Re: [Leica]So long, Flare, we overknew ye.... was Shadow boxing

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 2:20 AM -0400 8/8/00, ralph fuerbringer wrote:
>  sincd ed meyers hides behind a magnum name with his flare infatuation i'm
>offering one in rebuttal. philip jones-griffiths is not just a photographer
>of equal repute but is a technician without an equal among magnum
>photograpers.  i once asked Philip Jones-Griffiths whether to get the
>preflashing attachment for the bowens famous slide copier. he said it was
>not just valueless but a handicap. he was doing or supervising (president of
>magnum at the time) tons of slide copying. if preflashing w/precise control
>is a handicap in a labratory setup what does
>the degrading imput of flare from an uncoated lens add to an outdoor
>portrait? meyers and wulff claim this is why the preflashing effect works:
>flare is so pushy and fast it gets to your film before your actual picture!
>flaretheewell,ralph

Maybe he likes the extra punch and lack of detail in shadows that that will
bring. Using the pre-flashing with the Bowens Illumitran does indeed help
control contrast at times. I had one for a while and found the pre-flash
definitely worthwhile for many shots. If you are using the regular slide
duplicating film the effort is often not worth the trouble, but the effect
is unmistakable.

Maybe he was referring to the use of the pre-flash when he had a ton of
images to copy and time was more important than ultimate contrast control?

It's a 'handicap' if you consider a flatter image a handicap.

As you generally gain contrast in copying, and usually shift the HD curve
as well, you usually need to reduce contrast. You do this best by starting
off with a slide duplicating film matched to your taking film as well as
possible, then try to lift the toe area out of the murk a bit by
pre-flashing. Fairly straighforward.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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