Jens, Bob ... I've been reading the discussion between the both of you. You're both right, one or the other more so depending on just what and how one wants to learn about exposure, and how much involvement one wants in the process. I've made my views on other aspects of the debate known, so I won't rehash them here. I will say that it's good that this discussion comes up once a year or so as the "art" of exposure is disappearing, and we've entered the age of the "generic" exposure because of all the automation and fancy built-in metering that cameras contain these days.
Shel > [Original Message] > From: Jens Bladt > >You can subtract shades of grey - when printing - but realy not add them. > If > >they are gone (in a too hard neg.), they are really gone. > > BTW - one of the reasons I like Pentax *ist D. The images are soft and not > over sharpened. This means I don't loose information before I even get to > see my recordings. I will decide later, which shades I don't want. The > competing camera brands (Rebel and D70) seem to me to have too much "on > board sharpening" and "on board contrast". They loose information from the > start. They are for amateurs - not for the enthusiast or pro. > Regards > Jens Bladt > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://hjem.get2net.dk/bladt > > > -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- > Fra: Jens Bladt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sendt: 20. maj 2005 09:09 > Til: pentax-discuss@pdml.net > Emne: RE: Understanding exposure? Recommendations? > > > I don't agree. It has nothing to do with printing. We are talking about > exposure here - not about how to resque faulty exposures. > > First of all, to be a good printer (I belive, I used to be one - before the > digital revolution) it's prefered to start out with the best possible > negative (or digital image). That is properly exposed negatives, slides or > image files. Where all shades between black and white are represented. > When printing you can "subtract" to get what you want. > Secondly, I was still talking about the negs, not the prints. You can't get > out of a print what's not there in a neg. > You can subtract shades of grey - when printing - but realy not add them. If > they are gone (in a too hard neg.), they are really gone. > > This is also one of the reasons that the "contrast/brightness" tool is a > dangerous tool. You loose information. Using "levels" or "shadow/highlight" > is better. > > > Jens Bladt > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://hjem.get2net.dk/bladt > > > -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- > Fra: Bob W [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sendt: 20. maj 2005 08:33 > Til: pentax-discuss@pdml.net > Emne: RE: Understanding exposure? Recommendations? > > > Yes - those things are important for people who want to go on to become good > printers. But you have to be able to walk before you can run. > > -- > Cheers, > Bob > > > > > That's true, Bob. > > But you are missing out good old techniques to increase > > contrast by underexsposure/overdevelopment and decreasing > > contrast by overexsposure/underdevelopment. > > > > > > > > I recommend slide film lab as a better medium for early > > lessons in exposure. > > There are too many variables involved in b&w development that > > detract from the early important stuff about exposure. > > > >
