Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/04/22

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....
From: firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)
Date: Fri Apr 22 01:51:08 2005
References: <BE8E026B.13C97%mark@rabinergroup.com>

To the point as always, and believe me, my prints at 12 16 and 16 20 
"can" look great.

Sometimes I think I oversize my prints, because I then have problems 
knowing what to do with them: not because they don't look great. I have 
tried in the last year to "want" smaller "rich" images, which I can fit 
in my albums ;-)

On 22/04/2005, at 6:22 PM, Mark Rabiner wrote:

> 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/
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
Alastair


Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....)
In reply to: Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....)