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[OM] Brutal Truth - Have we gone too far?

Subject: [OM] Brutal Truth - Have we gone too far?
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:21:54 -0500
I delivered some 8x10 prints to a customer last night. Portraits taken
with the L1 with 14-50, flash lit, yada yada... Results were cropped a
bit.

I'm having a justification problem. The resulting prints are TOO
sharp.  I'm not talking about edgy, I'm talking almost over-the-top
edgy. For portraiture it crossed over a line. The E-1 pictures has a
natural sense of smoothness to them which gives the impression of
softness even when brutally sharp, but this combination using the L1
and 14-50 lens definitely went beyond what I feel is "sellable".

I can dumb things down, that's a given. You can't make something sharp
that isn't, but you can soften that which is too sharp. No problem
there. But what I'm questioning is the need for "more/better" in this
regard. What does more pixels give me? What is to be gained if I have
to dumb the picture down anyway? It's not that I'm complaining--heaven
forbid I do that, but I'm noting that I've possibly reached a point of
sufficiency and blown past it in portraiture.

I've noticed in other photographers' portraits this over-sharpened
look--typically caused by hyperventilating USM, but usually the lenses
lack the edginess to make it look critical-sharp and not
mega-post-processed. The ONLY sharpening applied to these portraits
was demosiacing sharpening during RAW conversion. I almost always send
my images off to Millers with no additional sharpening as they apply a
touch of sharpening in the print process. (The E-1 shots in the same
batch of prints from the same exact printer were fine).

It looks like the E-1 with 14-50 seems to be about the best
combination for portraiture because the excessive sharpness/contrast
of the lens is sufficiently countered by the WWE AA filter. The wimpy
AA filter in the L1 just seems to make this setup too hairy for
portraiture without processing to dumb things down. The E-1/14-50
combination really does give the look I got from medium-format Mamiya
cameras--sharp, but comfy. The Portra films always did a nice job of
"smoothing out the wrinkles", but the L1 gives the photos that
industrial look.

So, to my question...

When my CDFO makes note of the over-sharpness in the prints, how can I
justify to her the necessity of getting some new uber-camera?  See my
situation?  I foolishly bought that E-1 years ago and now I couldn't
get rid of it even if I wanted to.

BTW, speaking of new cameras. Last night I spent some quality time
with the new E-PL1.  Honestly?  I like it a lot more than the E-P1.
This is one slick little camera. But it just lacks that "gotta have
it" characteristic. I think the buttons are among the better feeling
and the overall layout is halfway logical. I just can't get used to
the sound of the shutter and the lag. When taking pictures with these
Pen cameras, I find that shutter-lag just long enough that the camera
feels one beat behind the rest of the marching band. On my shortlist?
No. Disappointed? No. That screen is very nice, but way low on
pixel-count. Time for Olympus to get with the program.

AG
-- 
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