[Leica] The negative as positive

[phong at doan-ltd.com (Phong)]

Paul Hardy Carter wrote:
> I've never heard that quote from the great man, but it sums up my  
> approach perfectly.
> 
> I wonder how this fits in with the digital world so many of us now live  
> in. With film the image is cast in stone, as it were, once it's fixed  
> and it's than up to the printer to make what he can out of it.
> 
> A digital image never reaches this state, unless you call the RAW image  
> the definitive version, but even that has usually been manipulated in  
> the camera.
> 
> So where's the "digital score"?


If you really insist on carrying on the analogy, the RAW file
would be the digital score.  Any in-camera manipulation would
be out of the control of the printer, as is any darkroom manipulation
to produce the negative.  And for sure there is a lot of potential
for creativity in interpreting the RAW file into the final print.
(Even from a JPG file for that matter)

But you can only carry an analogy so far, and whether music to
film photography, or film to digital photography, the analogy falls
apart sooner or later, and for me, it's rather sooner.  Never mind
digital, the analogy does not work very well for color photography 
at all, either at the score or the performance level.

- Phong