I try to get my pix sharp. But sometimes they aren't. I print them
anyway. Some of my best pictures are a little soft. Heck some of my
best pictures are accidents that look like pictures in one of those old
books full of "faults".
Then there are folks who photograph mostly women through gauze. I think
Mr Cartier Bresson would agree this is very bourgeois.
If you put the gauze in front of the camera lens, the highlights spread
out, usually making a happy picture. If you put the gauze under the
enlarger lens the shadows spread out, usually making a gloomy picture.
The effect is different.
David aka dannysoar
I said
I hold with Cartier Bresson that "Sharpness is a bourgeois virtue" :-).
-----------------o-------------- Don answered
There have been some recent posts on this forum and on the Exakta forum about using older or "softer" primary lenses, in one case there is a contest running in which only 3 element lenses can be used (actually a cemented 4th element doesn't count).
Someone, don't remember who, said he preferred to take the sharpest possible photos and then degrade them with PhotoShop, or in the darkroom.
I would guess that there are folks on this list who will make a strong case that the effect one gets by using a soft lens in the camera is entirely different than what one gets with PhotoShop or in darkroom processing, regardless of the darkroom process used.
If this is not the case, how did Rollei manage to make money selling Rolleisoft adapter lenses if the same thing could be done in the darkroom in the olden days?
Anyone have any opinions about this?
About scanners, I'm still hanging in with my old CanoScan D 1230U. I can only print up to 8X10 so maybe I would want a different scanner if I had a larger printer, or sent files out for printing. (I do both medium format and 35mm slides and negatives, and of course scan a lot of documents for OCR, and pictures for reproduction. Seems to meet my needs) What am I missing?
Don Williams
La Jolla, CA
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