Thorsten Overgaard

I’ve said to myself and people that I would go digital as soon as I could create the same style in digital as with Fuji Astia slide film.

The above is Fuji Astia 100 ISO as 800 ISO, Leica SL mot with 80mm Summilux

Then again, working with picture agencies and news media, they want the files here and now. Really no point in sending an awesome film scan to a picture agency a week after the actual event.

So you got to compromise. And I did.

I went ahead and shot film for my archive and (more importantly) personal pride. And riffraff files for the hungry media that they could get here and now.

At some point I stopped shooting the pride files on film. Really no point in having them, and also the lab closed down so the turnaround on getting a slide film developed changed from 1 hour to 72 hours.

Digital workflow is kind of interesting, especially if you realize that not all photo assignments are a matter if pride. Some things just need to get shot, delivered and the remains buried in the hard drives.

It’s not that I shoot stuff that “If I didn’t do it somebody else would have” (or whatever you say when you pick up somebody else's wallet from the street and keep it). I have the luxury that when I photograph and write, I only do the stuff I want to. I don’t have editors telling me what to do. They may suggest, but mainly I’m the one who suggest things for them to buy.

Because my photography and my writing is my communication.

It’s a matter of integrity. Have a look in the newspaper and see what’s there. As I usually say to those who want to have their company in the newspaper, “Have you looked at the actual stories in the newspaper? Which story would you like to be?”

Because the majority of stories in media is about injuries, loss of status, treats, possible chaos and actual chaos.

Most stories are sensational. Few are factual. And horrifying few are about creating a better tomorrow.

Some people will do anything for a byline.

Back to photography. Thing is I'm addicted to Leica and Leica didn’t offer that riffraff-files-that-look-like-Fuji-Astia look. So I thought, what the hell. I’ll just get the Panasonic DMC LC1 digital with Leica lens and shoot the hell out of it. Nice stealth camera, black and all.

Odd feeling attending an event where 90% of you shoot film and 10% is shooting digital.

But 100% of what will be used will be riffraff files from the digital camera.

My film bag is 20 kilos. The digital is 0,5 kilo. Yet I dragged the film equipment with me again and again.

Fortunately I had to do a shoot outside in London, standing on a ladder for an hour, while it was truly raining (even for London standards). Ruined a nice suit and the digital camera though. Lucky me. No more digital, sorry.

The Leica R and Leica M I also used didn’t notice the rain. Those just shot the hell out of it and made nice files

Hard rain in London (shot with Leica M4)

So I got a bit of film revival as the digital had to return to Tokyo or somewhere to get fixed.

But heaven must wait. The picture agency was even like “There was some of the files that had dirt in them so we removed those files.”

By dirt they meant film corn.

So I realized I couldn’t do much longer in my pleasant time capsule made of Fuli Astia slide film. I bought the Leica Digilux 2 which is the real Digilux. Same camera as said Panasonic, but the Leica edition is in Leica's design and with slightly changed placement of the buttons. Not so stealth as the black Panasonic.

Yet a camera that doesn’t say a sound when making a photo, and easily used 100% full metal manual, easy to go unnoticed over your shoulder: Big enough to show that you are for real, small enough to go unnoticed when you don’t want to look like a Canon jerk.

My Leica Digilux 2 just turned 100,000 exposures and now has a twin sister that looks exactly the same.

I don’t know, but at some point in time I started realizing that all I needed to carry was my digital camera. Only film cameras for special events, features or stuff where you want to “start a production.”

By production I mean … hmm … some stars can walk right out of bed and they are camera-ready. One guy I really really really wanted to shoot some months ago was the kind where he had to get convinced by a trusted publicist who had worked with him for 15 years, then briefed properly by only the most competent people on the subject we were to cover, then finally – if he would still like the idea – prepared for cameras by professional skin-, hair- and fashion-people. The works. Not to mention transportation, security and special catering.

So his publicist said these golden words. “No, forget [name], we’re talking a full production,” by which he meant all the above said things and three days of hard work for the publicist just to make that person consider it. So we sent on with another one who could be made camera-ready in just two hours.

Same story with cameras. My film cameras need respect and time to do their job, their ‘files’ need tender baths and special chemicals and exact temperatures to appear in their glory, and those in turn has to be treated with the outmost respect and dignity only by the best scanners available. Then they will show their true stardom amongst pictures.

Ooh, my precious!

But that’s a production. You see.

The Leica Digilux 2 just hangs over the shoulder or lies in the floor of the car. Ready in a split second. And the files can be fixed and sent to the other side of the world within 60 minutes. And by then you have FTP’ed the shots that need to be available for some media, archived the full event, backed it up, and deleted the camera files. And you are ready for more of it.

Hans Blix sho with Leica Digilux 2

I mean, I could doctor that, because I know what digital can do easily and nice, but also how slide film can do wonders if time and circumstances are set up to do slide film.

But the above was set up as a fast digital shoot.

And it worked.

Which made me realize that shooting digital files as a dedicated digital shooter will bring about nice pictures – instead of doing the digital files not whole hearthed, but more like a bad excuse for being in a rush for the sake of deadline.

“Hey, wait till you see the slide film scans in a week. It’s magic! and you can tell I’m a true artist!!! And hey, don’t mind all the digital files all over in the media meanwhile.”

Hmm?

Thing is nobody gives a shit about the perfect files sitting in an archive or shared by me and the subject. It’s the digital files done here and now and used in meda that counts. Those are the ones the public gets to see.

So somehow I found a way to make them look the way I wanted. Which I’ll get back to when this blog continues in a few days…