Re: [Leica] New Photo Site (followup and comments)

["John McLeod" <johnmcleod@att.net>]

Late input Arne.  I absolutely loved the photos, in particular the Stelvio
series.  I would go so far as to say that they were as good and interesting
as any I have seen on-screen.  I agree with Nathan that a bit of editing
would be great for the viewer.  Though I like the story that the long series
tells, the sense of getting to know the landscape and your fellow travelers,
it takes some time to get through them all.  I was struck by your eye for
composition and was particularly impressed with your use of the 19mm lens.
I also felt the contrast range was extraordinary in a number of those
pictures, with the blackest blacks ranging to the various grey and white
tones.  I am not typically this interested in landscape photography.  The
kind of pictures that Nathan shows are more similar to those that I
typically take.  But the Stelvio series grabbed me.  Keep doing it, your
way.

John McLeod


- ----- Original Message -----
From: Arne Helme <Arne.Helme@stelvio.nl>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 11:48 AM
Subject: [Leica] New Photo Site (followup and comments)


> Thanks to all of you who provided feedback and comments to my previous
> posting in which I announced the availability of my new web site.  In
> the following I summarize the feedback I have received and add some
> comments on my own.
>
> Jason Vicinanza suggested that I should use smaller scans that would
> fit 1024x768 screens including frames, menu bars, etc.  In addition he
> informed that the home page link did not work.  I will re-edit the
> Foetus collection and make smaller scans .  They are clearly too big
> for 1024x768 screens (too bad the new ones will appear as thumbnails
> on my 1600x1200 TFT screen...:-)).  The home page link was wrong as
> there is no real home page yet.  To be fixed.
>
> Kyle Kassidy and Nathan Wajsman both suggested that I could have done
> some tighter editing of the series.  As they are now, each series is
> just a collection of photos.  There is no story being told.  Will do.
>
> Oliver Bryk mentioned that the Stelvio pass has 48 pin turns and not
> 45 as I said.  Note that on the pictures one can only see the upper
> half of the turns.  Further down in the valley below there are just
> about as many pin turns.  The bicyclists had a hard time...
>
> Nathan Wajsman missed photos of the the brave souls bicycling up the
> pass.  I primarily went to Passo Dello Stelvio to enjoy myself and
> make landscapes photos.  My colleagues (the bicyclists) went there to
> enjoy themselves too --- in their own way.
>
> John Brownlow wrote that Jim Foetus didn't appear to have aged.
> Also, from my memories he looked exactly the same way as he did during
> his Euro tour of 1987.  I spoke to him after the concert.  He is
> definitely still going strong!
>
> Henry Ambrose asked if I carried all my R gear on a bicycle.  Luckily I
> did not bring a bicycle.  I carried the equipment in a Lowepro Top
> Load Zoom Pro AW camera case + chest harness.
>
> Michael Yoder asked me about the use of the orange filter and the high
> contrast in some of the photos.  The filter was one part of the
> solution while Vuescan provided the other part.  I tweaked the
> contrast using the gamma and black/white point settings until I had a
> photo that represented my impression of the scene.  I set Vuescan's
> color scan tab to Neutral to allow for a maximum stretch of the
> contrast range, and from there on I carefully select the other values.
>
> Pascal Heynman asked whether there where occasions where I wished for
> something wider than the 2.8/19mm.  Actually, no, I did not.  The 19mm
> was wide enough for me.  I find it rather challenging to fill the
> foreground with such wide (and wider) lenses, and I already have a
> huge collection of "empty" photos of various landscapes.
>
> Andrew Nemeth and others commented that some of the landscape shots
> would be nice in color.  I intend to add some color photos to the
> Passo Dello Stelvio collection.  Unfortunately, I have no color photos
> from the Foetus concert.
>
> Andrew Nemeth also asked about flare.  I deliberately kept the sun out
> of the shots to avoid flare.  There are simply to many undesired side
> effects of flare and I don't want to provoke flare more than
> necessary.
>
> Otto Anshus commented that the photos made with the new Summilux R
> 1.4/50mm have a nice appearance.  I agree with him.  It is a truly
> remarkable lens.
>
> The use of a tripod would have enabled me to facilitate longer shutter
> speeds to provide me with more depth of field.  Because I usually
> focus at infinity for most landscape shots, I could have had the
> foreground in some of the photos more sharply rendered.  Generally, in
> landscape photos I don't find it disturbing that the foreground is not
> 100% sharply rendered.  On this occasion it went OK without the
> tripod.  However, I belong to the minority of the LUG that cannot hand
> hold steadily at shutter speeds slower than 1/250s-1/500s without
> seeing image degradations...
>
> Most chromes were under-exposed between 1/3 and 2/3 stop.  This turned
> out to be great for landscapes, but a little too dark for the
> portraits.
>
> Some of you commented on non-professional (amateur) vs professional
> scans and scan quality.  I would like to point out that I have used
> Vuescan for about two years and spent quite some time and efforts on
> learning its behavior.  As I noted in my initial posting, I am not
> into Photoshop and such things.  By keeping things simple (read: only
> allowing a few parameters to be modified --- and Vuescan only provides
> a few parameters) I manage to obtain good quality scans not only for
> web publishing, but also for printing.  The scans do also exhibit a
> high level of clarity at other resolutions.
>
> A few final words.  It *is* time consuming to produce high quality
> scans.  In my initial posting I wrote that the photos that I have
> published express *my* interpretation of the scenes.  That's simply
> not possible without being involved and controlling the process.
> There's an analogy to traditional darkroom printing here.  My current
> digital working method is designed to complement my darkroom
> activities.  I strive to obtain comparable results (interpretations)
> with both mediums.  Simplicity (as also is the case with Leica M and R
> cameras) is the solution to better imagery.  So much for digital
> perfection.
>
> Regards,
>
> -- Arne
> Arne Helme
> Email: Arne.Helme at stelvio.nl (^" at "^@)
> Work: +31-33-4697340, Fax: +31-33-4697341, GSM: +31-620135827
> M&I/Stelvio bv, Zonnehof 41, 3811 ND Amersfoort, the Netherlands
> --
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