Mega #2

[Dogman]

Parke is superb! And a great example of cropping for a purpose.

The concept reminds me of Evan's subway photos, taken with a hidden camera. I'm sure Evans cropped those photos as well.

 

[jsrockit]

The concept reminds me of Evan's subway photos, taken with a hidden camera. I'm sure Evans cropped those photos as well.

Yeah, I would imagine he would have had to. The thing about cropping is that all of those who worked for newspapers and magazines in their heyday were used to being cropped. I guess in personal work, the no cropping started when it was beginning to be considered art and they really were getting more complicated with their framing.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

The Henri Cartier-Bresson philosophy? I used to believe that crap too. Then I saw how Walker Evans cropped many of his photos. Some of his large format negatives he cropped with scissors. I just finished reading a book on Michael Schmidt and there were examples of how he cropped sections of photos, making more than one photograph from one negative. Many of the greatest photographers of the past cropped their photos and many of the best photographers of today crop their photos. While many a photo has been ruined by editors and their cropping tools, more have been improved by knowledgeable photographers working with their images, cropping to make them better.

So what if image quality declines with cropping. If it makes the photo better, no one will notice the image quality. Or care. Only those who get knots in their pixel panties over image quality pay attention to such things.

What HCB philosophy? How much do you know about HCB? I read his books, not pictures books some not available in English. I watched documentaries with him.
He was surrealist. So everything he was saying was often smoke in the mirror🙂

Yes, I know many have cropped. I'm not impressed by it. And no crap is given how big name is. If you not close enough you aren't good enough.

Some are honest enough to admit it even here. 🙂

 

[Bill Blackwell]

I believe a 24mp FF sensor hits the sweet spot for a (non IBIS) Leica M camera. I've cropped as much as 50% of an image and still achieved an adequate file size for a print as large as 13x19. And I can make prints at least twice that size from uncropped files.

Although do I admit I'd love to get my hands on a 40mp Monochrom, I honestly don't think I need it.

 

[Hari]

Not into digital. But I'll jump in here about 'cropping'.
I've developed some negatives taken with a newly
bought Nikkor 500mm/8 mirror lens of people in the
park, which I have a view of from 2nd floor apartment.
Of course I'll crop those, though I usually do the black
rim around to show it's full frame, unless there's a reason.
Nobody cares who looks at photos!

 

[Erik van Straten]

I agree with Ko.Fe. here. Nibbling from the negative is good for nothing. A photographer is not an artist, but a hunter. Try to hit the full frame.


Erik.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I agree with Ko.Fe. here. Nibbling from the negative is good for nothing. A photographer is not an artist, but a hunter. Try to hit the full frame.


Erik.

Erik, I would like to ask you. I like your photos for their qualities. To me photo, prints have special quality if real lens rendering is present. It means how lens renders in the middle and to the edges. How it renders perspective in full. Does it makes sense? Then I crop, I see loss of it right away.

 

[pyeh]

Ko.Fe, I like that insight a lot. Thank you.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Erik, I would like to ask you. I like your photos for their qualities. To me photo, prints have special quality if real lens rendering is present. It means how lens renders in the middle and to the edges. How it renders perspective in full. Does it makes sense? Then I crop, I see loss of it right away.

I agree 100%. And thanks!

gelatine silver print (nikkor h 50mm) nikkormat (tri x)

Erik.

 

[jsrockit]

The irony of getting it perfect in the frame with a camera that doesn't show you exactly what you are getting in your frame. Good ol Leica M.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

I get nice big prints from 24MPx. My camera scans of 35mm with a 24MPx sensor give better files and better prints than I got back in the pre-digital days.

 

[CMur12]

What HCB philosophy? How much do you know about HCB? I read his books, not pictures books some not available in English. I watched documentaries with him.
He was surrealist. So everything he was saying was often smoke in the mirror🙂

Yes, I know many have cropped. I'm not impressed by it. And no crap is given how big name is. If you not close enough you aren't good enough.

Some are honest enough to admit it even here. 🙂

Kostya, if I want an 8x10 print from a full-frame sensor or 35mm film, I have no choice but to crop to get the desired proportions.

I think saying that one is required to use the whole sensor is like telling a painter that every canvas must be the same size or of the same proportions.

It would be like telling a photographer that they can't do any post processing to an image, or any dodging and burning in the darkroom, because those alterations are "distortions" of the original.

I really like the square format composition I get with film TLRs. There is no digital sensor in square format, so the only way I could produce a square image digitally would be to crop.

The camera is a tool used to render the photographer's vision. If said photographer has to use a camera with sensor proportions incompatible with their vision, I would urge them to be true to their vision rather than be bound by the proportions of the sensor.

- Murray

 

[Oscuro]

The irony of getting it perfect in the frame with a camera that doesn't show you exactly what you are getting in your frame. Good ol Leica M.

Yes, this is true also. I see also to rebate printing for B&W film. Try cropping chrome transparency work. Less often done, in my experience, for good reasons.

This "crop-don't crop" is very much about tension between content and form. KoFe can do as he pleases. That is his privilege. Often I have cover assignment to "shoot for the crop" as you say in English, for layout, headlines, and those things.

Many ways to skin a cat. There was a American musician, Lenny Tristano who started working with multi-tracking in post-bebop works. "The horror!!" said the purists. Early critics didn't even know that they were multi-tracking recordings. They just heard the music.

Crop. Don't crop. Form. Content. Is the photograph good? should be the question. Maybe.

Ciao, darlings,
Mme. O.

 

[Pál_K]

...
The camera is a tool used to render the photographer's vision. If said photographer has to use a camera with sensor proportions incompatible with their vision, I would urge them to be true to their vision rather than be bound by the proportions of the sensor.
...

Eloquently and excellently stated!

Painters have the luxury of making their work contain exactly what they want it to contain. Nothing more, nothing less. Few photographers have that luxury. Usually the goal is to have everything you want in the photo rather than leave an important element out. Doing so sometimes means the photo may contain elements which are unnecessary and sometimes those elements may detract from the overall image. At best, they neither add nor subtract value. Your choice to leave it in or crop it out.

 

[Oscuro]

Dear Bill,

Here is my answer to your question. I only carry two cameras now. A Fuji X100F and a Ricoh GR III. So I am covered 28-75mm. This is all that this old lady needs to work. And it is all this old lady is going to carry! If something is far way and I can't get closer then I crop. By the time it is on a print - never mind half-tone! - it doesn't matter. Technical image quality is far surpassing most films in 135.

I don't care how anyone else works - I only care how I work. That doesn't mean I am not interested in how they work but I only steal method if I think it works for me.

Ciao bello,
Mme. O.

 

[charjohncarter]

Dear Bill,

I don't care how anyone else works - I only care how I work.

Ciao bello,
Mme. O.

Wow, finally someone says it.

 

[Out to Lunch]

True enough. In any given profession, if you're going to strictly abide by the 'rules' set by your predecessors, you're not going to go far. Cheers, OtL

 

[Dogman]

Mme. O., you are a wise woman, a wise photographer.

 

[emraphoto]

I have nothing to offer on the ‘crop or no crop’ front. My opinion is largely irrelevant. I am curious though, how will AI software impact the megapickle race? We are seeing the first few software platforms out now, that can work some serious wizardry with increasing file data and thus, size. What will 3-5 years bring? New relevance for the 4-8 megapickle devices from generations back? A stunted megapickle market in the near future?

 

[jsrockit]

New relevance for the 4-8 megapickle devices from generations back?

There was a thread on RFF specifically talking about this and the Epson RD-1. If this software can get rid of the artifacts they currently introduce, it could mean we start seeing classic digital cameras become relevant again.