[Leica] More Sharpness is Highly Overratted

[Charles <chaslor@mindspring.com>]

Jim wrote:

>Which, I suspect, look the same as your Leica pinhole
>photographs. Crappy.

At this point I will agree with you, the test roll I shot did indeed look 
crappy (except one frame of a beagle that somehow scared me). However, 
I'm suprised that you would characterize pinhole photography as crappy 
and seem to dismiss it outright. I've seen the web sites, I've had 
assistants come in to show their books filled with "art", many using 
pinhole techniques. Much of it is indeed crappy. On occasion the results 
are stunning. Most art forms or techniques, new and old, whether it's 
music or dance or photography or illustration, is often termed crappy by 
many. You question my intentions very simply, "Why?" you ask. Why not? I 
may fail, I may not. It does have a look, as do most techniques or 
trends. I've decided to use the Leica as a convenient way to experiment 
now and then. I did the Oatmeal box in school also. My results were 
crappy then too. It's very difficult to make a good photo with a pinhole. 
It's a good exercise though. It's all about design. It makes you really 
look at the composition from purely a design point of view. 

A couple of years ago, after playing with the pinhole on a Hasselblad 
(and getting crappy results), I pulled out an old field camera. Has 
anybody ever seen or used an old "portrait" lens that was intentionaly 
soft focus? The one I saw seemed to be simply a view camera lens without 
the front element. So I took apart the 3 lenses that were with the camera 
and found one of them to work wonderfully! The image is not so sharp. 
Very different than the pinhole look. Moderate center sharpness falling 
off rapidly into oblivion. View camera controls determine where you put 
the "sharp" part. Try it with your Linhoff, Jim. I love that camera. I 
put a couple of shots with this technique in my portfolio and got more 
than one job from it. Sold both of them as stock, too. Enough to buy a 
couple of Linhoffs ;) All that I'm saying is that Sharpness is Highly 
Overrated. It has it's place, but can be very distracting. It's why I use 
my Summiluxes wide open most of the time. I like to have sharpness there 
when I need it, but sometimes it helps just to get rid of everything and 
simplify the composition by breaking the rules. I hate rules. Sorry folks 
if I digress away from Leica for just a moment.

charles