Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]John Amiet wrote: > > 'Ideal Format' to me seems to be a bit of am oxymoron. Other proponents have argued in favour of > standardizing on film size, paper size and so on, but my view is that the SUBJECT should determine the > format. Then, and only then, can you consider selecting a film format to best suit it. And if you do, the paper > won't fit anyway! > So, one way or another cropping becomes inevitable, but so what. Fit the image you see onto the film, > regardless of waste space, unless you are lucky enough to percieve a composition that 'fits' your film. Then, > print your image onto the nearest paper size to your desire and crop the extraneous paper off! > For years I 'forced' my images into 35mm and medium format shapes and then further contorted them onto > 'standard' paper, all too often to the detriment of the original image that had no necessary connection to > either size or format. > Only now am I gradually escaping the gravitational pull of conventions, but I still have a long way to go. I do > find that imaging success appears a little closer when I practice (a little harder) the precepts above. > > Any agreement/disagreement? I disagree and agree, adamantly! When I shoot 35mm, both Nikon and Leica right now, I shoot full frame with every image (unless I am shooting sports). I go so far as to print full frame and include that black boarder, too. I do this simply because of style. It is a style that I truly enjoy. Where you see this as forcing am image into a 35mm format, I see it as discovering an image in the 35mm format:) When I shoot 2 1/4, I always crop. Normally I am shooting portraits and I have the habit of shooting a bit loser then I do with 35mm. Thus I crop. Having a four bladed easel in my darkroom and not having square paper, I crop to whatever works best. Personally I think it is all a style issue. Because so much of my 35mm work is full frame, it would look VERY strange to have one 35mm image cropped in a series of 35mm full frame images. Same goes with the 2 1/4 stuff, but reverse. The only draw back to both of my approaches is that frames are a lot more expensive because they are never the standard size, but life goes on:) as does the cost to my customers, hehehehe Sam Carleton 35mm full frame images: http://w3.one.net/~carleton/dayinyourlife.html a bit of both: http://photos.yahoo.com/samcarleton (mind you that I do put digital boarders on cropped images on the web) - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html