[rollei_list] Re: formats

I remember my high school photo teacher telling us to "Crop in the camera, not in the darkroom." I've heeded his advice ever since - but what a setup for frustration, or waste, because the negatives and the papers never met on proportion, and so cropping was almost always necessary. I never found comfort in the 5x7 or 8x10 proportion anyway, and when I shoot, I work hard to consider everything in the viewfinder. Masks for viewfinders would be a great idea - I'm sure someone sells them. It would be easy enough to make one for the Rollei TLR.
Like others here I am a devotee of the Golden Section. But 2x3 shouldn't be dismissed offhand. It's a very pleasant proportion with a long history in the form of books. 
A 6x9 enlargement onto 8x10 paper is not so bad at all.
The Rollei, by the way, does a great job with 35mm film - you just have to like the vertical format. 

Elias

On Sep 24, 2008, at 8:27 PM, Marc James Small wrote:


At 08:11 PM 9/24/2008, Marvin Wallace wrote:
Well we will have to disagree on that point then, particularly that the viewer will not know that the image is cropped. Second I don’t think its good to crop photograph’s either with the enlarger but especially with the knife. I you read my post, I didn’t say you SHOULDN’T use more than one camera; I suggested it is not the best practice and I stick to that sentiment. That the Rolleiflex was not made for square negs is true, but it’s an awful 35mm camera, and proves that there is an inherent limitation with a particular designs. Perhaps the strongest line of evidence, is that if you look at a great photographers, they tend to use 1 maybe 2 cameras, master them and stick to them, Ansel Adams, Cartier Bresson etc… Granted modern artists are a little more eclectic, but the classic photographers, stuck to this idea.
Wow. Trust me on this, the Dag guys didn't crop. Trust me, every photographer since then has cropped. I have seen a lt of historic negatives and have then seen the prints made from them: they were cropped.
Cropped photos are life. I cannot comprehend the sort of anal- retentive mindset which demands that all pictures be printed full- frame. It just does not work that way. Any one who has spent time in a dark room has experienced the process of just HOW to crop a decent negative. A lot of poor pictures produce a great cropped image. 

Marc



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Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!

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