Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 19:43:40 -0800
From: Winsor Crosby <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [OM] America 24/7
Pardon me if you have already thrashed this to death.
Today at Barnes and Noble I had a look at "America 24/7", one of those
short period photoshoot picture books that come out every once in a
while. Has anyone seen it? The last one I saw was a one day in Africa
book and used Olympus E-10s I believe. This one used a mix of pros
using supplied Olympus digital cameras(not an E camera this time) and
submitted pictures from amateurs.
The question is why do these books look so bad? Is it the printing?
Despite seeing stunningly sharp pictures from these cameras all over
the web, I flipped past page after page of soft images with no
contrast. I looked in vain for a sharp point in most of the pictures.
Occasionally there would be one that looked pretty good by comparison,
but nothing to compare to the beautiful image on the dust jacket. Just
a cheap a-- book? It does not do a service for digital photography or
Olympus.
It's likely the printing in the book. Grab a current copy of Sports
Illustrated and tell me if everything is soft or has no contrast. SI
is completely digital now. Moreover, I've seen E-10 and E-20 prints
that were startling in their contrast and sharpness. In my
experience, after shooting motor racing extensively with digital for
a year now (I've probably shot over 15,000 frames this year), is that
digital usually looks better than film right now. It has better
clarity, better color purity, and depth when comparing prints. When I
was shooting film, I could never see the eyes of a racer so clearly
through his faceshield on his helmet. I have digital shots where the
eyes are so clear in the photo....if you haven't seen this yet, it
really gets your attention when you do (and that of your customers).
Some examples:
http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_cat/autoracing//num44Main2_16_03.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_cat/autoracing//21.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_cat/motorcyclephotos//JasonLST2Web.jpg
Check out how you can see the reflection of the red and white painted
berm in the corner that Jamie Hacking is riding through in his
tear-off face shield:
http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_cat/motorcyclephotos//HackerWeb.jpg
-Stephen Scharf
--
2001 CBR600F4i - Fantastic!
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