Hi, Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 1:28:13 PM, you wrote:
> As I recall, the comment provoking much of that was that HCB could eyeball > perfect exposure, and then someone said with b&w film experienced photographers > could get close enough to make printable images. > I'm nowhere near the age, experience level or fame level of HCB, but when in my > early teens I used to use a rangefinder with no built-in meter; mostly I used a > handheld but sometimes I didn't want to use the handheld and I'd set the > exposure based on experience. And I would get printable images. > Seems to me I've heard that among HCB's peculiarities is allowing only one > printer to do his work; if that's the case, how many others besides HCB and his > one particular printer have seen his negatives, and know how far off ideal > exposure they may be? > IOW, if a 15-year-old amateur with an older Voigtlander can expose B&W well > enough for printing without using a meter, how much more so HCB with plenty of > experience and the presumably more-precise shutter mechanism of a Leica? No > surprise there at all, I think. A lot of his work is online at the Magnum site. I assume - but could well be wrong - that it's been scanned from the negatives as much as possible. It would certainly be interesting to know. Nevertheless, a number of people who've worked at Magnum as interns or even became Magnum photographers have commented in print about seeing his negatives. I'm not aware of any especially adverse comments. In the days before built-in meters it was quite common for people to be able to judge exposure accurately enough. Film boxes came with some exposure guidelines for 5 or 6 lighting situations, and these are easy enough to learn. That was what my father used to do until he bought an auto-exposure Canon in the 1980s. After that he never got a correctly exposed photograph. People who wanted to learn more about it would make a note of the exposure settings they'd used, and adjust their print exposure & development times accordingly. Being that close to their own work, and referring back to their field notes, would help next time they were shooting. I've always assumed that this is one of the reasons why people published their exposure settings with their photos - to help others judge useful settings for particular situations. Otherwise the information strikes me as useless to other people. Incidentally, the Leica shutter mechanisms are apparently not very precise. Probably not more than other mechanical shutters, but obviously within the tolerance limits for film and printing materials. As other people have said, exposure is not that precise a matter. -- Cheers, Bob mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
