Author Archives: Robert

make a date with f/8

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Those of us who used 2-1/4 or 35mm cameras and film are familiar with the aperture setting f/8. It is a great mid range setting offering a nice balance of speed and depth of field for outdoors. The delightful … Continue reading →

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shady stuff

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Don’t you wish your photos were crisp and contrasty like those of an accomplished professional? One issue last century was soft contrast caused by reflections from individual lens elements. Post war, element coating became common and with it a … Continue reading →

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and to cap it off …

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Dust and dirt everywhere! How can you keep it out of camera bodies and lenses? Easy, cap the openings! Since the early days of photography, caps have been used to keep out dust and dirt when the camera or … Continue reading →

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hardly ever

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. In the late 1950s, I bought my Exakta VX IIa complete with an “ever-ready” case. Like many youths of the day, we called these “never-ready”cases since the camera couldn’t be used until the case was opened. When the box … Continue reading →

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spot on

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. One big difference between amateur photographs, and those made by professionals and advanced amateurs, was illumination. Indoors, the professional went to great lengths to illuminate his subject bringing out the nuances of its very existence whether a human, an … Continue reading →

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so you want to be in pictures

Posted on July 14, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Do you remember the old Joe McDoakes shorts that used to run before the main feature in the movie palaces? That was the source for our post title! In this case, you can get into a pdf, but only … Continue reading →

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green and it’s gone

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Have you ever watched a girl like this showing off fashion articles in exotic places? Or a weather girl on TV and saw the various detailed weather maps and videos behind her? Or joined a ZOOM meeting where participants … Continue reading →

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the invisible man

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Photography was a success when latent images were discovered (plus a fixer solution). Silver salts, or silver-halides as they were later called were molecules of silver and a “salt” bonded together. These molecules were light sensitive. The stronger the … Continue reading →

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a colourful French gentleman

Posted on July 11, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. It’s nearly three years since I first posted a note about Louis Ducos du Hauron and his contribution to colour photography. After Ducos du Hauron learnt about the three colour theory of vision, he predicted almost all the ways … Continue reading →

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to dye for

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. By mid last century we had Kodachrome and its competition to give us good colour transparencies. They or the original subject could also be photographed on three monochrome negatives through colour filters to give one negative per narrow colour … Continue reading →

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