Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Suggested Leica Reading List- EQUIPMENT
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 16:19:03 -0500

Marshall Hunt related the following:

> "The worst enemy of the good picture is the unimportant
> feature. ...You will immediately find that wherever you can
> leave something off, the picture will always be improved,
> never suffer...Question:How much can I leave out of the
> picture...The step from the 50mm to the 90mm field of view
> leads us to the essential, to a concentration on the motif.
> The characteristic 90mm field of view to which the use of
> this lens educates us will often make us change our camera
> position, by examining the field of view through the
> viewfinder... until the picture is perfect....This is why it
> demands increased discretion from its user.  This is why I
> have called it a teacher." He also mentions decreased depth
> of field, small size, ease in isolating the subject from its
> surroundings, ideal for portraits.........and then mentions
> it can be used on the Visoflex II at infinity.

Oh, this is SUCH nonsense!!  As though the ONLY reason for using the 90mm
was that it leaves out more than the 50.  And as though the ONLY way to
leave out unimportant stuff in a picture was to use a longer focal length.

The problem with "uninteresting" stuff in pictures isn't that it's there,
it's that it's TOO PROMINENT!  If you've got too much uninteresting stuff in
a picture taken with a 50, the answer is probably to get closer, not
necessarily to switch focal lengths.

Alternatively, switch to a 35mm or 28mm and get EVEN CLOSER: make the
interesting parts LARGE and the uninteresting parts small.  Look at
"Workers" by Salgado.  Lots of it shot with a 28mm.  You'd get nowhere NEAR
the impact if it had been shot with a 90mm.  Switching to a 90 cuts context
and often the interplay between the main subject and its context is what
makes a good photograph.

The "discretion" he talks about above applies in no greater measure to the
90mm focal length than it does to any other focal length.  The whole passage
above is characteristic of someone who's gained some shallow understanding
of an issue, found a single working solution, and then proclaims that to be
a universal truth.

Bah!

M. (There -- feel much better now that I got *that* out of my system ;)

- -- 
Martin Howard                 | It isn't an Information Superhighway,
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU   | it's an Information Railway. Only the
email: howard.390@osu.edu     | barons control speech, not transportation.
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/    +-------------------------------------------

Replies: Reply from Marshall Hunt <huntmc2@fuse.net> (Re: [Leica] Suggested Leica Reading List- EQUIPMENT)