Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/13

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Ansel Adams and digital
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Tue Jan 13 13:07:45 2009

You put a dark red or green filter on something, deep yellow even and your
interpretation of the shot is in your minds eye is certainly is not what
everybody else is seeing when they're standing next to you watching you take
the photo or what they're probably getting in their Brownies.
AA's filtration was as often as not not all the subtle.
He's critised about that; by people who no doubt walk around feeling great
about how subtle they all are.
But it fits my tastes perfectly. As in black and white landscapes I tend to
go for the gusto as well.
Realistic NOT I think as dramatic effect is possibility as most often the
intention. A shot that would knock your socks off.
All I ever asked from a picture...
Mine or what I'm looking at.

The f64 ethic meant get it all in focus no fuzzy wuzzie pseudo art but it
didn't not mean having things look realistic.
Or look like they'd really look in a "straight" black and white shot.


Mark William Rabiner



> From: TCB <tcb@thadbrown.com>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:48:06 -0600
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Ansel Adams and digital
> 
> Indeed. I was just flipping through 'The Negative' again and AA suggests 
> doing
> a
> polaroid before exposing a negative, instead of taking two negatives,
> developing
> one in the lab, and then developing the second according to the first. The
> funny
> thing is that my D300 has more or less devolved to doing this job. When I'm
> trying to be 'serious' and shooting MF I put my D300 on the tripod first. I
> like
> to shoot a lot of low and night things, so exposures can vary pretty 
> wildly.
> The
> D300 gives me an LCD and a histogram to read to get an idea of what's what
> with
> shadows and highlights, just like a polaroid.
> 
> The other funny thing in 'The Negative' that I ran across was the closest
> thing
> you'll ever to an AA 'rant.' It was something like, 'I am categorized as a
> realistic photographer, but great care and effort is needed to make an 
> image a
> viewer will perceive as natural' which I took as AA's very gentle way of
> saying,
> 'You know, folks, I didn't just happen upon some dogwood blossoms and pull 
> out
> my
> point and shoot, that thing too some flamin WORK!'
> 
> TCB
> 
> On Tue 13/01/09  8:24 AM , Slobodan Dimitrov s.dimitrov@charter.net sent:
>> Couldn't agree with you more on this!
>> The very fact that he was instrumental in the development of PN55 at
>> Polaroid attests to the possibility.
>> I mean, who took Polaroid as a serious, and relevant, product at the
>> time?
>> sd
>> 
>> On Jan 12, 2009, at 9:30 PM, TCB wrote:
>> 
>>> AA had a deep, almost sensual understanding of
>> all of the  > technology involved in
>>> making an image. I can't imagine he would be
>> resistant to any newer  > tech
>>> available today, though I also can't imagine
>> he'd be locked into  > any kind of pure
>>> digital rig.
>>> 
>>> On Mon 12/01/09 11:05 PM , Nathan Wajsman photo@fr
>> ozenlight.eu sent:>> I am certain he would. In his autobiography,
>> written shortly before>> his death in 1984, he comments on the then
>> revolutionary notion of>> digital photography and makes some very
>> positive statements about  >> what
>>>> he imagines will be its possibilities. I
>> cannot find the exact>> reference at the moment, but it is in
>> there.>>
>>>> Nathan
>>>> 
>>>> Nathan Wajsman
>>>> Alicante, Spain
>>>> http://www.frozenlight.euhttp://www.greatpix.euhttp:// >>
> www.nathanfoto.com>> Books:
> http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&am
>> p;am>> p;y=0PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/pawsBlog:>
> http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog>>
>>>> 
>>>> On Jan 13, 2009, at 12:18 AM, Geoff
>> Hopkinson wrote:>>
>>>>> 
>>>>> I believe that if AA was with us today,
>> he would>> be an avid  > enthusiast for
>>>>> Photoshop as his darkroom.
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> _______________________________________________>> Leica Users Group.
>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for
>> more>> information
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> _______________________________________________> Leica Users Group.
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>> 
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> 
> 
> 
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Replies: Reply from chs2018 at med.cornell.edu (Chris Saganich) ([Leica] Re: Ansel Adams and digital)
Reply from sethrosner at nycap.rr.com (Seth Rosner) ([Leica] Re: Ansel Adams and digital)
In reply to: Message from tcb at thadbrown.com (TCB) ([Leica] Re: Ansel Adams and digital)