Hello I recently purchased a canon Elan 7e, and I was interested in taking black and white photos, but I'm not sure what equipment I need. First of all a majority of the photos I'm going to be taking are of my children and some of my horse (hopefully running).

I purchased the camera and since then have been playing around with color film but now I want to try b and w. My ultimate goal is to paint the photos and display them in my home. However I'm a little discouraged because I recently read b and w are harder to manipulate. So saying here are my questions.

What kind of lighting should I be using in the house? What time of day should I take outside pictures? What kind of enlarger - if I get one now should I buy?

Also just so you know I am NOT wealthy, I saved for almost a year for that camera - for some reason I had to have it (originally I was going to buy the elan II but by the time I bought mine it was as much as the II was then). Anyway I also took pictures for many years with a point and shoot (canon) and mastered shots with the lighting (mastered as far as I'm concerned I'm sure other people would think differently but I'm simple). This new camera has been a little difficult to master, but I'm sure I will manage, but if anyone has any tips on the functioning of this camera I would greatly appreciate it, like how do I take action shots clearer?

Thank you for all the help. Also note: I have never taken any photography classes, but I'm usually a hands on person anyway. Well sorry for the long questions. Thanks again.

Jennifer

-- Jennifer Ballard (ballardjennifer@hotmail.com), February 11, 2001

Answers

Jennifer, if you will go through the topics in the forum, you will see many variations of your question, and a whole bunch of answers. What you are asking, and proposing to do, is not that simple. With black and white you have several choices, none of them easy or cheap:

- Take your film to a pro/custom lab and have them process it. If you don't have access to a pro lab, and you won't be doing your own processing, use chromogenic [C-41] black and white film such as Ilford's XP-2 Super, or Kodak's TCN-400, and take it to a one-hour lab.

- Set up your own darkroom, and learn how to do your own processing. Even if you get a used enlarger, that will probably cost you about $1000.00 - for starters and a pretty long 'learning curve.'

- Do your work on a computer, get Adobe Photoshop and an Epson printer, a scanner, and go that route. Not easy and cheap either.

- Take a course at a community college or someplace where they have a darkroom and offer such a course, might be a local photo club or arts organization, and then use their lab for all your work. If you can do that, that would be the cheapest and best way. You get lots of good advice, and will waste less time and money than with the above suggestions.

Good luck,

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), February 12, 2001.

Christian offers a lot of great suggestions.

Trying things out on chromogenic film might be the best way to break into B&W. No fuss, no muss. No need to have a darkroom (and the learning curve to use one!) nor do you have to pay someone else big $$ to develop the photos for you. Just take it to a 1 hour place.

As for Photoshop, that can run some serious bucks ($600). :-( As an alternative, buy Photoshop LE (~$99). It has alot of the good features of full size Photoshop but with less of a learning curve. If you decide later that you want the full version of Photoshop, Adobe will allow you to trade-up and knock off some of at $600 pricetag.

As for your questions: Type of indoor lighting and color balance will be less of a concern when doing B&W. Just be aware of light quality (brightness, harsh shadows, etc). B&W can't see color but man, it knows light! ;-)

Outdoor photos are best early and late in the day. Side lighting gives you a three dimensional perspective. Midday sun generally is flat and harsh lighting.

To freeze motion, you will want a fast shutter speed. That means you will probably use a fast film and a large aperture as well. You will want to pan with your action (horse galloping past you?).

If you can, try to take a photography course or start reading like mad. :-) There are plenty of good books out there that can teach you more. There are also good websites that offer photography tutorials. Visit Kodak.com and agfa.com. They offer good tutorials in their learning/library sections.

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), February 12, 2001.

Jennifer, Do try Kodak TCN-41, it is beautiful film for shooting your kids and it has the convienience and lattitude of Kodak 400 speed color film, avoid Kodak B&W Plus, it has an totally different look that I don't like and can't explain. TCN is just a great film, and it is easily "toned" by a lab that has half a clue. As far a lighting goes avoid high contrast situations, overcast days make wonderful soft light that is very pleasant on the faces of young ones. Also trust your cameras meter, but be aware of what you are metering especially in highly backlit situations, crop tight in such situations or use a flash to balance the light. A good fast lens, something that opens up to 2.8 makes great portrait, but they are spendy.As far as darkroom equipment goes; ask friends and friends of friends, they all have an aunt or uncle that had a darkroom at one time and usually have some equipment sitting around that they would love to move out of their closet. It isn't always the best stuff, but it is a good way to get started to see if you enjoy it, and then you can decide what to spend your hard earned money on. Hope this helped some.

Good Luck, Ted

-- Ted Miller (trm_jr@yahoo.com), February 18, 2001.

buy a cheap 80A or 80B filter (is blue) and a couple of halogen cheap lights (500 and 250w). have fun

-- Celcio (non@non.dot), March 07, 2001.