[Leica] Re: Fwd: soon-to-be Leica owner has questions for the experts!

[ted grant <75501.3002@compuserve.com>]

Donal Philby wrote:

<<<<when using a very mild diffusion filter (so you don't see every
wrinkly, blemish and hair) using contrasty lens such as Hassy or Leica
offsets the contrast loss caused by the filter, maintaining the
richness.>>>>>>

Hi Donal.

I had the misfortune several years ago to photograph a slightly over middle
age (I'm being polite, she was an old witch of a broad with a miserable
life attitude!) :)  that gave me no end of grief. (but she had more money
than Fort Knox!) :)

I used an M6 with 90mm Summicron f2.  Mine is so sharp you can cut glass
with it. Any way I didn't use a softer filter and of course you can see
inside the pores and wrinkles and she was kinda ugly to boot. :)

Well jeeeeeesh when she saw the prints she went ballistic, "what kind of
idiot photographer was I to make her look like such an ugly wrinkled old
woman and how could I do that and she went on non-stop for about twenty
minutes haranguing me, what kind of cheap cameras did I use to create such
a time warped image, she wasn't that horrible looking etc etc etc." I need
not use any further wording of her description of my validity of balls and
being a so called professional photographer! :)

""I immediately blamed the lab!"" :) That I use the finest cameras & lenses
in the world that photographers of the high society magazines used to
photograph the beautiful women of Vogue, Harpers, Elle and Playboy. :)

I faked being completely off the wall about the lab and that I would
immediately return them and demand money back or a complete reprinting to
her satisfaction.

Besides, this was a woman to suck-up to as she and her husband were very
influential in the travel industry and could pump my name with her
contemporaries on my behalf for high paying travel assignments. :) (that
was the ulterior motive to photographing her in the first place) :) Her
husband was a great guy and I shot her as a favour to him. I was thinking
maybe I should have really "shot her!" :)

Back to the darkroom, got some cellophane and wrinkled it all to hell,
flattened it out and reprinted using the wrinkled cellophane for half the
exposure between the lens and paper. You have to time this just right or
the effect is too much or not enough, anyway redid them and she looked soft
and smooth with an underlying crispness of the Summicron.

Took them back and she thought I was the Godfather of all photographers for
making her look the way she thought she looked, beautiful like a movie
star. ugh :) Hell she still looked like a dogs breakfast only with soft
wrinkles! :)

Benefit: I found I had more travel related assignments over the next six
months than I could almost keep up with and damned if she didn't set me up
to shoot some of her  friends. That was "No Favour!"  They nearly all
looked like her.:)

Bottom line, the cellophane worked great! :) Nothing like an old broad with
wrinkles through a 90mm Summicron f.2 and cellophane. Besides, cheaper than
buying expensive softar filters. :)

But the 90mm Summicron for shooting men is dynamite as it makes them look
rugged and masculine. No you don't use the cellophane here! :)

ted