[Leica] RE: The digital darkroom

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

I entirely agree with you BD. I simply expressed my take on the situation.
We all know that Ansel Adams "created" his masterpieces in the darkroom.
Many straight prints of his negatives were just so-so images. A master
darkroom craftsman, can do wonders. But for some reason, it just feels
different in a darkroom. I have absolutely no problem with people using
Photoshop and other software to enhance or change their photographs. When
it comes right down to it, it's the final result the people see. They
either like what they see, or not. If they like it, then the whole process,
whatever it was, was a success. And that, basically, is what counts.

Jim

At 03:59 PM 2/7/99 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Jim -
>
>On the other hand, I haven't had a darkroom or easy access to one for
>decades. I find that scanning, manipulating, and digitally printing my
>photos is giving me much of the satisfaction I used to derive from printing.
>
>While you are correct in suggesting that PhotoShop allows for photographic
>sloppiness, so does a darkroom in the hands of someone with decent skills.
>
>I have recently been spending time with a massive Abrams book in W. Eugene
>Smith - I think the title is W. Eugene Smith - 1934 to
>1970whatever....Anyway, what is clear is that this "heroic figure" in the
>world of documentary photography as good as created many of his most famous
>images in the darkroom - the famous portrait of Albert Schweitzer, with the
>pith helmet, African behind him, and hand and saw in the right foreground?
>That was created using two negatives, the second of which had the hands and
>saw. The Haitian mad woman, whose eyes and face pop out of the dark? A much
>lighter photo that had other people in it....
>
>The point isn't that Smith isn't great, but that the creative photographic
>process often involves darkroom "magic" that allows the photographer to
>produce a picture of what he saw, as opposed what was technically "there."

>
>I am certainly not proposing putting Monica Lewinsky's head on some Bay
>Watch body and passing it off as a photo of Monica. Nor am I suggesting, or
>for that matter, condoning, combining negatives as Smith did...But gamma
>manipulation, etc...? Isn't that what we all have done or try to do in the
>darkroom?
>
>The other thing to keep in mind is that PhotoShop is a tool, it is not an
>"auto" anything. The photographer still has to know what it is he or she
>wants to convey with the photograph. The photographer still has to know what
>makes a great photograph, and the photographer has to know how to improve a
>photo that is mediocre.
>
>Just some thoughts...
>
>B. D.
>