blandness

[gib]

given the instruction of this original post there is only one possible response:

 

abandon photography and just look

[summitar]

Campari works for me, too. Helps produce that "Leica glow".

[peter]

Reminds me of an old joke:

 

Two keen photographers walking along a street when they chance upon a beggar laying in the gutter. One photographer keeps walking, while the other stops. A few minutes later he catches up with the photographer who kept walking, who asks him: "What did you give the beggar?" "Oh" says the first photographer, " A 125th at F8."

[neilambrose]

<p><em> I think we put too much technology in between our brain and our shutter

finger, and it leads to so many "perfect" pictures that they are all bland.</em></p>

 

<p>There are plenty of bland pictures, but I don't think that metering is the problem. It's

more to do with what the camera is pointed at. All a meter will do is give a good exposure

of a bland picture. So since when is it the meter's fault? Abandoning the meter won't help

much. Bland pictures will continue to be bland. There's just a risk they'll be incorrectly

exposed too.</p>

 

<p>I think there's a lot of value in people striving for more authentic, significant pictures.

But suggesting this can be realised better without a meter is unconvincing. Far better to

educate the eye by reading photo books more widely ....</p>

[jonathan_reynolds]

Can't you post even one example of this master's work, Tony? It's hard for everyone to take lessons from an unknown.

[tom_higgins3]

If you work enough of the same film thru the same equipment in the same place for long

enough, you eventually pick up on the light and your camera settings. When I lived in

southern California I found with 400 speed b/w film in an m6ttl with a red 25 filter on

whatever lens I was using, I'd pretty much get a 60th at f11 nearly all day all year round.

I'm pretty sure the reason that Brett weston didn't use a light meter was because he

simply didn't need one- he made thousands and thousands of photographs over the

course of his life, and also started photographing in quite a serious way when he was

twelve years old. A light meter's no more of a crutch to artistic expression than a camera

or a lens. I'd say Tonys friend has his tongue firmly in his cheek- any commandments

handed out since after the first ten are usually jokey ones,right? Anyway, a meter's not the

dumbest crutch on earth, photography is....

[vivek iyer]

<i>Ray ., May 03, 2007; 09:29 p.m.

<p>

 

This forum seems to be wasting away. Close to dead. Irrelevant, meaningless, and misinformed.</i>

 

<p>

Time for another round of self portrait threads?

[mattalofs]

Hmmm, Campari and an Alpa . . . that's a highly civilized combination. Is it too early to start drinking?

[mike dixon]

<i> Is it too early to start drinking?</i><P>

I hope not. I just finished finished off a bottle of soju. Remember, it's always happy hour somewhere in the world.<P>

<center><img src="http://mikedixonphotography.net/korbar01.jpg"><br>

<i>sunny 16 does not apply</i></center>

[dead_metaphor]

<While HCB maybe never used a meter, he was shooting B&W with a lot of latitude. If he's been shooting slides, much of his work could have been unusable.>

 

I knew his "master Printer", georges fevres, well. GF told me that HCB's negatives were universally terrible.

 

So much for the photo gods being any different than most of us....

[gman]

I NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER us a light meter with my pinhole camera. :]

 

With my F2's...that's another story.

[alokppatel]

Mr. Metaphor, I may be betraying my ignorance, but I had no idea that HCB or other great photographers did not print their own pictures. Did you learn why, was it simply becasue HCB didn't like the darkroom, or did he prefer someone with more skill in the darkroom do it?

 

Regarding a comment about the "irrelevance" or whatever of this forum, posted earlier. Not everything posted has to be of the utmost importance or most insightful and profound statement on photography in order to be worthwhile. I get something out of just chit chatting with other people who care as much about photography as me, and I am sure others do as well.

[michael s.]

<< ... Not everything posted has to be of the utmost importance or most insightful and profound statement on photography ... >>

 

Oh, yes, it does.

 

Otherwise Ray reminds us we're "losing it." :-)

[dead_metaphor]

Alok-

 

No need for apology for "ignorance." Hadnt i known any better, I'd assume the same as you. Yeah, its very common, probably the norm, certainly at Magnum or Agency VU to have your photos developed and printed by a printer.The really good photographers will develop a relationship with a specific printer - In HCB's case, at least since the early 60's, his work was done by Picto in Paris and their head printer, georges fevres, did it all personally.George died his past Feb, but almost to the end he printed for HCB (until his death), koudelka and at points for about everybody who was anybody in Magnum.

 

Georges' skills were INCREDIBLE. He could make anybody look like an artist.

[Tony Rowlett]

Posting this man's work on the web is out of the question, but if/when he gets his own site up (I think he's in the process of it now), I'll be glad to post a link to it. I agree that it is difficult to judge a person's opinion if his presence or work is nowhere to be seen.

 

Brad, yep. :-) Every few weeks or so I get another jewel in my postal mail box. Intermixed with bills and junk mail, it is really a joy.

 

Oh, and Peter, to heck with the camera... I'll have a Compari and Soda, please, with a twist of orange peel or lime.

[ray .]

I go to a specialty meat market where they kill the animal with bow and arrow. It's vastly

superior, more nutritious, and tastes much better than conventional slaughter. Chewing

meat any other way is just for mindless meat munchers. They sell fish too.. which has been

speared of course.

[Tony Rowlett]

It is better to light a fine cigar with a wooden match than a butane lighter.

[kparratt]

"A meter is the dumbest crutch on earth"

 

Well, there's really nothing dumber than a camera. Why not just ... remember ..?

 

 

Or -

 

Take out the battery to kill the light meter

 

Rip out the film

 

Dismantle the lens

 

Recycle the glass

 

And the metals

 

Then start again

 

With a pencil and paper.<div></div>

[vivek iyer]

Yeah, Kevin? Why do you bother with pencils of different hardness?

 

Should you be sharpening them? Pick a piece of charcoal and sketch away! :)

[todd frederick]

Kevin,

 

The meter is in your mind.

 

Very nice drawing! HCB was very much into that as well. I love to sketch.

[christopher_a._junker1]

Kevin, it looks like f8 @1/250 to me. If you use an orange 2H it will give you better cloud rendition. Oh, sorry, good sketch:)

[jerry_kirkwood]

I had bypass a few years ago, I'd sure have run like hell if my doc had boasted of operating without hooking his patients up to monitors and MRI's!

[summitar]

Somewhere in the dim recesses of my unreliable memory, I recall an interview with HCB where the interviewer challenged HCB to provide the exposure settings for several situations which were then measured via light meter. I seem to recall that HCB's guestimates were always within 1/3 f-stop of the meter.

[blowingsky]

a agree with you friend, Tony, but it is a take it or leave it proposition.

 

Not using a meter forces me to confront the light and the impact I want to create with the final image. It only worked for me when I was developing and printing my own film because it is all part of the process and feedback.

 

Not wearing a watch is a bit of a parallel. You find you can get along without it after a while.

 

I would not extend this further to decaffeinated coffee, which is a crime against nature.

[doug_landrum]

I have not read all of the answers to this thread, but I throw in my two cents anyway.

 

As an exercise to improve the way I see light, I have put Fuji Provia 100 in my Dad's old M3 with the Rigid Summicron 50 and shot without a meter. The camera and lens were CLAed by Sherry. The M3 now has spiffy black lizard CameraLeather replacing the flaking Vulcanite. Oh, the tactile joy. Oh the wonder of the chrome and lizard.

 

I walk about and shoot using the sunny f/16 rule and the derivatives. The exercise helps me to slow down and think about shot selection, framing, point of focus and the quality and intensity of the light. I will not profess that all shots are perfectly exposed but many are. The wonder of all wonders is that, in sunlight, my hand held incident meter reads f/16 at 1/100 sec when set to ISO 100.

 

My meterless exercise helps me make better images with my Canon EOS 20D and L glass.

 

Use of a meter (or autoexposure) or not is not mutually exclusive.

 

There is a time for everything under the Heavens.