Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/04/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 4/21/05 11:06 PM, "Alastair Firkin" <firkin@ncable.net.au> typed: > What Thornton was trying to say - I think, and we can never really > check, because he snuffed it, was that for a "perfect" print, and he > was very careful to discuss his definition of "perfect", which lead to > that statement. In reality, the book suggests that you can get perfect > prints larger than that, and as I recall 10 x 15 was about his "upper > limit" for 35mm, saying that smaller was "safer". It s a good read > however, and does really make you "think". > > Cheers Well I guess we need to find out what whoever thinks "perfect" means. I am familiar with those who are into this super conservative approach to how far you can blow up a neg. They'll tell you you cant blow up a 35mm neg. bigger than 5x7 or it's lost it. These are view camera people who are tying to make roll film people suffer. Well I can see what they are talking about. I'm no stranger to printing small and admiring how "rich" the tonality is. But they're also a lot smaller. That's the catch. The un viability of larger and even super larger blowups is never made concrete. Its just a matter of opinion. Prejudice. The record of very successful very large prints from smaller negs or at any rate large magnifications is a huge one. Some guy is thinking: "gee I've been shooting 4x5 and printing 11x14s so I've been making 2.5 times magnification blowups. Now that I'm shooting 35mm why should I not keep to the same program?" Because you'd end up with wallets that why. Very rich looking wallets. Who cares how rich they are if you cant see them anyway. With a great medium format loupe they'd knock your socks off. Go to an airport. Go to Grand Central Station. See 100x 1000x 10,000 blow ups. Nobodies calling the PC squad complaining. "Hey you can't do that! There's a law! My photography teacher said you cant do that" The same law that says you need to shoot Tri X at 200. The baloney uptight legal code. Mark Rabiner Photography Portland Oregon http://rabinergroup.com/