Michael Keller (keller@wvinter.net)
Mon, 19 Apr 1999 21:13:59 -0400
Whoa there Steve! Let's remember the FIRST uses of photography, and what
advanced the state thereof: studies for paintings. Commercial use always drives
the development, the art surely comes after.
Right now there's a lot of bad digital because many of the folks doing digital
are using it for the special effects, not for the quality available. But we
forget about all the bad film photographs being made. What's it up to, 6 billion
a year now? I'll bet people using digital cameras do more editing than those
amateurs with their P&S! And let's face it, if film photography got yelled at
for looking like painting (when it was useful to look like painting), why yell
at digital photography if it _doesn't_ look like photographs?
And yes, there are more than enough BORING large format photographers. Beautiful
tones with nothing to say. Just as there are many wonderful and powerful images
ruined by excessive grain and overenlargement.
To take on a few more comments from both Patrick and Dan, just to show I can
argue both sides (or maybe that both sides have merit):
Yes, Photoshop takes a while to learn, but how many years did you put into
learning how to properly expose and develop film to fit your way of seeing? It's
a constant exploration. It is true that once you get your system optimized, you
can knock out "proofs" from your computer system just as easily as you can knock
out proof prints from negs. And just as with negs, the hard work is the fine
print. Neither is quick and neither is easy; if it were, everybody'd be doing
it.
Just as well, there is a LOT to be said for the Zen of the equipment. Camera
gear may be tools, but like the violin builder that uses just the right planes
for his work, the photographer should be selective about the tools used, and
care about them, whether they be a new N90s or a Leica M3. There doesn't have to
be anything impersonal about a PC either; I pieced my system together, I've
added a hard drive, scanner, other components, just as someone might add lenses.
I've been inside my PC just as someone might disassemble an Ilex shutter to make
it work just right. Tuning s/w can be as much an art as tuning developers. And
the sounds my machine makes when I work at it is just as important as the music
I listen to in the darkroom. And I _like_ the dragon sitting on my monitor,
peering over in a menacing and protective manner. It ain't just some
workstation.
This was an interesting and fun discussion, with absolutely no reason to be
offended by any of the remarks I've seen. So let's keep it that way.
I have another digital comment, but I think it's a separate post.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:39:32