Re: Poor man's densitometer

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From: Jeffrey D. Mathias (jeffrey.d.mathias@worldnet.att.net)
Date: 03/12/01-03:01:34 PM Z


Tom Ferguson wrote:
> Yes, there are a few facts that gets discarded in the "intuition"
> discussions. One: if you work primarily on intuition, you must be able to
> afford the cost of many mistakes. Two: if you work primarily on intuition,
> you must be able to afford the time of many mistakes. Three: if you work
> primarily on intuition, you must be able to afford the years needed to build
> that intuition into a worthwhile tool.
>
> To those with the time and money, congratulations. For the rest of us, some
> help in getting to a good print quickly/cheaply is needed and helps the
> beginner not give up before he/she succeeds. ...

These so called facts are not as indelibly written as Tom would
profess. It is no more timely and costly to train one's eye as to
purchase and learn how to use a densitometer. The big difference comes
when the training is done. One should ask the question: do I want to
learn to use a densitometer or do I want to learn to use my eye(s)?
Sorry, I do not subscribe to the claim of too much money, too much time.

In all fairness to beginners, what is needed are some good step-by-step
instructions to enable one to train their eye to evaluate negative and
print densities and ranges. I have written a training study in my guide
(Chapter 3). The costs of materials required to perform this exercise
are far less than the costs of a densitometer. The materials can be
assembled in one day, the first volley of film exposed and processed on
the second day, the negatives printed on the third day, evaluation and
plans to proceed made on the fourth day, fine tuning done on the fifth
and sixth days, and a final evaluation done on the seventh day.

One week, one week and the performer of these exercises will have
trained their eye to recognize rough variations of film and print
densities and conditions. How long does it take to order and ship a
densitometer? Oh, but then one must also learn to use it properly.

Granted as one works more and more with the materials, technique, and
process, they learn and understand more and more. The art of
photography is so much more than a quick determination of a density. I
have run through the exercises in chapter 3 of my guide 4 times; they
have been on the internet for several years. Has anyone out there
followed them? Maybe someone should try and see if it is as I claim and
much more informative than a densitometer.

-- 
Jeffrey D. Mathias
http://home.att.net/~jeffrey.d.mathias/


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