When will you give up large format and switch completely to digital?

[jnantz]

not sure ... but i have to learn how to "chimp" better
i shot a bunch of numeric-images tonight and i didn't chimp at all ...
it was like i was doing something wrong ..

[rdenney]

You can label this superstition if you prefer.

No, but it does seem appropriate that you live near Taos.

If all that we understand is mere illusion and perception (and it isn't an actual reality that we are perceiving), then our perceptions are the only things that have soul. What makes a mountain any less of an illusion than a city? It's made of the same stuff--our perceptions.

And if our perceptions define reality, then our definition of "soul" must also be a perception. In which case what you perceive as having more soul might be different from what I perceive as having more soul. Thus, it once again comes down to what you like versus what I like.

If you see a photograph of a mountain portrayed as having been made using film and enlarging paper, and admire it, feeling that it shows real soul, and then discover that you have been duped and it was actually made with a digital camera and an inkjet printer, does that remove its soul? Wasn't what you originally perceived as having soul still an undeniable part of your perception? What do you do if you don't know how it was made? Are you unable to appreciate a photograph for what it is without knowing how it was made?

If you insist that you can't be duped in that fashion, I would suggest that perhaps you already have been.

If photographs seem too glib or slick, perhaps it's because the photographer responds to the easiness of automated or digital processes by becoming lazy. Maybe the lack of soul is lack of passion and depth on the part of the photographer's vision. It used to be that lazy photographers never achieved the technical skill necessary to achieve those effects, and those who did were likely to carry that care to other aspects of how they choose their subjects. Maybe it's that commitment that results in better subject choice, composition, and tonal interpretation, that you perceive as having soul.

I have two bass tubas in F that I play with a brass quintet. One is perceived by many tuba players as having soul, and the other is not. The reasons are entirely physical--one makes it much easier to bend pitches. It also makes it easier to play out of tune, and thus is an instrument for tuba players who are more committed to learning the instrument. Is it the soul of the instrument, or the soul of the performer? Do I play the one with "less" soul in a way to imitate the one with "more" soul? No--that's why I have two. I play the one with "less" soul for music where precision is more important and where it's greater accuracy makes it easier for me to achieve that precision. So, does Bach (which demands greater precision) have less soul than Old Man River? If you say yes, it is only because of how you perceive the two, and thus your choice is guided by taste.

We might say that a synthesizer could program everything in tune automatically (though playing with the same pythagoran tuning as a live ensemble would require some effort), and even if it matches tuba sound, it might sound sterile. It would lack all the subtle changes of articulation, manipulations of pitch, and variations in dynamics and tempo played naturally by good musicians. But those effects are possible. The synthesizer makes basic technical achievement--pitch and rhythm--easy, and only highly committed synthesizer musicians would be able to achieve all those additional subtleties. They would clearly have to be quite musical to know what effects to program to provide a clear interpretation of a given piece of music. If one does that, will you notice less soul? Isn't the soul in question within the musician who knows which subtleties to apply in support of his artistic intentions?

Are we to the point of introducing noticeable flaws so that people will not accuse us of using digital processes, the way tailors pull the stitches a bit too tightly in a bespoke suit as evidence that it was hand-tailored?

Personally, I don't think photographs have soul, but their creators certainly do. And the good photographers are the ones who display their soul rather than merely their craft.

Rick "wondering why we expect digital photography to produce the same flaws we attempt to exploit in film photography" Denney

[Steve Smith]

Are we to the point of introducing noticeable flaws so that people will not accuse us of using digital processes

That's the way some drum machines and programmed drum sounds work.


Steve.

[Michael Wynd]

When I'm dead, and maybe not even then.
Mike

[Preston]

I'll give up LF when I'm too old and feeble, or when film and/or processing is no longer available, whichever comes first.

--P

[Lynn Jones]

For me it's only partially about quality. There is the whole process of shooting, and equally important, developing that I miss with digital, not to mention actually holding something!

Filling film holders, focusing and loading the camera, standing in a dark room for far too long with somewhat dangerous chemicals, coming out with a large negative that I can show off to people, and then making real prints is far too much to give up simply because technology has sort of caught up to the quality.

Not in my lifetime, however at my age that may not be too long.

Lynn

[fenderfour]

I just switched wholly to digital.

wait, actually I just bought two more LF cameras.

For me, it's not the huge negative and massive prints, or even the resulting image quality. I'm really drawn to the process of taking a picture with these cameras. Every step takes so much consideration; the time spent constructing the image leads to a better product.

Maybe I just need to break the light meter on my DSLR, tape a wet napkin over the LCD and bolt on a 10 pound barbell.

[paulr]

Maybe I just need to break the light meter on my DSLR, tape a wet napkin over the LCD and bolt on a 10 pound barbell.

You have the makings of a movement. All it needs is a manifesto.

[Drew Wiley]

Sounds like the "Pro" version of a Holga camera!

[paulr]

The guys with the 15 lb weights taped to their Holgas will feel so superior to the guys with just 10 lbs.