[Leica] HCB vs modern lenses

[Gary Elshaw <gary.elshaw@vuw.ac.nz>]

Joe wrote:
<snip> "The need for sharpness depends a lot on the image and the
photographer's intention. As it is, I like lots of detail and accurate,
high-contrast rendering."<snip>

Actually i've been thinking about this a lot recently and have been wanting
to put it to the LUG. I have, like the majority here, a number of photo and
art books i love. But one of the things that has always irritated me has
been the number of images reproduced poorly, well what i consider poorly.
These are always washed out or too saturated, too contrasty, or not enough
contrast. Now, i'm interested from the professionals amongst you who have
published, how it  has been that you have managed to retain reproduction
quality, or have you had to sacrifice/compromise the quality of your work?

One appalling example i have is of a Weegee photograph. (I bought my
partner the Phaidon Photo Book especially for the photo of Dorothea Lange's
_Migrant Mother_ which she loves). The majority of the books that publish
this particular Weegee photograph not only crop it, but they also enlarge
it, and the Phaidon is not an exception. I have never been so angry with a
publisher in all my life. Recontextualising art is a sad fact of life in
the postmodern 90's, but the impact/effect of the photograph was incredibly
diminished.
A friend who illustrates children's books has the same kinds of fudging of
his images:-cropped, detailess images whose colour renditioning is awful.
With his last book we almost cried- hell, we're not too macho on this list-
we did cry.

I apologise for the awful thought, but those HCB's we love, just might not
be the HCB's we should love.

Take care,
Gary
(Sharpo brother number 2)