In agreement with Rob more than JCO here! A good portrait, for example, may be soft everywhere, _except_ the eyes, which should be perfectly clear and sharp. Which is why a soft filter is so popular for this type of work. On the other hand, if looking at hard-edged objects, for example racing cars, motor-cycles, architectural shots of buildings etc., I for one expect to see critical sharpness in the subject. Horses for courses, I guess: there are some photos where sharpness is important, so you want a sharp lens. For others, it is not, and the circumstances of taking the photo may have prevented any real sharpness being achieved (eg. Robert Capa's D-Day landing shots), but this does not detract from the impact. In the end, you can always soften a good lens, but even digital sharpening can only partially retrieve something taken with the equivalent of the bottom of a Coke bottle! I'll still value my good Pentax glass above others, even though I know I have a classic portrait lens in an old Vivitar 135/2.5 which has excellent resolution, but lower contrast than is the norm nowadays - does a great job on the ladies!
My A$0.02 (improving daily!) worth. John Coyle Brisbane, Australia On Sunday, September 01, 2002 1:33 PM, Rob Studdert [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote: > On 31 Aug 2002 at 23:02, J. C. O'Connell wrote: > > I disagree. Sharpness is what makes a photograph appear > > more real. I have excellent 20-15 vision and I find that > > the better the sharpness ( ala medium and large formats) > > the more I can appreciate a photo, all else being equal. > > > > I'm not saying its more important than than everthing > > else it isnt, but it's still a pretty damn important > > factor in giving a photo realistic impact. > Hi John, > > Of course this perspective assumes that achieving "realism" is the > mission of the photographer, however it's not in all instances. The point of the > initial post and the responses echoed in many of the subsequent posts to the > thread indicated that absolute sharpness doesn't necessarily make a good > image. Don't > you agree :-) > > Cheers, > > Rob Studdert > HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA > Tel +61-2-9554-4110 > UTC(GMT) +10 Hours > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications.html
