How I Edit my Photos

Old entrance to our farm on Sourwood Lane. I didn't spot this as a keeper until other people told me how much they like it. Now it hangs in our living room!

 Blog note: I wrote most of this post last night on my iPad, then accidentally deleted it. Bummer!!!

Editing film is different from editing digital files, but neither is more difficult than the other. I've been doing both for a long time -- 35 years with film, and 23 years with digital.

Editing film is fairly straightforward, although it requires more physical activity. I shot mostly color transparency (slide) film in 35mm, 120, and 4x5. The photos were edited by placing them on a light box and inspecting them with a 10X loupe (magnifying glass, pronounced loop). The keepers were placed in clear plastic file pages; the others went back in the box until the project was finished, then tossed. Color negative film usually came back from the lab in the form of 4x6 prints, which were easy to edit.

Black and white film was processed in my darkroom, then the negatives were cut in strips and placed in clear file pages where they were inspected with the loupe and the negatives selected for proof prints marked on the file page with a red or yellow china marking pencil.

(Of course, nowadays, if you want many people to see your film pictures you'll have to convert them into digital files. That's a whole 'nother ball game.) 

Moving on to digital: I should mention that I'm primarily a jpeg shooter, but always shoot RAW files simultaneously since it's no extra trouble and can be a valuable backup. The digital files are downloaded into my computer and placed into a folder labeled with the job number, date, or other appropriate title. The files are then opened in a program called ACDSEE. I have an old version, but it does everything I need it to do.

ACDSEE has a "Sort" function, so I first separate the files and place them in file folders named strangely enough, "Jpegs" and "RAW." The RAW files are set aside for now and the jpegs are opened in a free, but very handy program called PIXSORT, where I can sort through the files quickly and designate the selects by pushing the "1" key. The program places the Selects into a separate folder.

The Selects file is opened in Photoshop for any further work that may be needed, such as minor color or exposure corrections, cropping, etc. I have an old, non-subscription version of Photoshop, but again, it does everything I need it to do. If some files require more correction than Photoshop is able to handle, I go back to the RAW folder and process those specific files in Capture One.

So that's how I do it. This will get you in the ball park. I wish I could tell you how to choose your very best photographs, but that one you'll have to figure out for yourself.

The photo: Probably an Olympus film camera. I didn't keep good records back then.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography    film photography     editing photographs     ACDSEE     PIXSORT     Photoshop     Capture One     Olympus film cameras

It's in the Editing, Not the Shooting, that We Know Our Winners

 Rock City barn in Grassy Cove. Tennessee Highway 68, Cumberland County.

Editing has always been the second most crucial part of the photographic process, after the actual photography, because that's where we pick our winners and dump our losers. Sometimes it take a trained eye and artistic sensibility to tell the difference. And sometimes we get it wrong.

In my opinion, editing was easier in the days when we were shooting film because we simply didn't shoot as much. In each situation we would make enough exposures from enough angles to make sure the subject was well covered, but seldom more than that. Film and processing are much more expensive these days, but even when film was cheap, it was expensive. So the rule was: thorough coverage, but no wasted exposures. I think shooting film made me a better, more careful, more precise photographer.

In the digital age, it's easy to be sloppy, holding down the shutter button and making multiple exposures of the same thing when only one is needed.  I'll have to admit I'm sometimes guilty of overshooting. I was a more disciplined photographer in my film days.

For some years now I've been using a free software program called Pixsort to do an initial edit of my files. It helps me identify the losers quickly and dispose of them while keeping the possible winners for a second look. 

But sometimes I slip up. As with the photo at the top of this post. After processing and reviewing the film, I was not happy. In fact, I went back at my own expense (about a 160 mile round trip) a few days later, on a sunny day, and photographed the barn again. But just in case, when I turned in my photos to Rock City's advertising manager, I gave him both the overcast day photos and the sunny day shots.

To my surprise, he immediately picked the overcast day photo above. And when I was later commissioned to photograph and write Rock City Barns: A Passing Era, that was the photo my book designer chose for the cover. I would have missed it completely.

So it can't hurt to get input about your photos from someone whose vision you trust. You might find that some of your photographs are not as great as you think they are, but on the other hand, you might find some real gems that you overlooked.

The photo: Mamiya RB67 medium format camera with 127mm Mamiya-Sekor lens, Fujichrome 100D film.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography    film photography     Mamiya RB67 camera     Mamiya-Sekor lenses          medium format cameras     editing photographs     Rock City barns     Fujichrome 100D film

Creating a Clean Composition from a Complex Scene

Sunset light at the chapel.

Last Wednesday, May 21, I wrote about how to make photographs that are "clean," that is, that are composed so that they include everything necessary to tell their story, and have no extraneous elements in the frame that detract from their message. If you missed it, you can read it here.

The picture above would seem to violate that rule, yet I consider it my all-time best photograph.

The year was 1989 and I was at the mission hospital at Abak, Ibom Province, Nigeria, on assignment for Church of God World Missions. Chapel service had just ended as the setting tropical sun, its beams parallel to the ground, threw a splash of flame against the chapel wall.

At first, the picture appears chaotic. Where does that glorious light come from? Where is the woman whose shadow is cast on the wall on the left? What is the meaning of the rope hanging from the upper left corner? Who is the man half-hidden in the shadows on the right? The photograph doesn't answer any of those questions, but when you look carefully, you can see that all the elements work together. There is nothing in the picture that does not contribute to the whole; there is nothing that needs to be added to create an atmosphere of beauty and mystery. That is the message of this photograph: beauty and mystery.

I seldom used auto-exposure back then, but the light was fading quickly. There was no time to do anything except raise my Olympus OM2n and click off three quick shots with the lens that was on it – a Tamron 100-300mm f4 zoom at the 300mm setting. I noticed that the exposure on Fujichrome RD100 slide film was 1/15^th second, so I had little hope of getting anything usable. No chimping in those days! 

Did I think through the placement of all the elements in my composition? No, there wasn't time. I simply reacted to the burst of sunset light against the chapel wall. But years of training my eyes and mind to seek good compositions paid off, even when I was not consciously thinking about it.

Back in the US, when the film was processed and edited I was pleased to find that I had one very sharp exposure and another that was usable. This is the best one.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     documentary photography    film photography     Olympus OM2n camera     Tamron 100-300mm f4 lens     Nigeria     Church of God     Africa     Fujichrome 100RD film     photographic composition

A Photo that Almost Made It. Why Not?

Class at The Willow Kindergarten, Chattanooga

Some of my best photos never happened. This is one of them.

The scene was The Willow, a Christian elementary, kindergarten, and daycare facility in Chattanooga. I was making photos for the nearby university which sponsored the school. 

I loved the involvement of the teacher and the children. In fact, I got so caught up in the action that I did not observe one of the cardinal rules I wrote about in my previous post: I failed to be responsible for every square millimeter of my viewing screen. In the excitement of the moment, I did not make sure the teacher's hands were completely in the picture. That's a fatal flaw that makes what would have been a winning picture just another near miss to add to my extensive gallery of near misses. 

Most of the time, when a photographs turns out to be a miss, it's because we tried to include too much in the viewfinder. But sometimes we don't include enough to tell a complete story.

This photo has a lot going for it. It's sharp, the exposure is right on the money, the action is great, and it's. . .still just another photo that didn't quite make it. Make sure your viewfinder shows everything you want to show. No more and definitely no less. 

The photo was made with an Olympus OM film camera on (as best I remember) Kodachrome 64 film. I used one flash unit on a light stand, bounced off the ceiling on my left.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     commercial photography    film photography     Olympus OM film camera     Kodachrome 64 film         photography of education

Clean and Clear

Young woman and her grandmother. For Women's East Pavilion, Chattanooga.

Two comments I often hear when people look at my photographs are "That's really clean" or "This picture is so clear!"

The "clean" comment is most often spoken by art directors, graphic designers, or other photographers. And no, they are not saying "clean" in contrast to dirty pictures! What they mean is that the photo contains everything it needs to convey its message and has no extraneous or distracting elements.

A photograph that is sharp and properly exposed is often said to be "clear," especially when viewed by non-photographers and others who are not used to seeing high-quality prints. The advent of digital cameras that can achieve sharp focus and make well-exposed files automatically has made clarity much more common

Cleanliness and clarity are qualities that we all, as photographers, should strive for in our work. Clarity, as I said, is not as difficult as it used to be, but our autofocus cameras will not give us sharpness unless we're careful to place our focus where we want it. Our exposures will not be good unless we are aware of large areas of light or dark in our pictures and know how to compensate for them. Modern digital cameras are nearly magical, but they need some help for best results. That means that we photographers need to know what effects we want in our photos, and how to achieve them.

To make photos that qualify as clean, we must remember that we are responsible for every square millimeter of our viewing screens. If what we see through our viewfinders isn't exactly as we want it, it's our responsibility to move--closer or farther away, to one side or the other, up or down, or zoom, or any combination of the above, to make sure we have exactly what we want in our viewfinders. No more, and no less. 

In other words, if we want to make good photos, we must think about what we are doing.

The above photograph was made in my studio with a Mamiya RB67 medium format camera with a 127mm Mamiya-Sekor lens and Fujichrome film.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     studio photography    film photography     Mamiya RB67 camera     Mamiya-Sekor lenses          medium format cameras     photography instruction

The Underequipped Photographer--Redux

Early 1950s Buick. Tennessee Hwy. 33, Tazewell, Claiborne County.

Blog Note: I felt like writing an equipment post, but was concerned that my readers might consider it repetitious. However, looking back through the 700-plus posts I've written over the last six years, I found that the most read post, by a factor of nearly three times, was The Underequipped Photographer (October 16, 2020). You can read it here if you like.

Over the past few years I've become more and more of a minimalist with my photographic equipment. When I started my business in 1978, I had two Nikkormat 35mm cameras and a Mamiya C220 medium format TLR. In 1979, I sold the Nikkormats and bought two Olympus OM1 bodies and a more extensive array of lenses.

By 1992, when I regretfully sold my Olympus OM system because of aging eyes and switched to autofocus, the inventory had grown to four bodies and thirteen lenses. 

After a brief and unhappy flirtation with Nikon autofocus, I settled on Canon, where I remained for 24 years. With the Canons, I used zooms much more and had fewer lenses, although I still held onto some fast primes. Almost all the photos in the Rock City Barns book were made with the Canon 24mm f2.8 or the 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 on the Canon A2.

In 2003 I switched from film to digital with a Canon 10D.

From 2011 on, I had a parallel system of two Olympus E-M5 bodies and several lenses, which I used for almost everything except weddings. A Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm zoom was pretty much glued to one of the bodies and got most of the use. That was the most versatile combination I've ever owned.

By 2017 and '18, I was feeling the need to reduce my equipment load and settled on the Fuji-X system as a good combination of smaller bodies with not-too-small sensors. The fact that I could set shutter speed and aperture manually if I preferred appealed greatly to this old manual camera/film shooter.

None of this takes into account the medium and large format cameras I used in my commercial photography studio. I had a 4x5 view camera with a pair of lenses, and at various times, Hasselblad, Bronica, Mamiya RB67, Pentax 6x7, and Fuji GX680 medium format cameras and lenses. When I closed my studio in 2000 I kept only the Pentax and Fuji GX, which were later sold to pay for the Canon 10D. It soon became obvious that the 10D, with only a six megapixel sensor, was good enough to replace the medium format cameras.

When I wrote the "Underequipped" post five years ago, I had three bodies and only three lenses. I still have the X-Pro1 and the X-T20 bodies, but the X-T1 has been replaced with an X-T3. I've added an XF16-80 f4 lens and switched the XC50-230 telephoto zoom for an XF55-200. I've also added the XF60mm f2.4 macro lens for making digital copies of my slides instead of scanning them. The XC16-50 kit lens remains as a backup.

Three bodies and five lenses. Am I now the Overequipped Photographer?

The old Buick above was photographed with the X-T3 and the 16-80mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     photographic equipment     Hasselblad     Bronica     Fuji GX680     Pentax 6x7     Canon 10D     Fuji X-T3     Canon film cameras     Olympus film cameras     Olympus digital cameras     Fuji digital cameras

The View from 88

 

 Sunset over Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

I've always liked this sunset picture. I hope it isn't symbolic.

Today I am 88 years old. That sounds like a lot, but honestly, it doesn't feel that way. I always kinda thought/hoped I would live a long time because my father and mother lived to be 90 and 91, respectively. 

While the longevity of parents is a hopeful indicator, it's not a guarantee. Four of my younger siblings have already passed on, leaving only me and my two youngest brothers.

However, I'm still here, and I'm grateful. My basic health is reasonably good. I have borderline diabetes, which has changed little in 24 years, and an aortic valve which my cardiologist says will eventually need to be replaced. I also have had a C-PAP since 2007 and a pacemaker since 2011, both of which have served me well. I have some back problems which make it difficult to stand fully erect, and which make walking less fun than it used to be. But. . .

. . .all in all, I'm doing pretty well. I'm still optimistic, still young in mind and heart, still looking forward to whatever the future might hold. Still enjoying my cameras and my books and ramblin' 'round the countryside. And especially, enjoying life with Louise. We are truly blessed to have shared a long lifetime together. I celebrated my birthday by welcoming our newest great-grandchild: Alexander Robin Jenkins. 

Alexander Robin and his great-grandpa. Cell-phone photo by his dad, Dr. Michael Jenkins.

Above all else, I give credit to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Gospel is simple and straightforward: Jesus Christ is God in a human body. He died a sacrificial death that paid the penalty for all my sins -- past, present, and future. When I acknowledged myself to be a sinner and received him as my savior, he saved me (John 1:12). He will save anyone who comes to him on those terms. That means you -- whoever and wherever you are.

I hope to have many more years to enjoy life, Louise, our family, and photography. But if not, my future is secure. 

(The sunset photo was made in 1990, while on assignment for CBMC-USA. The camera was an Olympus OM2n, and the film, as always, was Fujichrome 100D.)

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography     Lake Junaluska, North Carolina     Olympus OM2n camera     film photography     Fujichrome 100D film     salvation     Jesus Christ

W. L. Coker New River General Store, Tennessee Highway 116

 W. L. Coker's New River General Store, TN Hwy. 116, Anderson County.

In 1937 (the year of my birth!) W.L Coker and his wife Belle built a two-story brick building on a remote stretch of gravel road in east Tennessee's mountainous Anderson County. The first floor was a general store, and the Cokers had living quarters on the second floor.

I can't imagine how the business survived, but there was a great deal of coal mining activity in the area in those day, so the store apparently did okay. It's still very much in business, now operated by a Coker grandson, although he does supplement his income by driving a school bus.

 The Blue & White Service Station next to Coker's Store.

The Blue & White Service Station, located beside the Coker store, is kinda dilapidated these days, but the pair of gas pumps between the two buildings are still very much in use.

That stretch of gravel road where the store is located is now paved and designated as Tennessee Highway 116, also known to some motorists as the Devil's Triangle because of the way the road winds around challenging curves and over steep mountains.

The Devil's Triangle is not as well-known as the Dragon, that stretch of U.S. Highway 129 between Maryville, Tennessee and Robbinsville, North Carolina, but I've driven them both and I believe the Triangle is even more challenging -- and dangerous, with sharp, winding curves, narrow shoulders, loose gravel and minimal guardrails. But of course, all that makes the road even more attractive to adventurous motorcyclists and sports car drivers.

Both photos were made with a Fuji X-T3 camera and the Fujinon 16-80mm f4 lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography     travel photography     east Tennessee      Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     Fuji X-T3 camera     Tennessee Highway 116     Anderson County     Devil's Triangle     The Dragon     U.S. Highway 129

Photographers You Should Know: Fritz Henle; The Search for Beauty

White Sands, New Mexico

Utter simplicity, utter beauty.

 

"One thing an artist can do in this world is to remind people that there is so much beauty that you only have to see it." (Henle, The Search for Beauty)

Henle's daughter Tina says “My father’s three mantras were ‘beauty,’ ‘truth,’ and ‘freedom’. . . Those three words motivated my father’s life,”

Although he recognized that there is much ugliness in the world and he was not unrealistic about it, Henle felt that there were plenty of photographers who could cover that aspect of life. He believed, however, that there were also many good and beautiful things in life and his role was to make photographs that were life-affirming and positive.

 

 

Georges Braque, Cubist Painter

In my opinion one of the all-time great portraits.

 

"Probably the pictures that stand out strongest in your memory, from books, magazines, or exhibits, are those which struck a responsive chord in you -- reached across the distance to command your sympathy, curiosity, or understanding. This is photography's grandest achievement:: to reach what is most human in us. These are the documents that endure because they contain a human truth." (Henle, Photography for Everyone.)

 

"If you make photographs that are deeply felt and honestly seen, have faith in them and in yourself. . . (The photographer) may on occasion, record the ugly and document grief and pain. These are a part of the universe; but they are not all of it if we see life whole. . . A really great photographer is a searching and inquisitive eye. We see the world more clearly, more fully, mirrored in his pictures. The foundation of his vision is honesty. Its strength is his sympathy and understanding, and in his deep love for all of life." (Henle, Fritz Henle's Guide to Rollei Photography)

 

 

Chemist, Cities Service Company (now Citgo)

One of my favorite pictures and a great example of Henle's

framing and use of the three planes -- near, middle, and far.

A picture to study and learn from.

Very sadly indeed, the life-affirming photography that Henle did so beautifully has become passé in today's art world. The optimistic humanism reflected in his work has been greatly eroded in this post-modern era. There has been a crashing loss of faith in man. Instead of being seen as an heroic figure with unlimited potential for progress (the twin-lens reflex camera, by the way, was the perfect instrument for expressing this heroism because the viewpoint was usually one of looking up at the subject), he is now seen as a threat to the environment and a creature for which we can have, at best, only tentative hopes. Man has been deconstructed, and this is the reason nature, landscape, and environmental photography, although they have always been with us, have now come to the fore. The idea that "the proper study of man is man" has been largely abandoned.

 

As a Christian, I believe modernism and optimistic humanism to be flawed philosophies, but they nonetheless created a climate in which much of our greatest photography was produced. 

 

 

Caribbean Beauty

from his U.S. Virgin Islands portfolio.

 

Henle published many books in his lifetime, beginning with This Is Japan in 1937 and ending with Casals in 1975. Most of them are still available from sellers like amazon.com and abebooks.com. Prices vary widely. You might also check your local used book store if you're fortunate enough to have one.

In 1979 the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas began collecting Henle's photographs. He passed away in 1993 and the Center now has his entire archive. In 2009 the Center mounted a massive exhibit of his work and published a (also massive) book of his photographs titled Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty with text by Roy Flukinger. This is the definitive volume about Henle's life and work, with hundreds of his photographs (although I'm sorry to say they left out some of my favorites.)

 

Caribbean Sunset

from his U.S. Virgin Islands portfolio.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photographs copyright 2025 Estate of Fritz Henle. Text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography      great photographers     Fritz Henle     Rolleiflex camera     twin-lens reflex camera     twin-lens reflex photography     Rolleiflex photography    Rollei     TLR

 

Photographers You Should Know: Fritz Henle; Tools and Techniques

 

 The Art Critic. Washington Square, New York City 1947.

Photography is about photographs.

In the preamble to this blog I said that I would talk about the tools, techniques, and philosophy of photography. Today, we're going to talk about tools and techniques, and a bit about the philosophy behind them.

 

Fritz Henle had a lot to say about the tools and techniques of photography— after all, he was well known as an advocate of a particular kind of tool, and wrote a number of books about how best to use it. But it all was in service to one particular goal: making photographs. He was a master of photographic technique, but he knew to use it, then forget about it. He had a "personal crusade. . . against deadly seriousness in technical matters, which kills the pleasure of photography." His pictures are about content, not technique, but the technique always reinforces the content. The purpose of technique is to enable the photographer to present the subject in accordance with his vision.

“. . . seeing pictures is always tied up with technique. I feel it is important to decide things like sharpness or unsharpness and not let them happen accidentally. It is equally important to command the techniques that get the effects you want.”

 Madame Niska, Fortune Teller. Paris, 1938.

Unlike digital cameras, which encourage you to blast away in hope of finding something worth keeping when you sort through your files, “The twin-lens encourages you, almost forces you, to think while shooting. . . There is no better eye-training than practicing to see pictures within that little square frame.”

Most photographers would find themselves feeling unbearably limited if confined to one type of camera, with only one lens of one focal length. Yet, that is the way Henle worked, and he covered an astonishing range of subject matter with astonishing results.

However, when the subject or circumstances demanded it, Henle was quite capable of using other tools. For instance, the Brooks-Plaubel Veriwide, about which he said "I have done a lot of work with the . . . Veriwide camera, an instrument that is guaranteed to stretch anyone's vision into wide horizontals."

 Stonehenge, with the Brooks-Plaubel Veriwide camera.

His photograph of Stonehenge, made with that camera, is the best I have every seen, perfectly capturing the mood and mystery of the ancient stones.

In 1966, when Rollei introduced their new 6x6cm (the same format as the Rollei TLR) single-lens reflex, the SL66, Henle began using it for much of his work, and began to work much more in color. He made many beautiful photographs with it, however in my opinion the years from the early 1930s, when he first began using the twin-lens reflex, through the mid-60s were the best, most productive years of his career, the years when he made most of his classic photographs.

Now that digital cameras make it easy for even the rankest amateur to produce sharp, well-exposed pictures by the hundreds and thousands, how is that so many of the greatest photographs in the history of the medium were made with cameras that we would consider primitive and discouragingly difficult to use? Could it be that those tools required their users to think about what they wanted to say with their photographs and to choose their techniques wisely to that end?

 Pablo Casals, 1972

 Perhaps we could learn something from Picasso, who said “Forcing yourself to use restricted means is the sort of restraint that liberates invention. It obliges you to make a kind of progress that you can’t even imagine in advance.” And from Orson Welles, who said “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.”

Henle accepted the limitations he was given and used them to make his art.

 

To see more of Henle's pictures, visit the Henle Gallery. You might also enjoy this Youtube video.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photographs copyright 2025 Estate of Fritz Henle. Text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography      great photographers     Fritz Henle     Rolleiflex camera     twin-lens reflex camera     twin-lens reflex photography     Rolleiflex photography    Rollei     TLR     Rolleiflex SL66     Stonehenge     Pablo Casals     Brooks-Plaubel Veriwide camera

Photographers You Should Know: Fritz Henle, Mr. Rollei

 Nievis, Mexican model for many painters.

 Blog Note: After mentioning Fritz Henle and his book a New Guide to Rollei Photography in my previous post, I decided this would be a good time to repeat a series of posts about him from 2020.

Who was your first major influence in photography?

Mine was Fritz Henle, a German-born American who was considered one of the greatest photographers in the world in the 1930s through the '60s and even into the '70s. He was so identified with the Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera that he was known as "Mr. Rollei." Even though his TLR had only a fixed, 80mm focal-length lens, he took on an amazing range of assignments: magazine photography for clients such as Life and many, many others; fashion, travel, industrial, advertising, landscape, fine art, and more. He also produced 20 books of his photographs, beginning in 1937 with This Is Japan and culminating in 1975 with Casals.

My interest in photography began with the birth of my son Don in the summer of 1968 with a cheap Kodak Instamatic camera using 126 film cartridges. By spring of 1969 I had advanced to a cheap TLR, the Ricoh 66. (Notice the repetition of the word "cheap?" What can I say -- I was living on a private school  teacher's salary!) The Ricoh died before its time, but it had a sharp lens and negatives I made with it still print and scan well.

 

At the Louvre, Paris, 1938

 Speaking of scanning, during those early months of 1969 I was scanning the photography books section of the Miami Public Library when I came across a thin volume of photographs by Henle -- A New Guide to Rollei Photography, published by the Viking Press of New York in 1965. Leafing through the book, I nearly shouted for joy as many of the photographs touched me so deeply. For the first time I began to understand what photography can be.

 

 Texas Cowboys, 1956

Although I have most of Henle's books, including some rare and valuable ones, the New Guide to Rollei Photography is the one I return to again and again. Originally published as a compilation of monthly columns written for Popular Photography magazine in the late 1950s and early '60s, it is indeed a guide to photography with a twin-lens reflex, or any camera for that matter. Henle's simple but complex pictures are straightforward in technique (of which Henle was a master), yet display classic composition, of which he was also a master.

In fact, most of what I know about composition I learned from Henle's photographs. From him I learned to find ways to frame my point of interest, to use leading lines to emphasize the subject, and to balance near-far relationships. In fact, he sometimes used all three techniques in the same photograph. And he was a constant advocate of the square format, although he could depart from it when necessary.

 

 

 Net-Thrower, Hawaii, 1951

 

 "For years," he wrote, "I have waged a small private war in defense of the square format. . . What we learn from the twin-lens discipline is that values can be added to the picture by filling the square. We can think of the horizontal and vertical as squares to which something has been added at the sides or top and bottom."

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photographs copyright 2025 Estate of Fritz Henle. Text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

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