Re: [Leica] Mastery of any technique

[Dan Cardish <dcardish@microtec.net>]

The problem from my vantage point isn't the dispersions cast on the
"backward people" using "obsolete" technology, it is the strong implication
from at least one member of the LUG (not you Erwin) that people using
digital means are essentially fools who wouldn't know a fine print if it
hit them in the face.  I love the look of the prints made with my Epson
1270 (at least, before they begin to change colour :( ), but they clearly
are not identical in appearance to traditional prints.  There is no
tradtional equivalent to the matte paper I have been using (and which does
NOT change colour), so how can you compare?.   But as a means of producing
fine quality prints, the Epson clearly delivers.  

And you are correct about the skill required for a mastery of Photoshop.
I've been using it for a few years now, but I am still learning new tricks
and techniques with it.

Dan C.

At 12:31 PM 30-07-00 +0200, Erwin Puts wrote:
>A photographer who deploys the fully chemical imaging chain to produce
>his/her endresult, is using a long string of techniques and even
>technologies. To master any of these techniques, from exposure and
>development matching, choosing film and paper, selecting chemicals, and
>employing expert knowlegde for detail rendition, range of tonal scale,
>he/she needs to know basic theory and a number of hard won rukes, based on
>practical experience. That is what we call the craft and even theory of
>photography. Whatever the result in comparison to another technology,
>mastering this chain is gratifying in itself and up till now the results are
>yet unsurpassed and even when the moment arrives that a different technique
>will produce equal or better results, this specific result is a unique
>interpretation of or expression about reality. In music analogy: a
>synthesizer may well emulate a flute or a violin within the range of
>auditory recognition, making the sounds indistinguishable for the listener,
>does that mean that the craft or art of plying the violin is obsolete or no
>longer worth pursuing?
>So whatever the perceiced, interpreted or measured image quality of a
>digital print and a chemical print and whatever the means by which this
>result has been generated, any mix of imaging technologies has its own
>unique value.
>It would be nice if the proponents of the digital print would try to
>discuss the digital-chemical print technology as two different, but valid
>ways of recording and representing an image, trying to find the specific
>qualities of both and the pros and cons of both techniques in a series of
>applications.
>Now that they prefer to define the comparison as an old (obsolete) versus
>new technology and see the users of the chemical technology as backward
>people who cling desperately to hopelessly outdated technology and who
>refuse to see the light of the future, they have cast the discussion in a
>fruitless mold.
>The technique of  scanning of negatives, manipulating the digital file with
>Photoshop and printing the files is a craft in itself, that asks for far
>more expertise and experience that most even dare to hope. As far as mastery
>of any technique goes, (and the few really good books about the employment
>of Photoshop stress the fact that it is a very steep and long learning
>curve), the digital one is as exacting and precise as the chemical one.
>The best books I know about Photoshop (I am teaching Photoshop courses for 5
>years now, so I feel entitled to have an opinion), all imply that to learn
>Photoshop is as exacting and time consuming as any difficult technique and
>ask for skills that relate to the printing industry that many photographers
>and other users of Photoshop cannot dream of.
>These writers feel that using Photoshop in its image manipulation
>possibilities directed to digital output,  is closely related to the crafts
>required in the printing industry.
>These crafts are not easily acquired and demand a different approach and
>mindset that when making a print in the wet darkroom.
>I truly would hope that we can lift the discussion of this in itself
>exciting topic,to a level where we can appreciate the relative merits of the
>results and the different skill sets required.
>
>
>Erwin
>
>
>