

I know, right? Even if the lens does turn out to be a dud I think I'll have to get another one at full price because I dunno if I can live without access to that kind of optical quality.

china that's really inspirational!! keep us posted

Getting pretty excited about Blurb myself, having just offered it as an option to a bride'n'groom. I should do a test run with 20 pix of the kids first...

i've spent a while on blurb's website and still can't quite get what it costs... like, a 40 page book is gonna run you around $40 right?

bokeh computer

Well, I'm looking at the UK site and...

40 pages, standard paper (118gsm), 10x8, softcover = £17
40 pages, Proline Pearl (190gsm), 12x12, hardcover w/image wrap = £60

I guess I'd go for something inbetween - premium lustre (148gsm), 13x11, hardcover w/dust jacket, £46. A fiver to ship.

I know what I'm doing this evening.

I did a 20 page 7x7 as a test. I guess I'll get it in a couple of weeks. I think it was $15 or so, and then maybe $25 with tax and shipping? My girlfriend printed a couple that came recently and they look nice. She did one on matte and one on a semi-gloss, and I sort of preferred the matte.
I'm just gonna make cheap stuff for now until I have a layout and order I like. Then maybe I'll do a small batch.

I've had a voucher for Whitewall since the summer (unexpected leaving gift from changing jobs) but struggling to settle on one thing to get printed.

Haven't made a book myself yet but did help my mum do a holiday one. What's the quality like from Blurb?

how big should image files be for a 7x7? are my drugstore scans not gonna cut it?

don't think they need to be that big really. I resize my pictures for 6x4, and for the book I sized down to 90%.
Sooo... that's 5.4" x 3.6" and at that size an image that is 1620 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high would print at 300 dpi, which is plenty high res.

hey have we never had a hysterical matte vs gloss print discussion on ILP? bc FUCK GLOSS

And now I've spent the evening putting a book together.

Me too! Just a simple 7x7, soft cover, 40pp, kids' pics from 2013. Should be under £20 with postage. Rendering out to Blurb now...

Did you use Lightroom to put it together? I've done mine that way, felt a lot easier to work with than any web editor I've tried before. I think I have my final version now, won't order it til tomorrow night though just in case I think of something else I want to change.

ILP books in '14

Yeah, Lightroom. I kept it very simple.

Made this motherfucker:

http://richardgin.tumblr.com/post/74949332873/good-morning-internet-friends-i-am-pleased-and

Let me know how your Blurb stuff looks. I'm so anal about my colors that I decided to just go w a c-town printer in NYC (vs blurb or shutterfly or kodak or w/e) because I would have rather have the 'we only guarantee to w/in 10%' problem removed from me so I can say "well It's a digital print wtf do you want, dummy?"

Blurb etc all seem so permanent; if I pay 40 bux to have a book made it had better be goddamn ass perfect.

I bought that motherfucker.

(My Blurb book, with shipping and first-time LR discount, was £15. I guess any I order this year for weddings are going to be £50+).

my gf's brother and his gf made a photo book for their parents of their italy trip (which we were also on) and immediately because furious and jealous that I didn't do that myself. I just don't have the need/financials to do a bulk order and get a discount of any note

also your motherfucker is going out TOMORROW dogg

Pretty excited.

To me, the biggest hurdle is any non-photographic content. I'm no great designer, I don't have the tools anyway and, going by last night's experience, it's fairly tedious to layout text and so on in Lightroom. You don't want the cover of a wedding album or whatever to be just thrown together and, if it's a showcase of work for sale, it better be brilliant. I really like your letterpressed cover. I have a friend who could do this...but I'm not sure it would be possible with a finished hardback book with the gear he has.

having a printer you can talk to is a p big deal. mine was INSISTING that we make the cover separate from the guts of the book and then stitch them together. letterpress machines don't like having whole books stuffed into them, y'see.

depending on how DIY/punk rock you are willing to get look @ silkscreen instead of letterpress?

My wife used to do silkscreen; we have Gocco but the ink/bulbs now seem hard to find. She also use to do bookbinding. Somehow I think there enough skills at hand to fashion something, if I just take the pictures. For now, let's see what I can do with LR/Blurb. I'm just lazy - I wanted to be able to knock something together in the Books module in like five minutes and it took - JESUS - ten. If I'm getting paid or aiming to make something worthwhile, I'm sure it won't seem so irksome to take a couple of evenings over it, and learn all the tricks.

JtM which Ctown printer did you use?

Also can I buy this in like 2 weeks?

Hello! Yes I used g&p on Baxter. They were rec by a dude who knows more abt printing than I do. They also beat minuteman by a few hundred bux in a blind bid.

Also as much as I want to say otherwise there will be copies next wk!

http://browncardigan.s3.amazonaws.com/imagesfarm/2014/LbdpMXkjorLaMDm.gif

My Blurb book turned up today, had gone for a hardback with standard weight paper (I think). The quality is quite good, the paper is a good thickness and the hardback is sturdy. Not sure how resilient the binding is though, and the print quality is good rather than excellent, but I guess these are downsides of print-to-order efforts.

Actually it was the Premium Matt paper. Link to it here: http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/5052725-fifty-two-people

One thing I forgot to say was that the layout of the text works better on screen than it does in the actual book.

removed from public view...

Ah, sorry, this might work: http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/4288949/59bfde5051c2d90ac1d143c61d71b684d4bd574c

Here's a couple of crap phone snaps of my Blurb book. I like it, it's pretty good. Print quality a bit better than the likes of Photobox but I'd be interested to see what it looks like on different paper.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7412/12320708875_97a753d5c6_z.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3805/12320705405_7d2577f775_z.jpg

oh yeah I got my test book back and I'm pretty pleased! printed on the cheapest paper.
the only element I haven't liked is the way text is printed on the cover stock. it's a little 'soft' and looks sort of cheap, but I'm totally satisfied with the print quality inside the book.
of course the pictures don't look like inkjet prints, and I never really wanted them to. they look like digital offset, which is just fine and, importantly, I think the color reproduction is nice! comparable to commercial photo books that I like.

hows the black density

http://gizmodo.com/led-streetlights-will-change-hollywood-and-make-every-c-1514840416

:( :( :(

First thought is that the new LED lights make LA look like a video game

a cool dream of an led-enriched future is their potential to simplify mechanical projection of film, replacing awkward/hot/scarce old lamps inside small gauge projectors
but yeah that's interesting! like gaslamps -> electric almost

in theory LEDs are dialable to kelvin of choice but god knows we can't be bothered to set a lamp at, like, 4000 K vs 5600 K to keep people from going crazy. on the other hand, alaska in winter

This is my aunt's ceiling lamp, I love the mismatched bulbs (two inc's and 1 fluoro I think)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9627011/pphotos/colortemp.jpg

The original teal & orange.xls