> Latitude originally meant how large a brightness range of the original scene > you could record on film. It was measured in number of stops. A Stop equals .3 > log density. Reading from Photography, Theory and Practice, Clerc It seems that was not the case back in 1930. Indeed, it certainly clarifies things for me. Quoting: sorry about the quaint English: "The range of intensities which can be rendered by good emulsions often exceeds 180:1 whereas very few photographic subjcts posess a contrast exceeding 30:1. It will be seen from these values that the second is contained six times in the first (180/30 = 6), so that the maximum and minimum exposures [Bob: to capture the full range of tones] are in the ratio 6 to 1" Clearly then it was understood that latitude was practically linked to the scene: it was implicit in this that the aim was to "render" detail in all parts of the scene - very different from the decision to clamp either highlights or shadows forced upon bothe slide workers and to a lesser extent digital photographers. For a high contrast scene - bright sun and deep shadows - there is clearly less practical latitude than for soft-lit subjects. Actually, for a more up to date (but identical ;o) definition The Ilford Manual of Photography says pretty much the same thing. Bob
