Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Very intersting perspective, to say the least. I also love super-sharp, wall-to-wall crispy images, and I like the way you explained how you can go back to one of those photos over and over and always see something new, some new speck of detail. BUT, sometimes, probably 50% of the time, the center of attention needs a bit of fuzziness around her so she does not disappear into the woodwork. Sometimes all I want you to see is the subject, nothing else. Or, I want you to see the subject and just a slightly fuzzy rendition of the background so you can barely make out where the subject is. It depends upon the image...... At 12:08 PM 4/20/98 +0200, Alan Hull wrote: >. >Mike Johnstone wrote. >> Most people think they can "get" photographs by glancing at them. >However, it isn't true. > > >Exactly what I've been saying in previous posts. But with a minor >difference. For me, a photograph must be sharp and clear as a bell from >wall to wall, corner to corner. When I look at a photograph, I want to >climb in it, and look around. I can't do that with fuzzy out of focus >backgrounds, bokah or not. For that reason I consider the like of the >Noctilux with its narrow DOF to be the lens for record shots only. An >image of a flower surrounded by a blurry fuzz is good only for a gardening >catalogue. A portrait with a sharp pair of eyes and out of focus nose and >ears is good for the Opticians Gazzette. > >Before oil and canvas artists were chased by photography into the realm of >the unrealistic they always depicted the whole scene sharply and clearly. >It was possible to stand before a painting for hours and still see scenes >within scenes second and third time around. > >Any part of a photograph that is out of focus is a reflection of poor and >lazy technique and is of no value whatever. It is a waste of chemicals. > >This is the reason why photographs can be "got" in seconds. After "taking >in" the main subject so THOUGHTFULLY isolated from the rest of the scene, >there is nothing else to look at. Whether the viewer wanted to explore the >rest of the picture or not, he is left with a sadness of what might have >been. > >IMHO if a lens is set below f8 it is in record mode. Period. > >Alan Hull > Francesco Sanfilippo, Five Senses Productions webmaster@5senses.com http://www.5senses.com/