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

[Edward Meyers <aghalide@panix.com>]

When the group at photokina meets, I'll propose that we all lift
a glass to Ralph. He deserves it. Ed

On Tue, 8 Aug 2000, ralph fuerbringer wrote:

> together at last: the flare twins, meyers and wullf,official flare quardians
> on the list.for the flair wulff uncovered in photographing  a brick wall
> he received the uncoveted DE award(double expose, sky first then the
> wall,get max flair)
>  meyers contributions to flare myth  would require a 30 gigabite harddrive.
> still you cant fault these two tech nincompops for presumption.for
> their pathetic theory they demean a perfectionist, Philip Jones-Griffiiths.
> they imply he would skip a helpful preflash to speed up his own or magnums
> slide-copying,ignoring the best quality possible.there have been statements
> galore here that flare and preflashing involve inevitable and severe loss of
> definition and contrast. Philip Jones-Griffith statement to forget the
> preflash  was  unqualified. in practical terms it verifies the unqulalified
> one muddy meyers quoted from Erwin Puts:"the old story that you can use a
> low contrast and/or flare prone lens to compensate for high contrast in the
> scene is not accurate. flare adds nothing to the highlights,
> just muddies the dark." cant we get flare interested in somthing else, like
>  the epson 1270? . humidity and ozone are having a ball turning stuff
> orange. flare, go there,give the orange a preflash.if it helps you'll be a
> hero, maligned no more.  ralph
>     
> > From: Edward Meyers <aghalide@panix.com>     both hava reading disored
> > Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 14:26:24 -0400 (EDT)
> > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Subject: Re: [Leica]So long, Flare, we overknew ye.... was  Shadow boxing
> > 
> > Thank you for this evaluation. Ed
> > 
> > On Tue, 8 Aug 2000, Henning J. Wulff wrote:
> > 
> >> 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
> >> /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
> >> /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
> >> |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com
> >> 
> > 
> 
>