Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/01/12

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Subject: [Leica] [OT] Scanning Kodachrome help
From: spencer at aotera.org (Spencer Cheng)
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:45:27 -0500
References: <C7727046.5BD9F%mark@rabinergroup.com>

On Jan 12, 2010, at 18:30, Mark Rabiner wrote:
> 
> I spent decades going to a rental color lab on a regular basis where I made
> my color prints with an omega head and  a Kreonite processor. Both color 
> neg
> and direct positive.
> For a first  test print to come out with the snow showing 10 or 15 points
> magenta was nothing. Its a first test. You correct it.
> You don't go out and buy an new enlarger or a new brand paper.
> There's nothing phony about it either.
> The magenta is not suppose to be there.
> Its called crafting a print.
> And nowadays maybe there's no paper.
> Your crafting an Jpeg. There's no paper.
> 
> To me not having Photoshop is like you want to do it without an omega head.
> Which you could easily do if you wanted to hire somebody to Photoshop all
> your pix for you. Which I think would make you amazingly lazy.
> We can learn new stuff here just because we're older than 2 or 3 decades
> old.
> 

I have never enjoyed darkroom work. I did a lot of B&W printing in high 
school and very little since then. I don't like the smell, the chemicals, 
and the long hours trying to manipulate the negative to get the perfect 
print. It's why I shot Kodachrome for many years. But that is my 
perspective. 

I admire people who can do magic with PS. I remember when Tina made someone 
disappear from her picture (from China I think that had a wall in the 
background) a few years ago in an hour or 2. [Bowing to a mistress of PS 
:-)) ]

Could I master PS? Of course, given the time. I find, most of the time, the 
simple control in something like Aperture is plenty for my need (cropping, 
correct colour temperature, and that's about all). But to me, PS is the 
digital darkroom. Whatever I need to know to accomplish my goals and that is 
good enough.

It's not a question of learning something new. In my field, if you cannot 
learn a new technology every 18 months or less (again and again), you are 
very obsolete. It's just my brain is too small and I have to pick what I 
stuff inside. All the extra bits dribbles out the ears.

The only client I really have to keep happy is me, fortunately. :-)

Regards,
Spencer



Replies: Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] [OT] Scanning Kodachrome help)
In reply to: Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] [OT] Scanning Kodachrome help)