[LRflex] Re: a few...
- From: "William B. Abbott III" <wbabbott3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:19:05 -0700
Steve, Ted,
On Jun 22, 2008, at 1:38 PM, Ted Grant wrote:
Quite often black people are really really black and it’s best to
leave well enough alone and don’t try messing with levels and other
Photoshop adjustments as you might do the people a disservice trying
to make them look lighter. Accept that ius the way they are.
Amen, I say.
I second Ted's comment.
I was born, raised, lived among, and loved many dark skinned people in
my youth, many of whom were "really black," and I have seen good and
bad photos of them, and good and bad photos of lighter skinned people
too.
I do not want to trivialize, or be seen to trivialize, the art of
photographing dark-skinned individuals.
After a bit of Googling, I found this web page that displays how white
and black people ended up when photographed by one on my icons of
photography, the late, great Margaret Bourke-White, with whom those of
you of a certain age may be familiar. She was one of the original
staff photographers of Life Magazine in the 1930s. As you might have
guessed, I am a child of the depression and remember it vividly.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/am485_98/coe/photofrnt.html
Bourke-White was using film, of course, which has a smaller dynamic
range than we have with our digital cameras, and I have no idea how
the pictures shown were developed, pushed or not, in development,
printed with dodging and/or burn in, (another whole subject!) and how
they might relate to today's digital practice.
They do, however, indicate to me how well made photos of people may
turn out, when photographed by one of the masters of our art. Her
work, and that of Dorothea Lange, who also photographed the
Depression, remain as shining examples of what I still attempt to do,
and seldom come even remotely close to doing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange
With all best regards,
Bill
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