Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/04/22

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Fri Apr 22 08:52:25 2005

I'm a real odd man out on this size thing - not that that will come as a
shock to anyone. While I do occasionally do 13x19s, I tend to prefer
small prints; my standard print size is apx 8x5 or 8 x6 on an 8.5x11 or
8x10 sheet. I believe that smaller prints force the viewer to "come in,"
to really look at the image, where larger prints push the viewer away.
When I did my book of photos of people living with diabetes, I beat the
client and designer into making it really small - about 5.5 by 6.5 - and
they ended up loving it. But I know most photographers think any good
image has to be printed BIIIG....



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Alastair Firkin
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 5:02 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....


To the point as always, and believe me, my prints at 12 16 and 16 20 
"can" look great.

Sometimes I think I oversize my prints, because I then have problems 
knowing what to do with them: not because they don't look great. I have 
tried in the last year to "want" smaller "rich" images, which I can fit 
in my albums ;-)

On 22/04/2005, at 6:22 PM, Mark Rabiner wrote:

> On 4/21/05 11:06 PM, "Alastair Firkin" <firkin@ncable.net.au> typed:
>
>> What Thornton was trying to say - I think, and we can never really 
>> check, because he snuffed it, was that for a "perfect" print, and he 
>> was very careful to discuss his definition of "perfect", which lead 
>> to that statement. In reality, the book suggests that you can get 
>> perfect prints larger than that, and as I recall 10 x 15 was about 
>> his "upper limit" for 35mm, saying that smaller was "safer". It s a 
>> good read however, and does really make you "think".
>>
>> Cheers
>
>
> Well I guess we need to find out what whoever thinks "perfect" means.
>
> I am familiar with those who are into this super conservative approach
> to
> how far you can blow up a neg.
> They'll tell you you cant blow up a 35mm neg. bigger than 5x7 or it's 
> lost
> it. These are view camera people who are tying to make roll film
people
> suffer.
> Well I can see what they are talking about.
> I'm no stranger to printing small and admiring how "rich" the tonality

> is.
> But they're also a lot smaller. That's the catch.
> The un viability of larger and even super larger blowups is never made
> concrete. Its just a matter of opinion. Prejudice.
> The record of very successful very large prints from smaller negs or 
> at any
> rate large magnifications is a huge one.
>
> Some guy is thinking:
> "gee I've been shooting 4x5 and printing 11x14s so I've been making 
> 2.5 times magnification blowups. Now that I'm shooting 35mm why should

> I not keep to the same program?"
>
> Because you'd end up with wallets that why.
> Very rich looking wallets. Who cares how rich they are if you cant see
> them
> anyway.
> With a great medium format loupe they'd knock your socks off.
>
> Go to an airport. Go to Grand Central Station. See 100x 1000x 10,000
> blow
> ups.
> Nobodies calling the PC squad complaining.
> "Hey you can't do that! There's a law! My photography teacher said you

> cant
> do that"
>
> The same law that says you need to shoot Tri X at 200.
> The baloney uptight legal code.
>
> Mark Rabiner
> Photography
> Portland Oregon
> http://rabinergroup.com/
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
Alastair

 
_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


Replies: Reply from feli2 at earthlink.net (Feli) ([Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....)
Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....)
Reply from creativevisions at verizon.net (Michael J Herring) ([Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....)
In reply to: Message from firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin) ([Leica] Re: Let's Just Say That Leica Survives and....)