Maybe the best B&W street photography on the internet

[Jeremy Z]

City - Street - RangeFinderForum Gallery

Most of the folks shoot old film rangefinders, then develop the film themselves, and scan the negatives with a film scanner into their computers.

I tried scanning my negatives on my old flatbed scanner with film adapter, and the results were.... underwhelming. I didn't want to invest in a film scanner just to do that hobby, and didn't want to have to print everything either. So here I am, in the digital world.

I miss handling film and film cameras though, especially the mechanical ones, like my Olympus OM1n and my Rollei 35. All those tactile mechanical actions are just music to my ears and feel great to touch too.

How about you guys, ever try to get a JPG with such great tonal range and rich grain from digital? To me, digital noise does not look like film's grain; it looks more artificial. A grainy shot with Tri-X or Neopan is just beautiful, and all those deep shades of gray that are not lost in darkness; just amazing, after looking at enough digital photos.

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[Jeremy Z]

Viewing these photos inspires me to get off my butt and just get out there.

I think shooting B&W just really teaches a person to look for light and shadows. When I look at B&W, it is just more pure somehow. It is like the distracting colors are removed, and I just focus on what is important. Light, shadows, expressions, compositions. I think I need to shoot in B&W more. Or at least make B&W copies of all my color shots and see how they come out.

[The_Traveler]

Don't get lost in how a photo looks without regard to the content.

All of Ansel Adams' stuff was technically perfect and looked terrific but most of it was empty of any impact.

[Jeremy Z]

I think they are two different types of photos, Traveler. Not all photos need to have one certain point that draws the eye. To me, the impact of Adams' photos comes from the awesome composition and dramatic constrast and lighting. I think he was just trying to share how beautiful nature could look. There are lots of good shapes and textures in his photos.