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Guest John66

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Guest John66

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There's no denying the quality of Leica lenses, and there's no denying that Leica once was on the leading edge of camera design.

 

So why are the majority of modern pictures taken with Leicas so boring? There's never any life to them - mine included.

 

For some reason, Leica pictures are considered "great" for some insignificant highlight, or an out of focus area. All very well, but the pictures are still mostly boring.

 

Can't we all collectively have some kind of push to make our photos more interesting. Show the world what a Leica, teamed up with a keen mind, is capable of producing?

 

I think I've seen enough uninspiring pictures of pets, lamps and walls to make me think there is no hope.

 

I just need some inspiration.

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So why are the majority of modern pictures taken with Leicas so boring? There's never any life to them - mine included

 

It's photographers that take photographs not cameras. If you find Leica photographs boring look to the photographer not his camera as the problem.

 

Being good at anything takes more than just buying a brand - though that's what the marketing people would like us to believe.

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There's no denying the quality of Leica lenses, and there's no denying that Leica once was on the leading edge of camera design.

 

So why are the majority of modern pictures taken with Leicas so boring? There's never any life to them - mine included.

 

For some reason, Leica pictures are considered "great" for some insignificant highlight, or an out of focus area. All very well, but the pictures are still mostly boring.

 

Can't we all collectively have some kind of push to make our photos more interesting. Show the world what a Leica, teamed up with a keen mind, is capable of producing?

 

I think I've seen enough uninspiring pictures of pets, lamps and walls to make me think there is no hope.

 

I just need some inspiration.

 

Well, at least this thread is likely to be temporarily interesting.:o

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There's no denying the quality of Leica lenses, and there's no denying that Leica once was on the leading edge of camera design.

 

So why are the majority of modern pictures taken with Leicas so boring? There's never any life to them - mine included.

 

For some reason, Leica pictures are considered "great" for some insignificant highlight, or an out of focus area. All very well, but the pictures are still mostly boring.

 

Can't we all collectively have some kind of push to make our photos more interesting. Show the world what a Leica, teamed up with a keen mind, is capable of producing?

 

I think I've seen enough uninspiring pictures of pets, lamps and walls to make me think there is no hope.

 

I just need some inspiration.

 

So where are your boring pictures then?

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Guest bwcolor

John 66: Thanks for your perceptive post. I think the reason most of the pictures on this forum are do dull and uninspired, or overly technical, is that the photographers who use the forum are mostly amateurs and fondlers. Once in a while some pro puts up some things (Chris Tribble?) and the difference is at once apparent. The great traditions of Leica lie mainly in the journalistic sphere, and the Leica camera still does well there, being fast, small, very sharp, images contrastly and reproduce well. Don't be discouraged--there is more to life than lamps and kiddies.

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Hi John,

 

Welcome to the forum. You have opened a can of worms with this posting. Most of the work that has been posted on the forum, especially the international/english part, is brilliant. Sometimes there are a couple of images that may be termed as being boring, simply because they do not awake emotions in the viewer. It goes without saying that the image always means more to the person who took the image - he/she is personally attached and involved in the image.

 

When I studied photography many years ago, the first thing that we were taught was the basic eye of the photographer. There are three golden rules that will make anyone's photography much better. These rules can be summed up as follows:

 

1. Know Your Subject

2. Focus Attention To Your Subject

3. Simplify

 

What this means is the following:

Know what you want the image to convey (the subject) - if it is shoes it is shoes, if it is a building it is a building or a landscape, portrait, car etc.

Focus the viewers attention to the subject - this can be done by for instance by selective lighting, selective focus, diagonal lines, repeating patterns, colors etc.

Simplify - take out anything that you don't need in the frame - if there is a branch in the way, move forward, down or sideways etc. If part of another building is obscuring your view move or look at a different composition.

Then start again at number 1.

 

These rules seem simple, and I'm sure that 99% of the members here know these rules. If followed and applied they do improve your photography to an extreme amount.

 

Just my 2 cents worth of advice for today - these rules have helped me a great deal through the years, and if an image does not meet this criteria it gets canned...

 

Andreas

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There is so much that one could say here, but it really boils down to the fact that these types of forums are not the place to find photographers who live "that" type of photographic life.

 

This is why I wrote what I did in another thread about the odd but sad new trend of people doing gear tests and hardly anything else.

 

This is a forum about the M8, if you want to find great photography in these modern times, you have to look elsewhere like Flicker, Lightstalkers, Burn Magazine Online, Communication Arts or Photo District News.

 

You have to find people who are not doing photography as a hobby or for just a paycheck, you need to find those who are living the "Photographic Life".

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LOL!! John, you might need to understand how *this forum* actually works....or have you seen all the places people post Leica stuff? LFI? Others? Where are you getting your notion they're boring?

 

In the M8 forum here, you will only find pictures that illustrate technical flaws, abilities, discussion points. They're likely to be pictures of wine bottles on a desk, nylon black jackets in tungsten light (and I'm ducking now), or, occasionally, Gretag Macbeth charts or birdhouses and such.

 

I'd personally bet on a house on someone's corner, or a dog in questionable light, or a just a quick snapshot. All of which is ok if you're illustrating a technical flaw (like noise from the sensor, or the way exposure works, or an imaging technique or artifact).

 

Now--go to the PHOTO forum on this site, and check out People and the other categories. There are some stunning images there, all made with Leica gear--some M film, some M8, some DMR, some R, etc...

 

I've long since "ignored" nearly all of the pictures in the M8 forum from an aesthetic persepctive--even my own!--since they're only posted to illustrate something technical, not artistic.

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Now--go to the PHOTO forum on this site, and check out People and the other categories. There are some stunning images there, all made with Leica gear--some M film, some M8, some DMR, some R, etc...

 

This is true, there are over 32,000 posts in the PHOTO forum compared to even this one at 13,000. But...the interface for seeing the photos without going through layers of titles is, well, lousy.

 

So it does not really work very well. But that is vBulletin software, I know because I own a website that uses it.

Edited by KM-25
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But...the interface for seeing the photos without going through layers of titles is, well, lousy.

 

You have a very valid point here. It would make things much quicker and easier if one had a thumbnail that one could click on. It does not have to be a huge thumbnail, just enough to awaken my curiosity to click through to the image.

 

Andreas

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There are plenty of excellent photographers and photographs, however, not all choose to have them on the net or at LCForum.

 

As for Leica images being boring - this can be said of any of the camera companies as well. Most people need to learn more of camera techniques and equipment capabilities so they can improve general image quality - if they want to - from learning how to hold a camera all the way to learning composition, anticipation, 'seeing light', etc.

 

As was said here earlier, Cameras don't take pictures, people do'. If one takes time, and with luck and patience, the images will improve; though they may not end up being the greatest ever. That's not important any way - it's how much one learns about seeing that is important and how they see world.

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There's no denying the quality of Leica lenses, and there's no denying that Leica once was on the leading edge of camera design.

 

So why are the majority of modern pictures taken with Leicas so boring? There's never any life to them - mine included.

 

For some reason, Leica pictures are considered "great" for some insignificant highlight, or an out of focus area. All very well, but the pictures are still mostly boring.

 

Can't we all collectively have some kind of push to make our photos more interesting. Show the world what a Leica, teamed up with a keen mind, is capable of producing?

 

I think I've seen enough uninspiring pictures of pets, lamps and walls to make me think there is no hope.

 

I just need some inspiration.

 

 

Maybe we can ask Solms to include 'inspiration' in the 2.005 upgrade? :)

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