Larry Berman, a list member, along with his associate, Chris Mayer,
published their interview with Jay Maisel, the noted New York photographer
who is rapidly moving to digital, in the June 2001 issue of Shutterbug
<>. In my zeal to make the
switch to the digital era, I have read the article three times. One
section particularly caught my eye:
<<Chris/Larry: I've read that it's an electronic shutter. (Referring to the
Nikon D1)
Jay: Yeah, OK. So I can hold down to a 15th now. I'm an old guy. I don't
have the shakes but to hold down to a 15th hand held is pretty wild. So,
with the fact that I'm now shooting 200 ASA, and all my life I've only shot
50 or a hundred, tops, and I never liked to push film, I'm now, effectively
my shutter speed is always higher. Plus the fact that this sucker amplifies
light. I'm sure you're aware of that.
Chris/Larry: Well, I know that it certainly has the ability to work at
different ISO's or ASA speeds.
Jay: No no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that if you take a photograph
at the recommended ISO, in a bad light situation, you will look at it and
be amazed at how much detail it pulls out.
Chris/Larry: Opens up the shadow details. The ability of the sensor to see
into the shadows.
Jay: It's astonishing.>>
The phrase, "OPENS UP THE SHADOW DETAILS," strikes me as a real
bonus. Yesterday in making a C print from a negative, I virtually lost all
my shadow details in printing for the central theme of the scene. Also,
yesterday, I received via e-mail a JPEG file made with a Nikon 990 which
contained more shadow detail than I could have printed with a C print from
one of my negatives.
Question: Does the same principle of "opening up the shadow details" work
with scanned negatives? In asking this, I am aware of the manipulations
that can be done with shadow details with PhotoShop, et al....which are
certainly easier to do than with the conventional dodging techniques in
photographic enlarging.
Marvin Demuth
