They are always looking for the magic film, the secret formula, the ultimate device that will turn them into another Ansel Adams. Photography magazines thrive on this impulse. So do manufacturers of photo equipment who hope that they can convince as many consumers as possible that they have what you need to become the next photographic icon. I hope that you will read this series of articles, not as a formula that will transform you as a photographer, but as a guide that will help you add another controllable, predictable tool for your photographic toolbox that you can use to express and master you own artistic vision. Because this is what photography as an art is really about.
Technique is only secondary to artistic vision.
It is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Even a well, exposed, well printed photo of a tree stump, a nude, or an ocean vista may be nothing more that a snapshot. And that element is the unique vision you have as an artist. If there is nothing in that vision that pulls at the viewer, that excites, awes, enrages, enlightens, makes him feel that he has gained something from the viewing of you photograph, then the photograph fails. Exposure W hen shooting IR film, the biggest obstacle to getting a good print is exposure.