Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/27

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Grey Zone
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 09:27:29 -0500

At 11:30 AM 9/27/99 +0200, Anthony Atkielski wrote:
>How was the technical quality of Adams' photojournalism?

Better than most. His Manzanar books show he was pretty good with his 35mm 
and Rollei cameras technically. If not terribly inspired in content. Good, 
competent, but even he though Gene Smith was the master. (And his friend 
Dorthea Lang.) He was an artist, not a photojournalist, and he never 
pretended otherwise, though I have to give him credit for giving it a shot 
when he found a subject he was concerned about (U.S. Government putting 
it's own citizens of Japanese ancestry in concentration camps in the 
California desert).

As for color, there is little one can do processing-wise. It's a different 
medium. People have come up with a Zone System for color. And what I have 
seen of it seems to create photos with long tonal ranges and horribly flat 
mid-tones. But the principles are the same - just more limited by having 
less control. Slide film: expose for the highlights. Check the shadows.


Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO

http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

"The "C" students run the world."  - Harry S. Truman