“How did the people 20 or 30 years ago shoot high quality pictures?
I can answer that:
we generally used ISO 64 and 100 film, or at a stretch ISO 400 film, and lots of it and Polaroid as a proofing material. Back then I was spending US 20 to 30,000 a year on film, processing and Polaroid per year (all billed to clients at marked up prices. And I was a midddlingly successful journeyman photographer. Many photographers in the tied above me were using 2-4 times that much film, processing, and Polaroid
Depending on the assignment and intended use and how the photographer liked to work that’s formats from 35mm to the medium formats (6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, and 6x9, 6x12, and 6x17cm) and 4x5 inch with a monorail view camera. Lighting was mostly done with 800 to 4800 w-s packs and heads - sometimes multiples of those. My most technically demanding job required 20 2400 w-s packs and 40 heads to light up a half block long machine that transformed tons of molten aluminum into rolls 10 feet wide and I was shooting on both 35mm and 4x5. But for a typical editorial and business portrait I used 1 or 2 2400 w-s packs and up to four heads. The packs were not always set to full power but it was good to have it if needed.
It's not all about sharpness and technical quality, is it?
Since your question is about “high quality pictures” sharpness and technical quality are technical baselines, but without imagination and the ability to think and see, and an emotional and intellectual understanding of why one photo works when 20 or 40 (or more) of the same person or thing from the same shoot made with the same gear, don’t, all the technique and technical quality are meaningless. Outside of a photographer’s inherent imagination, sense of emotional honesty, and intellect, the way you start to understand why one photograph is better than another is to work your butt off, make mistakes, and move on using what you’ve learned as fuel for progress.
Being able to consistently make good high quality photographs might look easy but it’s not. It takes work. Making it look easy to others takes even more work.
Judge what I just spent half and hour writing by taking a look at my portfolio (links below)
--
Ellis Vener
To see my work, please visit
http://www.ellisvener.com
I am on Instagram @EllisVenerStudio
“If I have any advice to give, it is that a photographer should learn to work with the minimum amount of equipment. The more you are able to forget your equipment, the more time you have to concentrate on the subject and on the composition. The camera should become an extension of your eye, nothing more.”- Ernst Haas from the afterword to his monograph “The Creation” (1972
