[Leica] IMG: LR Conversion

Tue May 1 04:03:50 PDT 2018

Precisely Peter. I have to say all of this makes me feel a bit weird for several reasons. The first is that, of course, what really matters is the subject of the image - what it is, what it says, what it means to viewer and creator; all the rest is icing. As Buzz Housner opined here longer ago than I care to remember, “focus and exposure are grossly over rated.” 

Then there is the ease digital brings us, the freedom from the restrictions imposed by iso, color, black and white, etc, from image to image. The sun’s disappeared? No problem - crank that sucker up! Oh damn! That really would be better in black and white? No problem. You want selective color (😜Shoot me!)? No problem. And on and on. 

However...While color digital really can be a revelation, producing, I would argue, in the right hands, images pretty much impossible to distinguish from film, black and white film images and digital black and white are really different beasts. For those who bemoaned the appearance of grain the way a 14-year-old girl bemoaned a zit on her nose, no problem - just get rid of any digital noise and you’re all set. But that, I believe, misses a very important point - with film, the grain is literally what created the image, what gave it its ‘look,’ and gave it a depth that digital lacks. And of course each film stock had its own special look. 

So then we have two choices - just shoot film, and if one has the time, money, and inclination - and is happy with those film stocks that are left, go for it! But if one only has the resources or inclination to shoot film some of the time, the choice might be to find something in the digital world that will provide something close to the look of film. It had nothing to do with “fake” or “pretending,” as some here have suggested, and everything with creating images that look the way the creator wants them to look. (And by the way, True Grain allows one to totally eliminate the grain and maintain the rest of the film profile. Remember, it is created by scanning the film and adding the result to the digital image.)

Anyway, I would only add: if you think grain is a curse, go look at William Klein’s “New York.”

Cheers

B.D.
Film, digital - it’s all good

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 1, 2018, at 3:50 AM, Peter Dzwig <pdzwig at summaventures.com> wrote:
> 
> FWIW, I agree with  the sentiment in the first sentence, namely that digital
> isn't the same as film and that there is something fundamentally different about
> the two.
> 
> Given the predominance of digital and its relative ease of use I would like to
> be able to "make it behave" more like film. By that I mean give me the same
> characteristics as film has in respect of depth, subtlety and so on. Whether you
> add grain or not is a matter of personal preference (IMHO). Imitating the
> response of various films is a matter of the programmer's skill and somewhat
> more subtle.
> 
> The closest I have seen to what I want were some shots using M9s that someons
> posted a while back. But then I can't afford a digital M. Which is why I am
> thinking more and more about film. Even if it is C-41 :-)
> 
> Peter
> 
>> On 30/04/2018 19:13, B. D. COLEN wrote:
>> "Why bother with pseudo-film?” For the simple reason that straight black and white conversion tends to look like something cracked out of a Disney factory - like plastic, with no depth or character - beyond that of the subject. Film black and white images have a depth and dimensionality that digital does not - so if there are ways to bring that to digital, why not take advantage of them?  (Not that one can’t do whatever one wants with ones own art.) 
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> On April 30, 2018 at 2:38:58 AM, via LUG Philippe (lug at leica-users.org) wrote:
>> 
>> +1
>> 
>> Ph
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> Le 30 avr. 2018 à 00:41, Alan Magayne-Roshak <amr3 at uwmalumni.com> a écrit :
>>> 
>>> Let digital be digital, and film be film.
>>> 
>>> Why bother with pseudo-film?
>>> 
>>> Alan
>>> 
>>> Alan Magayne-Roshak, Senior Photographer
>>> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Photo Services
>>> (Retired)
>>> UPAA Photographer of the Year 1978
>>> UPAA Master of the Profession 2014
>>> amr3 at uwm.edu
>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Alan+Magayne-Roshak/
>>> 
>>> "All the technique in the world doesn't compensate
>>> for an inability to notice. " - Elliott Erwitt
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> B. D. Colen
>> A Da