Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/08/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc, You measured it right. About one and a third stop if you follow the books of the zone system (exposing for skin, that is). So, I think (hope) that you will like this version more: <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/phorlent/_POR0887_2.jpg.html> Honestly, I don't know which one of both is to be considered best. They both have pros and cons. Personally, I still prefer the first version. The first one was a search for something different, though. A queeste for a personal signature or an approach to photography. No intention of over idealizing kids at all. More like an enormous sympathy for their spontaneity. It was an experiment, as many of my images are. (See boy with stick...) Why this queeste? Because lately I find that I'm not evolving in my photography. It's not bad, it's a bit of everything (with some bias to shots of my own children and close family), and it goes every way but one. No consistancy, except for a sort of Esperanto style. A Zelig technique. Call it globalized mediocrity, maybe. The Marketing Style... And I'm not the only one with that problem, BTW. I know that, had no problem with it (I'm not that long really seriously into doing photography myself: 5 years or so. Thus, so many more years to come...) until recently and now I'm trying to do something about it. Hence the checking some things with esteemed photographers on this list. Reading responses, looking, absorbing and trying to respond to what seems interesting to me. Hence the experimenting (and partially because of you*) with light, but also subject, theme, ... Trying different approaches (and there's a lot of stuff I don't show), and always in combination with PS. Hence my sometimes a bit grotesque defense of new technology. And love for old. Why with PS? Because it's the most important evolution in photography of the last decade. (IMO) Before PS, one had some control over the final image. Within several boundaries, a lot was possible. But there was always technique limiting the outcome. The strange thing is that, within these limits, photographic quality was a lot better than it is today. Technique was 'limited', but there was so much more personality in the photographs themselves. The Avedon discussion (*that's were you come in) made me realize that. Although I find Eric's children portraits extremely beautiful (whatever zone they're in), and although I perfectly understood the reference he made to Avedon, your description of Avedon's working process made me have a deeper look into his work. Only to discover that he sure knew how to create an image (which is more than a photograph for me). He used photography to realize this image, within its technical limits. But what a signature! What a mark he made! And he was not the only one: my (pre PS era) Phaidon 'Photo Book' is full of them. I dived into a Dutch Commercial Photography Award book of 21 years ago: same thing. Splendid photography, page after page. Why was this photography so special? Because these people experimented, and often created images that suggested more than reality. Or created a new one. Or interpreted it in a unique way. Imagine where these men and women could have gone if at that time they had PS at their hand: a tool that gives you almost unlimited control over technique ?nd reality. Before PS It was impossible to 'trick' an image in an invisible way. If you wanted to do something special, you had to have an idea, and you had to have 'a' technique. But all this has been done, in an enormous variety, in the last century. And that century is over now, for 7 years already. Why not combine that 'old' creativity with PS? It would lead to something entirely new. Or at least to an evolution. Strangely enough, PS is mostly used to recreate styles that have been done before. Or to create Marketing photography. IMO that's a shame. So I'm just experimenting, until I find how to make my work into 'something else' -for everybody. Chances are big that I'll be experimenting until the end of my days :-) After all, it's a kind of new Interbellum. And isn't that the perfect time for that? Philippe PS: written with all due respect for photojournalism and documentary photography. And for honesty in photography. Op 1-aug-07, om 13:27 heeft Mark Rabiner het volgende geschreven: >> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/phorlent/_POR0887.jpg.html> >> >> C&C welcomed and appreciated. >> Thanks for looking, >> Philippe >> > > > Its the new "over exposed kid look". > > I'm not getting it!?! More than a full stop over exposed!! Or done > in post > processing. Why over idealize our kids? Why wash them out? > The kids got a whole life in front of him before he goes to heaven! > Lets not > put him there too soon! > > > > > Mark William Rabiner > Harlem, NY > > rabinergroup.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >