Re: physiology vs. sensitometry

Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Mon, 17 Jun 1996 01:00:46 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 17 Jun 1996, Pollmeier Klaus wrote:
> Maybe the first effect is caused by the
> brain giving bright things a priority of perception and allowing the darker
> parts to take some place in our thoughts after the highlight analysis is
> complete. This way perception of dark tones would be a question of time. That I

An interesting suggestion, Klaus -- William Mortensen thought so too. In
"Mortensen on the Negative" (& other places as well, no doubt) he says the
eye goes to light areas. He based his "system" of photography on
photographing for and printing an expanded range of midtones.

He also gave short shrift to heavy blacks and pure whites -- maintaining
rather that the eye will simply see the darkest tone in a photograph as
black & the lightest tone as white. Therefore, he argued, chasing after
super D-max is barking up the wrong tree. (That was 1939. Little did he
know.)

Judy