Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/02

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] winter in GA
From: "Will" <wlarsen@ocsnet.net>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002 11:49:09 -0800
References: <B880DE6D.138B%csemetko@earthlink.net>

Craig writes:


| Thanks Ted (and Jim Brick too!) for your informative,
instructive, and
| HELPFUL posts. The time you take to pass on your
experience and knowledge is
| MUCH appreciated. Can either of you recommend a specific
book that is
| instructive on making natural light work for you? (Or
anybody else for that
| matter, don't mean to be excluding anyone with good
suggestions)

Don't forget Slobodan Dimitrov's masterful post on the
subject.

I don't quite understand the near-personal attacks on the
course author.  He clearly states that their are other ways
to photography people.  He clearly states that his lighting
was set-up at a time that colour film had very little
latitude in both the transparency and in the print.  He
states exactly what he is going to teach you and he does it.
It is also clear that the models were chosen to illustrate
his points.

He tell you to look at the lighting and figure out the
source and relative intensity...and just as important, he
tells you how to pose the human figure.  Well, posing is
anathema so some folks...but look at body angles when he is
through and then start comparing the body angles with other
types of successful photos...You might see that you are
looking at some type of universality here.  (and I am
talking about successful people photographs taken from the
1850's onward).  you might even try pulling some of the web
photos into Photoshop or paint and extracting the outlines
of the angles.  You might also look at some of the natural
light salon photography done in New York and San Francisco
from around 1900 to 1920 (where north facing skylights were
used).

At the price of the Web Course, you can learn a lot and is
it worth what you can get out of it. The guy has given you a
nearly sure-fire way to set up a portrait studio...most of
the techniques and observations can be adapted to any type
of shooting where form is important.  Go through the course
and then evaluate the "great" form photographs...regardless
of whether they are taken with artificial or natural light.

You might see the difference between a photograph and a
snapshot.

jmo
Bill Larsen



- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html

In reply to: Message from Craig Semetko <csemetko@earthlink.net> ([Leica] winter in GA)