Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/12/12

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Subject: [Leica] Color vs. B&W
From: jon.streeter at cox.net (jon.streeter)
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:44:46 -0800

HCB didn't, as he said, "cook." All his printing was done by a lab he had a 
relationship with.  I haven't read any statement he's made on the subject.  
I wonder what he would say.

In the meantime let's hope the joke about Ted Turner buying all of Ansel 
Adams' negatives so he could colorize them has no basis in fact.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

----- Reply message -----
From: "Mark Rabiner" <mark at rabinergroup.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
Subject: [Leica] Color vs. B&W
Date: Wed, Dec 12, 2012 12:13 pm


Do I darken the sky or do I just leave it?
Should dodge the face to make it pop?
Should I crop it more to make it more intense or does that make it loose its
context too much?
Color or black and white?
On an image by image basis its Photo 101 first month in class to subject it
to ones peers.... These are personal questions and basic. I agree with Ted.
The way we craft a print is a long  and personal process. Its not a
democracy.
The best way is to just do it. Then show it to people.
Have it be in your stack of prints. Watch peoples faces when they go by that
print.
But I'm even against having a black and white and color both versions of the
same image in that stack of prints.
Its amateurish. Or puerile.
Stack your neck out and make a decision. Put it out there and see how if
flies. If its week then next time you get to the image redo it differently.
Darker Lighter, flatter snappier . Black and white instead of color.
This is all stuff we have to work though mainly on our own.
Its our process.

Mark William Rabiner
Photography
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/


> From: Ted Grant <tedgrant at shaw.ca>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:11:44 -0800
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Color vs B&W
> 
> This is a topic that can go on in a never ending or the other and how we
> see, don't see, or whatever side of the topic one wishes to be on?
> 
> I imagine for the bulk of you, the majority I'd think?  You've  never had a
> position where day after day, year after year you shot all your
> "assignments!" That means earning your income in shooting B&W! Period. 
> There
> wasn't any which way it looked better and you never thought, nor did it 
> ever
> enter your mind any type of comparison. Practically every publication of 
> the
> day was in B&W!
> 
> You only saw and were always in awe of LIFE, LOOK, DER STERN, PARIS MATCH 
> or
> whatever favourite news magazine of your day? Your daily newspapers all in
> B&W and that was life.
> 
> So much of this colour vs. B&W daily diatribe is truly a waste of
> interesting picture taking time whatever it might be? Whether amateur or
> professional, the assignment generally dictates what it will be shot on or
> what the end result will be? Or in the case of digital, apart from owning a
> Leica Monochrome where B&W is the genre of the day. Regular digital
> exposures are in colour and you can fiddle them any which way in the
> computer as you wish or the assignment dictates. It's satisfying ones own
> gut feelings as you are the only one that counts! That is of course, if you
> don't have to satisfy a "paying for your time and abilities" Photo Editor 
> or
> an AD. (art director)"
> 
> Today?  We see images in both colour & B&W and in general re-act to the
> beauty or ugliness of the content! Or at least that's what I thought
> photography was all about?  The content within the image? Power & impact?
> Well depending on subject sometimes dictates which it will be? Colour? Or
> B&W? And whether it's a documentary showing disasters and death? High
> fashion and possibly new cars, cakes and decorated Christmas trees!
> 
> So many get off on whether it's colour or B&W, too warm, too cool,
> highlights blown and a dozen other items! When it should be what the
> photograph is all about!  "THE CONTENT!"
> 
> And any question of colour / B&W and or content will...........
> "NEVER EVER BE SOLVED BY ASKING A COMMITTEE FORMED OF VARYING DEGREES OF
> EXPERIENCE FOR THEIR SUGGESTIONS?" Oh yes, their likes and dislikes!
> 
> It's your photograph! So the key person in 99.99% of the time to satisfy
> is..... "YOURSELF!"
> 
> So endth the lesson for today. :-)
> thank you.
> cheers,
> Dr. ted :-) 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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