[Leica] Problem with the M9

Thu Jan 5 17:34:27 PST 2017

Ted this dodging and burning we always did in the darkroom is now got the
bad digital label "manipulation." Its looked at with suspicion and contempt.
They want to you completely leave the thing alone or there is no more
"truth" left in the image.
"You didn't manipulate this jpeg did you?
"I sure as heck did!".
"You didn't "Shop" this jpeg did you? (Photoshop)
"I sure as heck did!".
Why wouldn't we if the sky is all washed out darken it like we always did in
the darkroom?!
Because someone else has taken over the roost.
I think we were more than making the darkroom print better. We were making
it viable. We just had to make it so you could see everything.  If detail in
areas were too dark to see or too light it just looked bad and they wondered
way they hired us when they could have hired someone who could give them a
decent picture that's showed everything clearly.
The line between printing craft and retouching is not so hard to see and
there are plenty of tasteless people out there with those tools in hand to
totally mess with a pic and make it look like stupid cartoon. And as I see
its the same people who have taken over the roost. Its people who love
cameras and I don't blame them but they have no love at all for using them
and image making.

And I think the same people who love collecting cool old camera lenes also
love to collect cool third party filters to totally make tasteless cartoons
out of what could have been a solid normal photo. And they are encouraged by
iPhone photography where they just hit a button and a "filter" turns it into
some different kind of cartoon...Instasgram did or does that.
People who think they are into photography seriously are doing this now.
Its always something. But what photography has turned into now could be
considered nightmareish.

On 1/5/17 2:03 PM, "Ted Grant" <tedgrant at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hi Mark,
> In the days of "real wet darkrooms" we all did what is reasonably  called
> "post processing?" A little burning in here & there. Or  bit of dodging, if
> done properly, as it should be... not heavily, nor noticeable. Of course I
> did all that kind of "post stuff!" Didn't we all?  :-) It was part and
> parcel in making a "cool image" look lots "cooler" Better! :-)
> However today? The post stuff as such, has gone beyond a little touch-up! I
> have seen photos "BEFORE & AFTER" that are so changed they almost look like
> two different locations!
> So where does "post processing" fit in here? When it's nothing more than
> "cheating" if offered as.. "the original image taken & offered as so?"
> When we were shooting for wire services and news, the image had to be as
> natural as truthful as SEEN & shot!! Then along came digital and the
> "Cheater Photogs" manipulated photos to nothing more than a "lying image!"
> :-(
> Finally when it happened a bit too much, that crap became apparent....
> "LYING NEWS PHOTOS!" the manipulators were fired. As it should be with NEWS
> IMAGES!" "COMMERCIAL IMAGES?" Hey fiddle them to your hearts desire!
> My so called "post processing" amounts to "auto-colour" button and if it
> looks a tad bit better? I LEAVE IT ALONE!
> If it doesn't to my eye? It's "undo auto colour" Or contrast, or whatever
> auto thing it might be? That's it and absolutely "KISS SIMPLE!" Even in the
> olden wet darkroom days, my
> manipulations were very simple and gentle indeed.
> Colour when printed was by a most fantastic colour processor and print
> maker. A genius! Dang he saved my butt on more than a few occasions!
> My way of shooting photos right from May 27 1950 on my birthday, when my
> dear  wife gave me the "ARGUS A2" 35 mm film camera!
> Has always been:
>  "SHOOT THAT WHICH CAPTURES YOUR EYE AS TRUTHFULLY AS IT TURNED YOU ON!
> "CLICK!)
> I suppose in my previous post I overdid my descriptions of
> "Today's fiddling images beyond realities!" And I apologize to those I may
> have offended.
> HOWEVER? I shall never back down from "OBSERVE=WOW=CLICK" potential photo
> keeper! "KISS" 
> cheers,
> Dr. Ted Grant  C.M. O.C.
> 
>  
>   
> -----Original Message-----
> From: LUG [mailto:lug-bounces+tedgrant=shaw.ca at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
> Mark Rabiner
> Sent: January-05-17 3:22 AM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Problem with the M9
> 
> Philippe hi! always delighted to be in agreement.
> To split hairs "post processing" is what?
> Its processing isn't it? We're making the picture.
> Its not something that's happening later is it?
> Afterwards we email it or print it.  To me that's post.
> "Post" to me means "after the fact" but what do I know?
> 
> I may think that because I think people think processing the pictures,
> Photoshop or Lightroom work is like some extra special thing you don't
> really need to do. Like in the old days when we brought our film to the drug
> store and they made snap shots for us.
> Who needs a darkroom I got Walgreens?
> 
> 
> 
> On 1/5/17 4:03 AM, "Philippe" <photo.philippe.amard at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 46 years after I developed my first BW film, I totally concur.
> 
> Post
>> processing is a taste enhancer without which I at least, would end up with
> so
>> much less sapid photographs.
> 
> And I¹m happy like a painter or a cook to have
>> such a palette and variety of tools available.
> 
> Amities
> Philippe
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> Le 5
>> janv. 2017 à 09:42, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> a écrit :
>> 
>> Well
>> Ted! I think it works like you go in the darkroom and you try to make
>> the
>> thing look like it looked and it comes out in the end not quite what you
>> 
>> expected but you like it better anyway. We do the best we can.
>> I don't know
>> about you but some of my better pictures come from tricky
>> negatives which
>> were not so easy to print. You're coming out with something
>> you don't quite
>> expect.  But it all works at great in the end. Pretty soon I
>> forget what the
>> thing was really supposed to look like. Or what plan A was.
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> information
> 
> 
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> 
> 

-- 
Mark William Rabiner
Photographer
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/