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Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 09:11:57 -0600
From: "Bill Pearce" <bspearce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [OM] the debate
"Luminous Landscape presents empirical tests that are quite compelling."
Although I respect Reichmann's committment to actual testing, I must, again,
comment on his methodology. I don't consider the test scientifically valid.
He hasn't compared film vs. digital.
Who cares? They're beautiful images on Luminous Landscape.
What he has tested compares a digital
capture against a scanned film image. This is a flawed methodology that is
repeated again and again.
Flawed in whose viewpoint? This is like a physician saying that
homeopathic remedies merely act through the placebo effect (they
don't, but for this discussion, it doesn't matter how they act). The
point is, when I use a homeopathic remedy, I feel better. I don't
care if it is due to placebo effect or not.
As to whether it is scientifically valid, I don't think it really
matters. When viewing a photograph, most people don't care about
scientifically valid experiments, and being a scientist myself, I can
tell you most people wouldn't know a scientifically valid experiment
if it smacked them in the face. Moreover, there is more to human
perception than can be explained by reductionist science. For
example, how do you explain the sensation of being stared at? By
scienticifically valid, reductionist experiments? You *can't*. But we
have all experienced the sensation of being stared at. My point here
is that people do know what they like, and that is influenced to
some greater or lesser degree, by their perception. I showed several
8X10 prints to folks at Laguna Seca last week that were shot a couple
of days before with the D60 and printed on Pictorico film and my
Epson 820, and they were blown away by the quality (including Mike
Veglia). People invariably commented on how sharp and crisp and clear
the prints were...those people didn't care if they were shot with
film or digital, and they didn't have any "ownership" or chauvanism
about one medium or the other, as many people on this list do. They
just knew they liked them.
-Stephen Scharf
--
2001 CBR600F4i - Fantastic!
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