Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/12/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Greg Locke wrote: > I was AWESTRUCK! It seemed like after all these years taking >pictures, all of a sudden, it really made sense. The light, the composition, >the subject matter...it was stunning. > > Needless to say, I highly recommend spending time with these >paintings if you get the chance. I guarantee you will think differently >about how you take pictures. One of the fascinating things is that some of these famous 'Old Masters' actually used cameras! In their case, it was the 'camera obscura' - a sort of small portable darkroom with a carefully positioned pinhole or primitive lens in one side. When you aligned the pinhole with the scene, it was projected upside down on a piece of paper pinned on the opposite wall of the darkroom. The artist could then sketch over the image and get his perspective spot on. Canaletto, famous painter of city vistas in Venice, London and elsewhere, certainly used one of these devices. There's also strong evidence that the immortal Jan Vermeer also used one for some of his famous Dutch interiors. A couple of pictures appear to be have been painted in the same room, which may well have been his studio. Now there's a _real_ master of light! Slan Alex Alex Hurst Cork Florists 19 Winthrop St, Cork Republic of Ireland Tel: +353 21 270 907 Fax: +353 21 271 248 email: corkflor@iol.ie Website: http://www.flowerlink.com/corkflorists Home website: http://homepages.iol.ie/~corkflor/