Consternation!
Jan. 25th, 2008 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueThe most exciting thing about photography is the way it provides a record of my learning curve. The pictures I take now are inarguably better than the pictures I took last week, let alone last year; the same is true of Ciro. Part of it's better equipment, but a lot of it isn't - a lot of it's more daring composition, more interesting use of light and color and contrast. The old stuff's not bad - we were always good - but now the good shots seem less and less like luck. I can see the same thing with poems, a little, and with singing, but it's subjective. Photographs aren't subjective - you lay two images side by side and you know immediately which is more exciting.
I realized last month that photo labs must crop the images they develop, because 8x10 is not the same ratio as 3x5 or 4x6, and the neg is 3:2 - which I guess means 4x6 is okay, but who picks what bit of my frame gets cut out? Or are things stretched? Motherfucker! Why aren't there huge disclaimers on the wall? Why don't I have to sign something that says this is okay? Why in god's name don't they print the pictures all in the same ratio? Or do they, and just say 3x5 as short hand for 3x4.5? I have no prints to measure - will someone please get scrapbook and a ruler? But then why not 8x12, since in no universe is 10 shorthand for 12? Oh, god damn it, they've been cutting off bits of my pictures. I'm not going to complicate this right now by thinking about the fact that my old Canon's aspect ratio was 4:3 (which gave me an edge composing for 16mm, let me tell you).
I just - I just - This is why I never got in to photography until I had digital cameras, and then never printed anything. My prints always came back less exciting than what I took. Never mind the trouble with cameras whose viewfinders didn't show what the lens saw - and who wants that? Who thinks that's a good idea? If I'm not going to see the right image, why give me the illusion I can? - people have been squashing things or cutting in to my headroom. I always knew something was wrong, I just trusted. I don't know why. I guess because I can't understand how anybody would be okay with it, let alone enough people to make it industry standard. It's as though each time I posted a letter they subtracted every fifth word, and nobody minded.
I realized last month that photo labs must crop the images they develop, because 8x10 is not the same ratio as 3x5 or 4x6, and the neg is 3:2 - which I guess means 4x6 is okay, but who picks what bit of my frame gets cut out? Or are things stretched? Motherfucker! Why aren't there huge disclaimers on the wall? Why don't I have to sign something that says this is okay? Why in god's name don't they print the pictures all in the same ratio? Or do they, and just say 3x5 as short hand for 3x4.5? I have no prints to measure - will someone please get scrapbook and a ruler? But then why not 8x12, since in no universe is 10 shorthand for 12? Oh, god damn it, they've been cutting off bits of my pictures. I'm not going to complicate this right now by thinking about the fact that my old Canon's aspect ratio was 4:3 (which gave me an edge composing for 16mm, let me tell you).
I just - I just - This is why I never got in to photography until I had digital cameras, and then never printed anything. My prints always came back less exciting than what I took. Never mind the trouble with cameras whose viewfinders didn't show what the lens saw - and who wants that? Who thinks that's a good idea? If I'm not going to see the right image, why give me the illusion I can? - people have been squashing things or cutting in to my headroom. I always knew something was wrong, I just trusted. I don't know why. I guess because I can't understand how anybody would be okay with it, let alone enough people to make it industry standard. It's as though each time I posted a letter they subtracted every fifth word, and nobody minded.
