[rollei_list] Re: Marvin Wallace and I Disagree
- From: "Marvin Wallace" <Marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:01:46 +0800
Marc,
As part of my photography degree, I have seen thousands of negatives such as
at the national film and photography museum in Bradford England. This was
because we were given privileged access, and as I recall the best certainly
didn?t crop regularly.
I agree with both Ansel Adams and my old teacher John Blakemore perhaps the
finest black and white photographer alive today, cropping is a "half arsed"
approach to photography, get the negative right both in exposure and ratio
and it is then a dream to print, and anything else is a damage limitation
exercise.
Adams, idea was that each stage of photography should be a finely and
delicate performance, to produce high quality and consistent results.
I am amazed, why anyone would spend money on a great machine like a Rollei
and then have a "half arsed" approach that surely is more conducive with a
Kodak fun camera.
This was the basis of Adams approach, I think he is right.
Eric,
lets consider a portrait done on say my Mamiya 6 razor sharp 150mm lens. Not
much close focus capacity, it's a 6 x 6 camera. Now say I display this next
to a portrait done on my Nikon FM2 with 85 mm lens with a much greater close
focusing capacity. Now there will be a world of difference between the two
photographs even if cropped so as to appear the same ratio, if you cant see
that well....and that?s not even taking into account sharpness etc...so and
in conclusion I totally disagree with you that one can't see the differences
in prints displayed together taken with different cameras. Maybe its true of
yourself, but you are not speaking for me.
-----Original Message-----
From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Marc James Small
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008 8:28 AM
To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [rollei_list] Marvin Wallace and I Disagree
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
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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