No Products in the Cart
Some decades ago there was a brief business opportunity for Olde Tyme Photo Studios at Ren fairs and theme parks. There are probably still a couple running at Sovereign Hill and they are either making money or losing it.
These ventures could be tough going, as getting a dull public to dress, pose, and act in any theatrical way is always difficult. If there are costumes and props as well as
scenery and premises, it starts to cost a long time before it pays.
So real retro with plate cameras or digitals masquerading as such is a hard proposition, and not really what we consider. Do it if you can, as I have, but do it with a realisation that you’re holding a losing hand.
However, retro with your new retro camera is not hard if someone is willing to dress up to match it, pose to order, and think like thry did a few years ago. You too.
Retro pictures were fewer in the taking, fewer in the darkroom, and fewer in the resultant prints. Many weddings were three rolls of B/W and one short one of colour. Most were taken with on-camera flash for the candids, with a few off-camera setups in the gardens. Holiday snaps were one or two ( expensive ) rolls of colour transparency film and exposures were not wasted.
Exposures were sometimes missed...though you need not do this deliberately. So was focus, though not as much as you'd think. The process was slower then, and people could take time to line up a rangefinder bar or see a microprism clearly.
People did attempt exposures in dark conditions that just didn't work well. Later years and transparency scanning was needed to reveal what the photographer really thought they were capturing.
" Think back " is the phrase to keep in mind when you compose or expose.
Written by Richard Stain
