Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/04

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Subject: [Leica] Frame Lines
From: csocolow <csocolow@microserve.net>
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 1999 10:46:50 -0400

> At 09:42 AM 9/4/1999 -0400, you wrote:
> >Was wondering what y'all think about the habit of including the 'black
> >edge'.
> 

I consider making a full-frame image a critical discipline for my Leica
photography. My commercial work with Hasselblads, 4x5 and other 35mm
systems is subject to the whims and vagaries of art directors and
editors. This is not to say that I don't try to compose or frame to
limit what these butchers can do. 

But when I work with my Leicas part of the aesthetic discipline I impose
on myself is to compose instinctively, at the moment of exposure. When I
edit my photos prior to making prints I reject a large number if they
don't work full frame. The black border is a sort of validation or
marque of the employment of this approach although I consider it very
hokey to have sprocket holes or numbers. A purist sort of proclamation. 

What I find more frustrating are art directors who PhotoShop in fake
black borders with film numbers, etc. after they've done their damage to
the original integrity of the image.

- -- 
Carl Socolow

http://members.tripod.com/SocPhoto/