----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Maxey" : I have a Kodak large format paper sample book and the book shows one of my favorite images. I like the print because it is valuable to demonstrate how lighting and contrast affect the print quality. The photograph is of a man in a lab coat, examining lab glassware. The print is not sharp. It looks sharp because it was well printed and it is nice and with perfect contrast. Put a loupe on the paper and it looks "bad." Ah, perception :-) I have a B&W print that *never* fails to elicit gasps of 'wow, that's so sharp!' funny thing is that it's a shot with a plane of focus about 5mm deep and the rest falls of into splashes of evocative tones and heavy grain. there's next to nix that's in focus, but it's well printed. people see the sharpness of the grain and translate that to a sharp image in their mind perception is a funny thing :-) k
