[Leica] Daved and confused

[kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney)]

Dave,

Just a few thoughts.  Most of my background is in LF.  I believe that I
understand the visualization (pre-visualization) concept.  I have done my
share of reading negative density for various N minus and what all settings.
I still have friends who would not give that up for the world.  But for me,
"digital" is liberating.  As long as I don't do something really bad (put my
thumb in front of the lens, blow out the highlights etc.) I have a
"negative" that can be used.  Sort of like having an endless supply of TriX.
You can make an unprintable TriX neg, but you have to try.  In addition, I
now have a lot of negatives.  I don't mean happenstance.  I mean, let's try
this angle or this light (though typically the first image is still the
best).

Editing is fast, and brings the winners, if any, out quickly.  There are
plenty of times when a color file surprised me when converted to b&w.  Just
desaturation won't get you much.  There are plenty of solutions for b&w,
such as Alien Skin Exposure, Convert to B&W Pro, Photoshop's tools and so
forth.  I think you raise an interesting question, and my comment is
essentially why not use all these great tools, or stated another way, why
lock yourself into one way of seeing?  I'm sure at one time burning and
dodging in the darkroom was seen as the devil's work.  As far as what WWAS,
I'd bet the ranch that if he used the brush adjustment tool in Bridge he
would say "Holy crap, my ship has come in - this calls for a martini!"
After all, you're talking about someone whose prints bore little resemblance
to the negs, and who dunked the bottom of the most holy of negatives
(Moonrise)into chromium solution to intensify the grave markers.  Or, how
about the LF darkroom photographers who use unsharp mask negatives...that
wasn't on the original.

Ken
(An amateur photographer, untalented painter, whose family is most thankful
that his income does not relate to photography, and who understands that
there are areas, such as PJ, where the above thoughts would or should be
heresy)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+kcarney1=cox.net@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-
> bounces+kcarney1=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of David Rodgers
> Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 12:23 PM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: [Leica] Daved and confused
> 
> 
> Perhaps this is too deep a subject for a shallow mind such as mine, but
> when I first learned photography I was taught that visualization -- the
> process of imagining the final print before snapping the shutter -- was
> essential to good photography. It was difficult, but made a little
> easier because your scope of visualization was more narrow. For
> instance, you were pretty much locked into the type of film you were
> using.
> 
> Certainly you could cross over from BW to color using Marshall Oils or
> the opposite direction using Panalure, but how common was it to do so? I
> think I used Marshall Oils one time and I still have leftovers from my
> first and only box of Panalure.
> 
> Now we can switch back and forth -- and I do it often, from color to BW
> and back, at least -- with a mouse click. Since nearly all digital
> begins in color (I'm not diciplined enough to shoot in monochrome mode)
> it's almost like I'm admitting defeat when I determine that an image
> can't make it as a color image so I try and dress it up a little in BW.
> 
> Thus when I shoot digital I feel like I'm a color photographer who uses
> BW -- aka zero saturation -- as a crutch to make bad photos that have
> some compositional merit but are colorly challenged, into mediocre
> photos; sometimes even really good BW photos, if I'm lucky. I can even
> hide unwanted artifacts....even noise.
> 
> Has happenstance replaced visualization? Is this even something worth
> discussing? WWAS? (What would Ansel say?) Was visualization merely a
> fancy metaphore for "you're stuck with what's in your camera, so make
> the most of it".
> 
> There was a day when I'd have given my eye teeth to have someone come up
> to me and offer a magic film that could be either color or BW at the
> snap of my finger. After all, visualization was a tough thing for me to
> grasp. Sadly, now that I'm an old dog I can't ungrasp it. I'm conflicted
> and confused. What's that old saying? Careful what you wish for.....
> 
> DaveR
> 
> 
> 
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