On 03/31/2017 11:28 AM, bobkiss caribsurf.com wrote:
DEAR LIST,
Lest anyone doubt my dedication to and love for silver gelatin
photography and hand made, prints, I developed my first roll of film in trays
(on my knees) on the floor of my parents darkened basement 54 years ago, shot
thousands of rolls and sheets of film since then (first as an advertising and
fashion photog then, for the last two decades, as a fine art photog) and made
more prints than I can count. I still shoot with my 8X10, 5X7, 4X5, 'Blad,
Nikons & Leicas and just had a Rollei CLA'd that was first owned by Mr Cunard
(you know, the boy who owned a few boats! LOL!!!). So, like most of you, I
have processing chems running in my veins! O.K.?
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooowever, something amazing happened today. I
have been working on a fine art photo project that concentrates on extreme
closeups. I have been doing the depth of field dance between closing up to
get some DOF with the accompanying loss of sharpness due to diffraction
effects. As Richard can confirm, the "sweet spot" (minimum degradation due
to aberrations plus diffraction effects) is usually between 2 and 3 stops
above wide open. This is pretty useless when shooting macro which requires
high f#s for any DOF. And, for these shots, Scheimpflug doesn't work.
I just connect Canon 5D MK IV to my computer and used Helicon "Control"
and "Focus" programs. For maximum sharpness, I purposefully chose f8 on the
Canon 100mm macro lens which was 3 stops above the wide open of f2.8. These
programs automatically "bracketed focus" between the nearest and farthest
distances at which I wanted sharpness and then combined the files to render a
VERY sharp image over that area. This is something that film cameras simply
cannot do.
In summary I am completely agreeing with those members of this list who
state that film and digital cameras and media are creative tools. We should
know them both so we can choose the best tool to actualize our creative
vision for each creative challenge.
CHEERS!
BOB
