Re: [Leica] Cropping (was: Giving the Leicas a floggin')

[Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com>]

Using the full frame -- as any photographic "rule" -- is subject to 
appropriate breaking when the subject matter calls for it.  I suspect 
that the reason a lot of 35mm photographers (and particularly those 
using Leica rangefinders) use the full frame is twofold.  Partly, the 
small negative size means that you typically want to utilize as much of 
it as possible.  How Rob manages to get good 30x40" enlargements out of 
cropped 35mm negs I don't know, other than that he must be bloody good. 
  And if his photography is anything to go by, then I suspect he is.

The other reason is because it's a challenge to get things "right" in 
the camera, rather than shooting "sloppily" and then "fixing it in 
post".  I believe Cartier-Bresson (every Leica-toting person's hero) 
expressed an opinion on this matter in his inimitable way.

The mark of a good craftsman is usually doing things nicely, rather 
than fixing them later, but this is of course part myth: the mark of a 
good craftsman is knowing when to do what and using tools to good 
effect.

People who never, remind me of an episode I was involved in.  My 
father, a very skilled carpenter, told me once in my youth when I was 
involved in making a wooden box, that the mark of a good carpenter was 
that he lined up the grooves in screws to each other.  I concentrated 
so much on doing this when I was screwing on the hinges to the lid, 
that I put the hinges on backwards.  You couldn't open the lid ;)

M.

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