Uncle Dick's Shut-In Corner - Part Three - The Very Old Software Manual

If you do not have a discarded software manual somewhere in your workroom - shelf, box, or holding up a short table leg - are you even a photographer? In the film era we had manuals as well - the camera you bought came with one, and you balanced it on your knee as the plane flew you from the duty-free shop to the holiday destination. If you read it sober, you may well have succeeded with the holiday snaps. In any case, you brought it back, intending to read it carefully from cover to cover...including the depth of field tables. If you got past the system photo with all the lenses and the bellows unit in studio light you were doing well. If you were a dedicated professional who had decided what was needed, you could have a manufacturer's data book. Kodak, Fujifilm, possibly Agfa, certainly Ilford - they all made them. Kodak even produced professional books that slotted into a loose-leaf file for future reference. As you could not tell what you were doing as you did it, it was as well to know what might be happening in the film or chemistry at the time. Curiously, most makers of film and flashbulbs fibbed themselves frantic when they advertised their own ASA and guide number figures. When they came to their professional booklets, however, they told the truth. If you knew where to look for the real figures, they were there - the lab boys had got past the advertising department. There were books, pamphlets, and disguised sales pamphlets that got people into darkrooms as well. - many put out by the makers of the films and chemistry. They could be scientific or foolish, depending upon whether the publishers thought they were dealing with idiots or not. Again surprisingly, one of the most prestigious camera and lens makers also made a top-quality 35mm enlarger but promoted it with a Dick and Jane comic book - we sold them but they were embarrassing to read. Reel on to digital era, and didn't we buy the books...And didn't we try to read them and fail miserably...many of the conventions adopted for a computer instruction book turned people off them instantly. The intelligent users took TAFE and Uni courses and the rest of us bought stuff in the newsagent that were meant to make us experts. Really, most of the learning was done at the screen and keyboard and much of it by the poke and peer method. Our friends gave us advice and it either made us better or worse. In our turn, we could do the same to others. All the while it was mainly muscle memory that gave any of us skill with a picture editing program. That and plug-ins. I treasure mine, but I'm not going to tell you where I got 'em. I'm struggling to remember...