At 13:28 7/10/01, John Pendley wrote:
Fred Picker used to tout this practice highly, with one twist. He had some
kind of plastic (filter?) mounted in the slide frame. He said it gave a
very good idea of the shades of gray that would appear in a B&W print.
Maybe somebody remembers or can find out what his gizmo was. I can't find
my copy of The Zone VI Workshop.
JP
Ansel Adams recommended the use of a Wratten #90 viewing filter to
approximate the monochromatic relationships of colors as rendered by B/W.
He further recommended _no_ ND be used with it, and observes that with
subjects of high color saturation its effect (utility) is reduced. Most
effective use is to look through it for only a few seconds before the
eye-brain has an opportunity to compensate, then to remove it and wait a
few seconds before using it again . . . to keep the eye from becoming
accustomed to it.
Adams also uses a frame of the same aspect ratio as the film (an empty
slide frame works). As someone else has already posted, farther from the
eye represents a longer lens and closer represents a shorter lens. Helps
to train the eye to visualize an image sliced out of everything that's
there in the environment.
Last (but not least), is "John's" approach to composition:
Painters begin with a blank canvas and _add_ image to it by applying paint
from a pallette. Painting an image is therefore an "additive" task. OTOH,
photography is the opposite; it is a "subtractive" process. The
photographer _subtracts_ elements of reality to isolate, draw attention to,
and enhance the intended subject and the desirable aspects of the subject
for an image. An example is using selective focus, or DOF control to rid
oneself (or at least reduce the prominence) of a cluttered
background. Another method is to make the subject high key and the
background low key, thereby reducing its prominence. My "abstract" TOPE
was an exercise in very deliberate extreme subtraction to leave only the
colors of the object to celebrate them alone, without anything else in the
image to detract from them.
Just some random thoughts on it all . . .
-- John
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