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A Grand Prize for me and my M8


mikelc

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Regarding print manipulation and Ansel Adams, he is frequently quoted using a musical analogy: the negative is the score and the print is the performance. Clearly Ansel used a very interpretative approach to printing his images which indeed evolved over decades. His well know Moonrise, Hernandez New Mexico is a good example as he printed it with some frequency-900+ times from the early forties through the next four decades. All are compelling images of a seemingly prosaic subject, but varied enormously depending on his choice of materials, printing techniques and vision of how it should appear.

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I just downloaded a trial version. What tools are you using to get these effects?

 

hi Brent

 

...i use sunshine, graduated filters, skylight, bleach process and tonal contast all the time...the thing that's great about them is that each filter comes with several variations and you can paint it on only where you want it ,,,or apply the whole filter and play with the blending modes and opacity and the effect of the effects are endless...

 

Mike

http://www.miikecetta.com

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Mike, the picture is a marvel. I'm not a fan of New York City, but your image makes me want to get up and go there.

 

Congratulations on the double-win!

 

And thanks for making us think. You've once again brought up the matter that E Puts, Newsweek, The Online Photographer and a lot of others have addressed: With digital, photography has changed. Our previous concept of photography is dead, though we're just beginning to see that.

 

Thanks for the post. You've got a lot to be proud of. Great eye, great talent, great craftsmanship!

 

 

Oh, and aren't you glad you don't live in a country that requires a model release from every recognizable person in the picture for it to be publishable? ;)

 

I think a lot of this is mindset...a lot of the discussions about this are reminesent of similar dialogues about painting toward the end of the 19th century...photography to some extent freed painters from just doing representational images....that led to impressionism, cubism, expressionism...that created a firestorm in the painting world about what things were supposed to look like in pictures...digital expansion has now freed photographers in the same way...it doesn't mean that it's better necessisarily just that the options for photographic picuture making have now expanded beyond what anyone imagined even 20 yrs ago...that has to be good and yet as always the bottom line is whether it works or not not just what techniques are being used...when we look at cubistic work we see only the best ...but i'm sure there were lots of stuff that didn't work

 

...for me i started photography after 2001 when i had turned 50...so i wasn't tied to any fixed ideas about what photography should be...but again no technique can make up for a picture that doesn't hold its own...when we look at great impressionistic paintings by Monet, Cessane, Van Gogh we see, yes these techiniques they are using are different than anything that came before but they draw us in to the picture in a new way of seeing...when they don't work we only see techniques...the same is true for this new digital photography...when it works it has the effect of drawing us into the picture and looking and seeing in a new way and when it doesn't it's just techique...someone earlier asked if i minded sharing what techiques i use as if it would be giving away some special secret...my responce was why not cause if my work is only about using fancy techniques than it wouldn't have much value to it beyond that...

 

..one of the things i love about the m8 and the whole rangefinder experience is that it forced me to be a better craftsman to p[ay more attention to the initial capture which is why film photographers tend in general to be better 'photoraphers'

 

,,,and yes i'm glad I live in such a country,,,,what a headache street photog would be otherwise

 

 

 

 

 

 

mike

Mike Cetta | Fine Art Photographer

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I agree Mike. To paraphrase Ansel again-"there is nothing more boring than a sharp rendering of a fuzzy idea." At the end of the day all good art, photography included, has to have an element that humanity finds compelling in a reflexive way. This clearly transcends mere technique of formula. I also agree with your observation regarding photographers with a background using film and particularly if it was (or still is) large format sheet film.

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MANIPULATION.....I don't like that word, MANIPULAION, it implies cheating ....Benitez-Rivera Photography

 

Wilfredo - In another medium the term would be Craftsmanship, photography often has to battle with the notion that un-crafted machine images somehow have greater integrity than one's which have been 'finished'. It's an old [and for some, tiresome] criticism, and it might be helpful to remember that some Victorian photographers were very adept at printing images from multiple images.

 

.................. Chris

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hi Brent

 

...i use sunshine, graduated filters, skylight, bleach process and tonal contast all the time...the thing that's great about them is that each filter comes with several variations and you can paint it on only where you want it ,,,or apply the whole filter and play with the blending modes and opacity and the effect of the effects are endless...

 

Mike

http://www.miikecetta.com

 

Thanks, Mike. I'll do some experimenting.

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...was fortunate enough to win the grand prize for this shot from the Summer Streets photo competition run by nyc dot for the event from this past august...the shot was taken with the m8 and 35 mm cron...just showing off i guess and plug for this incredible camera

 

I am amazed at what you did. Great piece of art.

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