[Leica] ***SPAM*** IMG: Dawn Memories

[Bernard Quinn]

Tina,

I am jumping into this thread late as I sit in the lunch room finishing my lunch on a snowy, cold, wet March afternoon. Sorting and editing 16,000 photographs is a Herculean task. Clearly daunting. I think that it is perfectly reasonable to need some support with a job that size. I certainly would. I agree with you. The LUG is a very good place to look for support. Not only is it a family in its own way whose members really do care about each other but it is a group of very experienced photographers even if some of us don't exactly shoot in the same league as you and Ted. 

Please do not stop posting. That will not help you get through your project and it would make our lives poorer. I think we should ask how we can support you? It's perfectly true that you are going to edit your way through this one photograph at a time.  And perhaps the best way for people to support you is one photograph at a time. But, there is a trap. Photography is, at least in part, an art. Sometimes talking about a picture involves asking questions which really do not have easy or simple answers. What is too red for you might be just right for another viewer. Please do not let your ego get involved on that level. It is going to cause you too much pointless and useless pain if you let your self worth as a photographer or worse as a human being be determined by what red means in a photograph. That ties something important, you, to something indeterminate, namely taste. 

What are your goals? What is the end point of this project? How many finished photographs do you want to produce? I can understand understand you sitting in front of your monitor crying. It's an overwhelming project, but it is also a very sad image for me.

Would some support and ideas about handling a project of this size help? I do not know how you approach your editing, but here is what I would be tempted to do. I would go through all 16,000 photos and select a core of them, say a thousand but who knows if them to work on. I would then focus on that. And, I would do so in a way which kept the perfect from being the enemy of the good. A home who tries to prefect even pixel in 16,000 shots is going to end up in the looney bin.

Barney

Barney Quinn, WK3Z
C: (301) 775-1386
H: (301) 654-0938

> On Mar 19, 2015, at 9:39 AM, Tina Manley <tmanley at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> OK this is driving me crazy.  I didn't sleep at all last night and I can't
> continue to edit my Cuba photos until I get this sorted out.  This photo
> was made with my 50 Summilux, the sharpest lens I have.  The way I judge
> sharpness is to view the photo at 100% - just like the stock agencies tell
> you to.  Here is a 100% enlargement of that photo:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/159481904
> 
> Is that sharp or not?  If not, there is something wrong with my eyes.
> 
> Here is a shot a short time later with a little more light:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/159481902
> 
> Here is a 100% enlargement of that shot:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/image/159481905
> 
> Is it sharp?  Am I going blind?
> 
> Please let me know.
> 
> Tina
> 
>> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 7:56 PM, Ted Grant <tedgrant at shaw.ca> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Tina,
>> 
>> Technical wise I have no idea what's causing the effect because I've never
>> given one twit of technical thought about photography! I just enjoy my
>> photographic love affair without question! :-) :-) HOWEVER? :-)
>> 
>> 1/ It kind of doesn't look sharp?
>> 2/ If you kind of move your head about while looking at the screen it
>> looks sharp sort of when you kind of angle your head to screen..
>> 3/It looks like it's sharp but blown - up a zillion times shot on ASA 1O
>> film.
>> 4/Looking through the four sizes none of them seem to have what I'd call a
>> sharp Leica edge line anywhere. All edges seem to have a tiny bit of a
>> glow. Which appears to remove sharpness.
>> 5/ My first re-action was it was taken through one of those lenses that
>> nothing is ever sharp-sharp. It's the kind, one of the old time photogs
>> used on green peppers & people got wet pants with excitement when used!
>> They look kind of sharp. But? Looked kind of just off the super-sharp edge.
>> 6/ Never mind all the various computer screens..... Run off a 13X19 full
>> frame B&W print. Then come back and tell us what it looks like?
>> 
>> Certainly an interesting effect. But it has absolutely nothing to do with
>> whether you focused the lens properly. And if this is the "ONLY FRAME YOU
>> SEE IT ON????????????????" Don't sweat it! Write it off as some kind of
>> ATMOSPHERE situation." :-)
>> 
>> Life is too short knocking yourself out over one ordinary image. Neither
>> is wasting the time typing all the e-mails back and forth.
>> 
>> Just go and sit down, pour yourself a nice single malt and smile while
>> enjoying all the thoughts of the hundreds, nay, thousands of amazing CUBA
>> photos you came home with!  Now don't you feel better? NO! NO! Don't let
>> another thought about whatever this is enter your thoughts! And forget
>> "curiosity I just want to know???."
>> 
>> Like, it just isn't worth all the time you and others have & are putting
>> on the screen. Sure folks curiosity want to know  what made this effect.
>> Good for them. BUT? It's all over one frame of thousands you exposed?
>> 
>> I'm right! MAKE ONE 13x19 B&W PRINT! GAME AND ANSWER, it's OVER! :-)
>> Because in print form it's going to look just fine as a print! And that my
>> dear lady is all that matters in the end! Besides all your other photos
>> completely over ride all this!!! :-)
>> 
>> cheers,
>> Dr. ted
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ---
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>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Tina Manley
> www.tinamanley.com
> tina-manley.artistwebsites.com
> http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/3B49552F-90A0-4D0A-A11D-2175C937AA91/Tina+Manley.html
> 
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