Post your medium format photos!

itshimitis · 06-23-2021, 06:42 AM - **3 Likes**

Originally posted by RICHARD L.

Well, if I have to choose between a sharp and a fuzzy picture, my eyes are naturally drawn to the sharp image. Why do we pay huge sums of money to buy the best lenses manufacturers offer ?

Regards

I will choose an image with emotion over a razor sharp image every time. My point was that much emotion is being lost from the art if photography by pixel peeping and not aiming for an emotional draw from all t he elements being present. I do wish that people would stop deliberately misunderstanding me. no where, NOWHERE have I stated that a fuzzy picture in itself is acceptable. That was also not Cartier-Bresson's point. The feeling of a photograph however, is so much more important than gawping at an emotionless bristly sharp image that doesn't speak.

Back in 2012 I was invited to an event with Mohammad Ali in London. I met Neil Leifer who took many of the most iconic shots of Mohammad Ali both in and out of the ring. There was an exhibition of some of the images. It would be easy to look too closely at some of the images and say - "That's not quite sharp", but then when you look at the image as a whole it has 'punch' (pa dum tiss) and emotion. He echoed my thoughts when I had a fairly long and nice chat with him. If all we look for in an image is sharpness then frankly photography is doomed. There has to be more to photography than lens technology. All the lens profiles and graphs in the world don't show art or even the potential for art.

Last edited by itshimitis; 06-23-2021 at 07:31 AM.

dsmithhfx · 06-23-2021, 07:27 AM

Originally posted by RICHARD L.

Well, if I have to choose between a sharp and a fuzzy picture, my eyes are naturally drawn to the sharp image. Why do we pay huge sums of money to buy the best lenses manufacturers offer ?

Regards

The background of your flower pic is all blurry... Just sayin'

dsmithhfx · 06-23-2021, 07:32 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by itshimitis

I will choose an image with emotion over a razor sharp image every time. My point was that much emotion is being lost from the art if photography by pixel peeping and not aiming for an emotional draw from all t he elements being present. I do wish that people would stop deliberately misunderstanding me. no where, NOWHERE have I stated that a fuzzy picture in itself is acceptable. That was also not Cartier-Bresson's point. The feeling of a photograph however, is so much more important than gawping at an emotionless bristly sharp image that doesn't speak.

Back in 2012 I was invited to an event with Mohammad Ali in London. I met Neil Leifer who took many of the most iconic shots of Mohammad Ali both in and out of the ring. There was an exhibition of some of the images. It would be easy to look too closely at some of the images and say - "That's not quite sharp", but then when you look at the image as a whole it has 'punch' (pa dum tiss) and emotion. He echoed my thoughts when I had a fairly long and nice chat with him. If all we look for in an image is sharpness then frankly photography is doomed. There has to be more to photography than lens technology. All the lens profiles and graphs in the world don't show art or even the potential for art.

I kind of agree with you, but what you may deem 'art' is certainly not the aim of many, perhaps even most photographers (they may protest otherwise, but you know, it's just.not.there).

Photography encompasses an absolutely enormous spectrum of purposes and goals. Some are fascinated by the machinery of it, and the output is only of value in affirming their intention of owning 'the best.'

Cf. audiophiles.

**RICHARD L.** · 06-23-2021, 08:17 AM - **4 Likes**

Originally posted by itshimitis

I will choose an image with emotion over a razor sharp image every time.

People photography is a very difficult endeavour. Getting "expressions" on the fly is almost impossible if not simply a strike of luck. Cartier-Bresson succeeded in gathering "more than interesting" pictures with people, circumstances or locales that were out-of-the-ordinary. His graphic talent is similar to that of Picasso or van Gogh. For this kind of images, sharpness was not the ultimate goal, timing was. On the other hand, landscapists like Ansel Adams strived for the utmost sharpness in all of their "tableaux". Adams would agonize on taking a picture, trying to succeed in having every inch of the subject ultra-sharp and correctly exposed. *I think the two met once. (Please see P.S. below)

I took "people" pictures of members of my family when I was younger. A simple Minolta SR-1 with a 55 mm f/2 lens, black & white films and these are imperishable memories to me, but probably without the least interest for anybody else. Over the years, I developped a preference for landscape photography. I purchased my first Pentax 67 at age 40 with 55, 90 and 200 mm lenses and strived from that day on to make the sharpest images possible with a film camera. Landscapes bring some emotion to your soul, but what others see does not correspond exactly to what you felt when you pressed the shutter button.

Transition into digital photography proved to be a huge challenge for me. I remained "silent" (meaning no picture-taking at all) for almost 2 years (2006-2007) while learning the fundamentals of this new medium. I finally chose Pentaxes for no particular reason other that I had used some Nikon cameras at work and totally despised these products. I evolved slowly and now I am more at ease with the medium. I always wanted the best camera to achieve the "sharpest" imagery possible. With what I know now, smaller formats like the APS-C K3 permitted more spontaneity in the pictures that I took while my 645Z "paralysed" my creativity for a few years because I wanted only to take the "perfect picture" in medium-format and was under a considerable amount of stress I imposed on myself.

Please do not take my statement as criticism towards you, Sir. It's just that everyone has a different story or path of development and some parameters have become inescapable to this particular photographer.

Best Regards to you !

My graddaughter unexpectedly jumping into my arms

*P.S. It was "Lucien Clergue", not Cartier-Bresson, that Ansel Adams knew and met once in France. Cartier-Bresson snubbed Adam's work as "socially useless".

Last edited by RICHARD L.; 06-23-2021 at 02:03 PM.

**barondla** · 06-23-2021, 10:08 AM

Photography has many styles. Some people pay good money for lenses that aren't sharp. Manufacturers recognize this and build specialty soft focus lenses. Pentax built one for 35mm format. They also sold one for 6x7.
SMC Pentax 67 / SMC Pentax-6x7 120mm F3.5 Soft Reviews - 67 Telephoto Primes - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

There's room for everyone,
barondla

**RICHARD L.** · 06-23-2021, 10:16 AM

Originally posted by dsmithhfx

The background of your flower pic is all blurry... Just sayin'

Laws of the Physics of Optics, no more, no less.

itshimitis · 06-23-2021, 10:38 AM - **2 Likes**

Back to the images: St Pancras at 2140 a few weeks ago

GFX 100s GF 23 f/4 0.7s handheld ISO 400 f/11

w2ck · 06-23-2021, 02:51 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by barondla

Photography has many styles. Some people pay good money for lenses that aren't sharp. Manufacturers recognize this and build specialty soft focus lenses. Pentax built one for 35mm format. They also sold one for 6x7.
SMC Pentax 67 / SMC Pentax-6x7 120mm F3.5 Soft Reviews - 67 Telephoto Primes - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

There's room for everyone,
barondla

Hi,

And Nikon had a few as well. I used the 105/2 DC to good effect with a Kodak 620x in bowling centers to shoot women bowlers right as they turned around after a shot. My wife was a Pro bowler until her back wouldn't let her do that any longer. I got some wonderful expressions. The defocus control was grand to completely blur out those wild backgrounds they have in bowling centers.

I also have the P67 soft focus and an adapter to my 645D. But, I really haven't used it much yet.

Anyway, sometimes one wants such a thing. And, enough shooters there must be to warrant the makers to produce a few models of such lenses.

Stan

Aaron28 · 06-23-2021, 08:19 PM - **4 Likes**

previous meet n greet.....pentax 6x7......smc tak 105/2.4.....shanghai gp3 100

Arte_Watanabe · 06-23-2021, 11:50 PM - **7 Likes**

I love the idea. Here's one.

Inna - August 23, 2020
Pentax 6x7 105mm F2.4 lens Ektar 100 1/250 F2.4

**fs999** · 06-24-2021, 12:28 AM - **5 Likes**

Agfa Super Isolette • Agfa Solinar 1:3.5/75
Agfachrome RSX II 100 expired film developed in Tetenal MagicBox E-6
Scanned with Plustek OpticFilm 120 at 2400dpi with Silverfast AI Studio 9

Near Hohneck • Haut-Rhin • Alsace • France

SFTphotography · 06-24-2021, 02:18 AM - **8 Likes**

And you guessed it, 645z and 28-45 with Lee 0.75 GND soft filter.

texandrews · 06-24-2021, 07:47 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by SFTphotography

And you guessed it, 645z and 28-45 with Lee 0.75 GND soft filter.

That first is a truly lovely image.

itshimitis · 06-26-2021, 07:58 AM - **2 Likes**

A reprocessing of a shot I took about 6 weeks ago in the Lakes...

GFX100s GF32 - 64

texandrews · 06-26-2021, 09:05 AM

Originally posted by itshimitis

A reprocessing of a shot I took about 6 weeks ago in the Lakes...

GFX100s GF32 - 64

Lovely, subtle image. I'm sure it's even better than it appears here.

06-24-2021, 02:18 AM - 8 Likes	#16737
SFTphotography Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2021 Location: Scotland Posts: 291	River Coe Falls And you guessed it, 645z and 28-45 with Lee 0.75 GND soft filter. Last edited by SFTphotography; 06-24-2021 at 03:11 AM.

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06-23-2021, 06:42 AM - 3 Likes	#16726
itshimitis Pentaxian Join Date: May 2011 Location: All over the place Posts: 3,535	Originally posted by RICHARD L. Well, if I have to choose between a sharp and a fuzzy picture, my eyes are naturally drawn to the sharp image. Why do we pay huge sums of money to buy the best lenses manufacturers offer ? Regards I will choose an image with emotion over a razor sharp image every time. My point was that much emotion is being lost from the art if photography by pixel peeping and not aiming for an emotional draw from all t he elements being present. I do wish that people would stop deliberately misunderstanding me. no where, NOWHERE have I stated that a fuzzy picture in itself is acceptable. That was also not Cartier-Bresson's point. The feeling of a photograph however, is so much more important than gawping at an emotionless bristly sharp image that doesn't speak. Back in 2012 I was invited to an event with Mohammad Ali in London. I met Neil Leifer who took many of the most iconic shots of Mohammad Ali both in and out of the ring. There was an exhibition of some of the images. It would be easy to look too closely at some of the images and say - "That's not quite sharp", but then when you look at the image as a whole it has 'punch' (pa dum tiss) and emotion. He echoed my thoughts when I had a fairly long and nice chat with him. If all we look for in an image is sharpness then frankly photography is doomed. There has to be more to photography than lens technology. All the lens profiles and graphs in the world don't show art or even the potential for art. Last edited by itshimitis; 06-23-2021 at 07:31 AM.

06-23-2021, 07:27 AM	#16727
dsmithhfx Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Toronto Posts: 5,141	Originally posted by RICHARD L. Well, if I have to choose between a sharp and a fuzzy picture, my eyes are naturally drawn to the sharp image. Why do we pay huge sums of money to buy the best lenses manufacturers offer ? Regards The background of your flower pic is all blurry... Just sayin'

06-23-2021, 07:32 AM - 1 Like	#16728
dsmithhfx Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Toronto Posts: 5,141	Originally posted by itshimitis I will choose an image with emotion over a razor sharp image every time. My point was that much emotion is being lost from the art if photography by pixel peeping and not aiming for an emotional draw from all t he elements being present. I do wish that people would stop deliberately misunderstanding me. no where, NOWHERE have I stated that a fuzzy picture in itself is acceptable. That was also not Cartier-Bresson's point. The feeling of a photograph however, is so much more important than gawping at an emotionless bristly sharp image that doesn't speak. Back in 2012 I was invited to an event with Mohammad Ali in London. I met Neil Leifer who took many of the most iconic shots of Mohammad Ali both in and out of the ring. There was an exhibition of some of the images. It would be easy to look too closely at some of the images and say - "That's not quite sharp", but then when you look at the image as a whole it has 'punch' (pa dum tiss) and emotion. He echoed my thoughts when I had a fairly long and nice chat with him. If all we look for in an image is sharpness then frankly photography is doomed. There has to be more to photography than lens technology. All the lens profiles and graphs in the world don't show art or even the potential for art. I kind of agree with you, but what you may deem 'art' is certainly not the aim of many, perhaps even most photographers (they may protest otherwise, but you know, it's just.not.there). Photography encompasses an absolutely enormous spectrum of purposes and goals. Some are fascinated by the machinery of it, and the output is only of value in affirming their intention of owning 'the best.' Cf. audiophiles.

06-23-2021, 08:17 AM - 4 Likes	#16729
RICHARD L. Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Quebec City, Quebec Posts: 6,565	Originally posted by itshimitis I will choose an image with emotion over a razor sharp image every time. People photography is a very difficult endeavour. Getting "expressions" on the fly is almost impossible if not simply a strike of luck. Cartier-Bresson succeeded in gathering "more than interesting" pictures with people, circumstances or locales that were out-of-the-ordinary. His graphic talent is similar to that of Picasso or van Gogh. For this kind of images, sharpness was not the ultimate goal, timing was. On the other hand, landscapists like Ansel Adams strived for the utmost sharpness in all of their "tableaux". Adams would agonize on taking a picture, trying to succeed in having every inch of the subject ultra-sharp and correctly exposed. I think the two met once. (Please see P.S. below)* I took "people" pictures of members of my family when I was younger. A simple Minolta SR-1 with a 55 mm f/2 lens, black & white films and these are imperishable memories to me, but probably without the least interest for anybody else. Over the years, I developped a preference for landscape photography. I purchased my first Pentax 67 at age 40 with 55, 90 and 200 mm lenses and strived from that day on to make the sharpest images possible with a film camera. Landscapes bring some emotion to your soul, but what others see does not correspond exactly to what you felt when you pressed the shutter button. Transition into digital photography proved to be a huge challenge for me. I remained "silent" (meaning no picture-taking at all) for almost 2 years (2006-2007) while learning the fundamentals of this new medium. I finally chose Pentaxes for no particular reason other that I had used some Nikon cameras at work and totally despised these products. I evolved slowly and now I am more at ease with the medium. I always wanted the best camera to achieve the "sharpest" imagery possible. With what I know now, smaller formats like the APS-C K3 permitted more spontaneity in the pictures that I took while my 645Z "paralysed" my creativity for a few years because I wanted only to take the "perfect picture" in medium-format and was under a considerable amount of stress I imposed on myself. Please do not take my statement as criticism towards you, Sir. It's just that everyone has a different story or path of development and some parameters have become inescapable to this particular photographer. Best Regards to you ! My graddaughter unexpectedly jumping into my arms P.S. It was "Lucien Clergue", not Cartier-Bresson, that Ansel Adams knew and met once in France. Cartier-Bresson snubbed Adam's work as "socially useless". Last edited by RICHARD L.; 06-23-2021 at 02:03 PM.*

06-23-2021, 10:08 AM	#16730
barondla Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: midwest, United States Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 5,713	Photography has many styles. Some people pay good money for lenses that aren't sharp. Manufacturers recognize this and build specialty soft focus lenses. Pentax built one for 35mm format. They also sold one for 6x7. SMC Pentax 67 / SMC Pentax-6x7 120mm F3.5 Soft Reviews - 67 Telephoto Primes - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database There's room for everyone, barondla

06-23-2021, 10:16 AM	#16731
RICHARD L. Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Quebec City, Quebec Posts: 6,565	Originally posted by dsmithhfx The background of your flower pic is all blurry... Just sayin' Laws of the Physics of Optics, no more, no less.

06-23-2021, 10:38 AM - 2 Likes	#16732
itshimitis Pentaxian Join Date: May 2011 Location: All over the place Posts: 3,535	Back to the images: St Pancras at 2140 a few weeks ago GFX 100s GF 23 f/4 0.7s handheld ISO 400 f/11

06-23-2021, 02:51 PM - 1 Like	#16733
w2ck Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2020 Location: Raleigh, NC Photos: Albums Posts: 442	Originally posted by barondla Photography has many styles. Some people pay good money for lenses that aren't sharp. Manufacturers recognize this and build specialty soft focus lenses. Pentax built one for 35mm format. They also sold one for 6x7. SMC Pentax 67 / SMC Pentax-6x7 120mm F3.5 Soft Reviews - 67 Telephoto Primes - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database There's room for everyone, barondla Hi, And Nikon had a few as well. I used the 105/2 DC to good effect with a Kodak 620x in bowling centers to shoot women bowlers right as they turned around after a shot. My wife was a Pro bowler until her back wouldn't let her do that any longer. I got some wonderful expressions. The defocus control was grand to completely blur out those wild backgrounds they have in bowling centers. I also have the P67 soft focus and an adapter to my 645D. But, I really haven't used it much yet. Anyway, sometimes one wants such a thing. And, enough shooters there must be to warrant the makers to produce a few models of such lenses. Stan

06-23-2021, 08:19 PM - 4 Likes	#16734
Aaron28 Pentaxian Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Huntsville, Al Posts: 7,131	previous meet n greet.....pentax 6x7......smc tak 105/2.4.....shanghai gp3 100

06-23-2021, 11:50 PM - 7 Likes	#16735
Arte_Watanabe New Member Join Date: Feb 2021 Location: Austin, TX Photos: Albums Posts: 16	I love the idea. Here's one. Inna - August 23, 2020 Pentax 6x7 105mm F2.4 lens Ektar 100 1/250 F2.4

06-24-2021, 12:28 AM - 5 Likes	#16736
fs999 Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Luxembourg Photos: Gallery Posts: 8,628	Agfa Super Isolette • Agfa Solinar 1:3.5/75 Agfachrome RSX II 100 expired film developed in Tetenal MagicBox E-6 Scanned with Plustek OpticFilm 120 at 2400dpi with Silverfast AI Studio 9 Near Hohneck • Haut-Rhin • Alsace • France

06-24-2021, 07:47 AM - 1 Like	#16738
texandrews Moderator Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Baltimore Photos: Albums Posts: 3,390	Originally posted by SFTphotography And you guessed it, 645z and 28-45 with Lee 0.75 GND soft filter. That first is a truly lovely image.

06-26-2021, 07:58 AM - 2 Likes	#16739
itshimitis Pentaxian Join Date: May 2011 Location: All over the place Posts: 3,535	A reprocessing of a shot I took about 6 weeks ago in the Lakes... GFX100s GF32 - 64

06-26-2021, 09:05 AM	#16740
texandrews Moderator Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Baltimore Photos: Albums Posts: 3,390	Originally posted by itshimitis A reprocessing of a shot I took about 6 weeks ago in the Lakes... GFX100s GF32 - 64 Lovely, subtle image. I'm sure it's even better than it appears here.

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