Ask yourself: What in the world would I do to create a speaker’s presentation without digital applications? Without Powerpoint, Keynote, digital files, deciding which of dozens of templates to use. Before digital was analog. Analog means film.
1977 was the year I secured my first full-time professional photography job as Production Manager for the University of Alabama’s medical school. It would be a decade or more before computers even became common. Microsoft went public in 1986. Analog was the key work with photography. Film with 24 or 26 exposures per roll, labs, contact sheets and waiting for film to be developed was the standard.
Editing with magnifiers, that were referred to as “Loupes” by holding the contact sheet to a light or backlighting slides looking at them one at a time.
What could be more tedious in preparing images for a presentation, you ask? Read on: click here to see finish this piece
Professional visual presentation of pictures where usually accompanied by white text on blue backgrounds. In the profession we called them “diazo slides”.
In my office of bio-medical photography, the least interesting but bread and butter to my department was producing these lecture slides.
A doctor or their assistant would deliver to our office a few to hundreds of typewriter notes that would accompany their presentation. To accomplish this, the photographer would sit between to very hot light to the left and right of the copy board. The 35mm camera was mounted to a vertical arm that allowed the camera to move up and down to fill the frame with the object to be turned into a slide. MOST slide where text and we provided a 35mm mounted image with blue background and white type. The road to creating a diazo was at best tedious.. First we had to roll out the bulk diazo film and load it into a 35mm film canister. Next load the roll into a 35mm camera and start the process. After 36 exposures rewind the film, unload the roll, replace it and continue the procedure as many times as necessary to complete the assignment. That’s the easy step!
Next take the roll/s of film into the darkroom and develop up to six rolls at a time. After the film was hung to dry the next step was to snip each frame off insert it into an empty paper 35mm framed, secure it so it doesn’t wobble and place it in the order received form the client. Repeat until all images are filed. If a frame is damaged, then start again with step one.
My job as manager was to review each and every slide making sure it was in order, correctly placed in the slide holder and ready for delivery.. This meant sitting at a light table with a magnifier to look at each slide for clarity, sharpness, and positioning.
I clearly recall a Thursday evening, someone representing the medical staff brought in 100 sheet of paper needing them turned into slides by Monday morning 8am.
It took my staff one full day to process this order and me many hours to review, inspect and approve it for delivery. I worked over the weekend to complete the task.
So next time you are frustrated or annoyed as you sit at your computer creating a presentation of words and pictures, worrying about which of dozens of templates to use as a background and then using your curser to glide easily between your selection, stop complaining and create.
We’ve come a long way in 30 years but the journey, for me, has been a lifelong enjoyable ride.