Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Following my recent musings on the joys and dangers of researching Leica optics, I spent some time browsing Kyle's Leica galleries: http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/index.html (Warning: going directly from absorption in Erwin's site (another incredibly wonderful Leica stop) over to Kyle's--or vice-versa--is apt to result in blowing a mental gasket; exercise due caution.) I want to comment on two photographs that are astonishingly wonderful images: http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/leicagallery/gallery1/dres smaker1.jpg http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/leicagallery/gallery2/grrl z.jpg What's perhaps most remarkable about these two photos is that they AREN'T particularly sharp, smooth or (certainly not) grainless. In terms of technical merit, well, they have none (artistic merit, yes, in abundance). He probably shot them both with a Jupiter. And yet these images are a great success; my eye stays with them and enjoys lingering there for a long while. I can't imagine that they'd be any better had they been shot with a 35 asph on a tripod--in fact, I have to believe that would be a whole lot worse. Okay, you can argue that producing grain and blur is actually a technique in itself, and that for other types of photos (say, landscapes), high resolution, edge contrast, and so on are just as important qualities to making the images succeed--and you'd no doubt be right. I think of Doug Herr's beautiful and equally moving photos of birds and wildlife; I can't imagine them working as well had they been shot with a Jupiter on grainy b&w. And maybe this is why we spend so much on Leica in the end: it allows us to do *both*. After all the bickering over black tape and camera bags, it's sure great to spend some time looking at what great images LUGgers are able to make with these tools. Cheers, Dan