On Sunday, January 20, 2002 at 21:25, Joe Gwinn <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote re "[OM] Why bigger images are better" saying:
...
> The science is that the human eye uses subtle gradations in intensity and
> color to infer the 3D shape of a subject from a 2D image of that subject.
> This is true on the retina viewing a 3D world, and certainly true when
> viewing a photograph. If the fidelity is insufficient, the photo will look
> flat. The higher the fidelity, the more the photograph will look more like
> a window framing the subject and less like a snapshot.
Up to a point. There are physical limits related to the density of our
retina's cones and the sharpness of the eye. Beyond that, infinite detail
adds nothing.
...
> This is why photos for magazine ads are done on 4x5 minimum, with lots of
> 8x10 being used. The minimum is medium-format, used for ads in newspapers
> (with less resoultion than slick magazines). News photos are usually 35mm,
> however.
...
And National Geographic? Their photographers mainly use 35mm.
35mm can be grainless up to 16x20 or so.
I think ads use 4x5 s mainly so they can pass the transparencies around the
approving committee to take a look manually. Also, 4x5 view cameras have
movements that are convenient for product photography.
Having said that, I was noticing last week at our photo club how the
digital prints seemed "flat" compared to the silver prints. And all that
extra detail does come in handy when cropping or manipulating.
tOM
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