[Leica] prints

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had three 16x20 Ciba's made of a red
phone booth that I photographed in England last September. My M6, 35/1.4
ASPH, Fuji MS 100/1000 at ASA 200, hand held, 1/250 @ f/5.6. I mentioned
that the bright red phone booth literally j-u-m-p-s off of the print, super
sharp, and there is no sign of grain. The phone booth is crisp, bright, and
sharp. Today I had two 20x24's made. It held together perfectly. Amazing.

<off topic>

Last month I took a seascape, with my Linhof 4x5, a little north of Bodega
Bay CA. It was late afternoon. I was on top of a cliff (30') that was
covered with ice plant. The ice plant was green and red and had little
red/pink flowers throughout. As well as other ground cover mixed in.

I used a 120mm Schneider Super-Symmar HM and Velvia Quickloads. I included
an enormous amount of the ice plant as foreground, from just in front of
the tripod. The ice plant continues out (takes 2/3's of the photo height)
then, in the distance, the beach, ocean, and waves, sweeping to infinity
with very distant rocks and cliffs. By using front lens tilt, I was able to
carry DOF from right in front of the tripod to infinity at f/16. The lens
is f/5.6-f/64 so f/16 is not even halfway stopped down to f/64. Lenses
always perform at there best in this area.

Exposure was difficult to figure because of the late light, dark side
lighted ice plant, and distant light colored sand and hazy white distant
sky. I used an incident meter and pointed it more toward the camera than
the sun.

I took six sheets of film of the scene. I processed one. It looked to be
about one stop over exposed (not blocked up) but the distant white sky and
light sand was too light and the ice plant was also too bright. I processed
the remaining sheets minus one stop. If you look at these transparencies,
they look slightly dark. But the density of everything is where it should
be. I printed an 8x10 Ciba test print. It looked OK.

I then ordered two 48x60 (4 foot by 5 foot) LightJet digital prints. I
asked them to bring it up about a half stop. One of these is going in the
office where I work, the other is going into an office in Seattle. I went
in to Calypso today to sign the prints before they were laminated and
packed-up.

Have you ever done anything that suddenly takes you breath away? When I
unrolled these prints on the mounting table I literally gasped. I was
stunned!!! The folks at Calypso were commenting that they all wanted to
just walk right in and go down to the beach. The ice plant that starts from
the bottom edge of the print, looks like you could pick it. It is so
S-H-A-R-P it is almost criminal. And the sharpness doesn't falter from
front to back. A little lens tilt to keep the f/stop in its sharpest range
is amazing. For those who have asked privately, this is exactly why I
bought the Hasselblad FlexBody.

Why am I telling you this? Because everyone should be involved in something
that makes you feel so good, that all of your problems seem to fade into
the background. Every once in a while, the photography gods smile a big smile.

How much? Scan $200, 1st print $442, second print $200. And I now have the
profiled digital file on a Jaz disk that I can use to make any size print.

Thanks for listening,

Have a good weekend,

Take lots of photographs,

Jim