Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/12/04

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Subject: [Leica] David and confused
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Thu Dec 4 14:36:51 2008

While most concepts and techniques involving darkroom work I am very
familiar if not very experienced in: The "randomness and approximation of
the traditional methods" goes over my head. What is it? Not knowing what
you're doing and thinking that's a good thing?
The decades I've spent in the darkroom "randomness and approximation" have
had little to do with it I think.

mark@rabinergroup.com
Mark William Rabiner



> From: Geoff Hopkinson <hoppyman@bigpond.net.au>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 08:00:27 +1000
> To: 'Leica Users Group' <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: RE: [Leica] David and confused
> 
> Chris it is DIFFERENT and requires a different skill set to get the best
> from it. Naturally it is just as relevant as it ever was. I was expounding
> on the possibilities of digital Raw capture for BW of course.
> I'm better with that skill set than the film one.
> 
> 
> Cheers
> Geoff
> http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/e
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/
> Pick up your camera and make the best photo you can.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> Subject: RE: [Leica] David and confused
> 
> So I suppose there is little argument even for B&W film any more.  Perhaps
> the randomness and approximation of the traditional methods will remain a
> strength for some.
> 
> 
> At 11:24 PM 12/3/2008, you wrote:
>> YES!! Someone else gets it!
>> Even better, when you get to Raw files in CS4 there is even more
>> functionality (for colour and BW) in the form of adjustment brushes and
>> targeted adjustments and snapshots that let you save all of the
>> development settings and new camera profiles and... Oh just try it out
>> if you want a good insight. You can get a 30 day trial from Adobe, I'm
>> sure. Check out some of the Adobe tutorials too.
>> Absolutely compose and visualize the photo as a BW from the start, if
>> that's how you prefer to work, that makes perfect sense when you've
>> seen patterns and contrast and textures, shapes etc that you know will
>> make a great BW shot. Just capture all of the colour information that
>> gives you the possibilities to do all of the above and a lot more. You
>> can easily use combinations to simulate a specific film too, if you want.
>> 
>> 
>> Cheers
>> Geoff
>> http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman/e
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/
>> Pick up your camera and make the best photo you can.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> Subject: Re: [Leica] David and confused
>> 
>> The issue to me is that doing black and white is not a mouse click away.
>> Its a lot more hands on involved than that.
>> The mouse click away indicated you've just changed it into grayscale
>> like in Photoshop 4 or 5 a few years ago.
>> 
>> And now you open up a file in CS3 or I assume CS4 I've not quite got
>> yet and you've got an HSL/Greyscale panel with 8 color sliders on it
>> with presets and things you can load in and or save. As you're working
>> these sliders and preset you see the various elements in your image,
>> the sky the foliage the bricks change as you do it. So things are
>> separated out they way you want them to be. The way you'd never get
>> them to be in a million  years shooting film.
>> 
>> Or you can open it up in full color.
>> Go into the menu adjustments / Black and White.
>> Here you've got the color sliders again but much better set up presets.
>> particularly
>> Green filter,
>> Infrared
>> red filter,  yellow filter
>> High contrast red filter.
>> 
>> After you hit a preset you can then tweak the 8 color sliders till your
>> picture is filtered perfectly.
>> 
>> Its like dying and going to heaven.
>> A black and white photographers dream come true.
>> 
>> And the bad part is....
>> There is no bad part.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> mark@rabinergroup.com
>> Mark William Rabiner
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> From: Philippe AMARD <philippe.amard@tele2.fr>
>>> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>>> Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:32:14 +0100
>>> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [Leica] Daved and confused
>>> 
>>> Hi Dave,
>>> I understand your qualms.
>>> In many ways, your own brains decide. BW or colour, who cares so
>>> long as you still decide what pleases you better.
>>> Yet, everything starts with visualisation; light, shapes, people,
>>> places, etc - the rest is only technology, i.e. immaterial and can
>>> be changed, at any time.
>>> It also ends up with you, you seeing what has come of your
>>> endeavour, and often another person visualising your end product -
>>> and this is also what matters.
>>> I am unsure the subject can be tackled differently, in photographic
>>> terms I mean.
>>> So no qualms - visualise, shoot, make the most of the neg/file/0
>>> and1s to your taste, and please our eyes with beautiful never seen
>>> before, and never to be seen again photographs.
>>> Bien amicalement.
>>> Philippe
>>> 
>>> David Rodgers wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 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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>>>> information
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
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> 
> Chris Saganich MS, CPH
> Senior Physicist, Office of Health Physics Weill Medical College of Cornell
> University New York Presbyterian Hospital chs2018@med.cornell.edu
> http://intranet.med.cornell.edu/research/health_phys/
> Ph. 212.746.6964
> Fax. 212.746.4800
> Office A-0049
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> "I am the radiation"
> 
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> 
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In reply to: Message from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (Geoff Hopkinson) ([Leica] David and confused)