bruce_spear

My understanding of vignetting is that the problem of reducing light from a large field

onto a postage-stamp sized piece of film or digital sensor is considerable: the world is big

and chips are small, and middle and large-format systems have a much easier task.

You can literally see this when moving the front standard on large format lenses up and

down and how, as you move the cone of light towards its margins, distortion and light

fall-off increase.

Second, lenses may be designed to reduce optical distortion and light fall-off at the cost

of other qualities. I've worked with lenses in graphic arts darkrooms that created 1:1

negatives that could almost be matched up to their originals -- though the cost was a

huge piece of glass and the need for massive lighting and long exposures. I simply would

not expect a small format camera to produce the flat field and evenness asked for here,

and I assume that lens designers for small cameras are not assuming that either.

To make that lovely image of the figures by the bay -- it is a gem! -- even better, I would

use a larger format camera, and since the details in the front and off in the distance and

exquisite colors of that light are such an important part of it, I'd put it on a tripod, too. I

actually don't see the advantage of small format here -- a place the photographer could

go back to and find all the essential elements in place with differences in light and

passersby that might be seized with each visit to even greater effect.

It seems to me that small camera work wins up close and social, where you can pull it out

in the middle of a conversation or walking down a street, and where the distortions of that

fancy zoom are worth the cost of being able to select the focal length quickly.

Not long ago I fiddled with one of them while having coffee in a cafe, and which my

companion put in my hands, and without leaving my chair I made a dozen images of the

scene across from me that each had their own virtues and interest. I then did what I would

normally do with my own 35mm rangefinder with a 35mm lens on it: I had to get up, walk

forward and back, left and right, and tilt and turn -- a very different experience and very

different kind of image -- not bettor or worse, but different. I left the experience thinking

that I'd love to have such a digital camera and zoom: it would help me work in tight places

(or when I am too old to move! Ha!)

Writing this leads me to think about how I was trained to respect the materials: to

experiment and see what kinds of pictures this or that film, lens, format, etc., was

happiest doing and then exploit the advantages and avoid the disadvantages. I think I

have also learned to choose to follow my nose and shift to equipment that would do the

trick. As detail became more and more important to me I shifted to middle format, but

when I thought even more detail would be better and started working with large format I

realized I was losing the mobility that I had gotten used to; middle format on a tripod you

can pick up and carry in an instant, and your small cameras with zooms are, of course,

even faster, lend themselves to even quicker snaps, and might even be more fun, too!

Enjoy!

Bruce Spear

ps: Now that I see photo.net inviting me to attach images I'll attach a snap of

one of my American students being given instructed in the limitations of American foreign

policy and where I think the small digital camera (Canon s50) wins: nobody noticed or

even cared that I was snapping away, I had plenty of time to play with the composition,

and the optical distortions and light fall-off seem part of the compostion. I've tried

photographing such cafe scenes with middle-format, and as you can imagine, pulling out

and firing a Hasselbad is more or less equivalent to firing a cannon in the middle of a

church gathering -- an interesting idea, but not that here, where I was fascinated with the

interaction and humor of the people, and especially my student: he was listening and

learning without giving up too much of his ground, and I think he won a moment of

friendship, too. B